Cathy Engelbert said the WNBA's next media rights deal will set the league up for decades to comeTony Florez
WNBA Commissioner
Cathy Engelbert climbed on a flight from N.Y. to L.A. yesterday morning -- Monday night's draft still a gleam in her eye -- when she was handed the draft's TV ratings upon arrival: 3.1 million viewers at its peak.
"Dawn of a new day," she said, jet lag promptly erased.
Speaking at the CAA World Congress of Sports, Engelbert and her league were among the focal points of the conference yesterday, whether it was media rights or expansion or the perception that it has become the CBA: the Caitlin Basketball Association.
Reality is, the WNBA -- coming off its most watched Finals in two decades -- was ascending before
Caitlin Clark. But considering Fanatics CEO & Chairman
Michael Rubin said here that his company sold more Clark jerseys than any other athlete in history of a draft night, Engelbert could not ignore the so-called "Caitlin Effect."
For one, she said the WNBA's next media rights deal, a hybrid linear and streaming package that becomes available after the 2025 season, "will set this league up not just for three to five years ... but probably for three decades." When negotiating the deal -- perhaps as part of a hybrid men's media deal, which would give some willing broadcast partner a 12-month NBA-WNBA product -- she said a priority will be placed on "broadcast windows," such as ensuring WNBA games are played in prime time.
She said league data shows the league's audience is 55% male, so the challenge is actually attracting more females. And elaborating further after the conference, she said, by claiming the media rights deal would "set the league up for three decades," she meant the impact on player salaries, charter plane funding, expanding the 12-team league, marketing, all of it.
Read More
"I really believe that, and I've been saying that for a year even before all the hype," Engelbert said at WCOS. "I said, this is such an important time for all women's sports to lift it. And I actually take it with great responsibility now given what has happened over this winter season and NCAA that we need to really capitalize on that."
Engelbert specifically said Tuesday the league would add four more teams "in the next couple of years," starting with the unnamed Golden State franchise that debuts in 2025. Prior to Monday's draft, she mentioned Philadelphia, Nashville, Denver, South Florida and Toronto as candidates to be those other three teams -- but then said Tuesday she'd "gotten two calls from other cities with potential ownership" groups, proving the league has gone viral.
"[Four more teams] adds 48 roster spots to a league of 144," she said. "That's a 30% add. So I think then we settle at the 16 [teams] and see where we go from there ...The first [WNBA viral moment] was the year Sabrina Ionescu got drafted [in 2020]. So she could have been our Caitlin Clark back then. But you know what, I've been reflecting a lot. We weren't ready for that then. I don't think you all were ready for that then. I don't think the sports fan was ready for that then. And then we did that little thing in February of '22 called raising capital, raised $75 million -- the first women's sports property to do it at that scale. Trying to get ready for a moment that we didn't know was coming, and now it came."
