Las Vegas Aces Conquer the WNBA and Unleash a Whirlwind of Questions
The WNBA season came to an end with a new champion: the Las Vegas Aces, who won their third title in four years. However, the final series and the entire postseason were marked by tension and high expectations. This atmosphere could intensify even more, as the league faces one of its most challenging pre-seasons. The WNBA has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with records in attendance, ratings, investment, and franchise value. The big question is how these achievements will translate into transformative and lasting change. The league, its players, and other key players are grappling with this question. Currently, the WNBA and the WNBPA are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, which could lead to a strike. In addition, Cathy Engelbert’s future as commissioner is in question after Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier strongly criticized the WNBA’s leadership in an explosive exit interview. Added to this is the concern about officiating, which generated strong criticism during the postseason. The portal Alofoke Deportes has gathered information from team owners, executives, players, and other industry sources to analyze the impact of recent events and the imminent October 31st deadline for the collective bargaining agreement. All of this at a crucial moment for the league’s history.Have WNBA Owners Lost Faith in Engelbert?
One of the most impactful images of the season was the massive booing of Engelbert during the championship trophy presentation ceremony in Phoenix. A small group of fans continued the protests as she left the court. An executive from a team commented: “When you have this type of confrontation with your best players, it’s a death spiral.” Tensions escalated during the season due to the frustrations of players and coaches with the refereeing and collective bargaining negotiations. The situation focused on Engelbert during the semi-finals. On September 26, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve was ejected after protesting an uncalled foul on Collier, who was injured. Reeve strongly criticized the league’s officiating and was fined and suspended for one game. In her exit interview, Collier denounced the WNBA’s leadership and revealed private conversations with Engelbert. Collier stated that Engelbert said Caitlin Clark “should be grateful. She makes $16 million off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t earn anything” and that “players should be on their knees, thanking the lucky stars for the media rights deal I got them.” Numerous WNBA players publicly supported Collier. Before the first game of the Finals on October 3, Engelbert stated that there were “many inaccuracies” in the comments attributed to her by Collier and denied having made the specific statement about Clark. However, she acknowledged that “if the players do not feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we must improve, and I must improve.” Several team owners expressed their dissatisfaction with Engelbert’s leadership. “If I could vote,” said one owner, “I would probably ask for a replacement.” A major leadership change seems unlikely while collective bargaining negotiations continue. Engelbert told reporters at the Finals that “he has never been a person who gives up.” Another owner added: “If they fire her now, it would be a sign of weakness. It’s a terrible image for the league. I can’t stand what Collier did. It was a private conversation. I don’t feel like firing her, although I think they should.” The frustration with Engelbert encompasses several aspects: the lack of problem-solving such as arbitration, business decisions that could have complicated the WNBA’s ownership structure, and her communication with others.Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, noted that Engelbert “has presided over six years of one of the greatest growths we’ve seen not only in the WNBA, but in any sports league in history. But it has become too personal.” An industry insider added: “He has done a lot for the league commercially… His time will end. I think Adam is affected by that.” The sources of the league agree that, if Engelbert wants to stay, he must rebuild relationships and establish trust with the players.“I believe in Napheesa’s comments. I believe that sometimes the focus of [Engelbert]’s message hasn’t always been conveyed well. … Whenever there have been some challenges, whether from the players or even the owners in terms of questioning things, there may be some of that dismissive tone.”
Team owner
The collective bargaining negotiations represent Engelbert’s last chance to save his job. Another executive from a team commented: “If he can repair relationships with certain people, which is always possible, and achieves a good collective agreement, then yes, I think he can stay. It’s not going to be easy… This collective agreement will end in the next three, four or five months, so can he generate momentum with them on a personal level and also on a business level? If so, then there will be a real path ahead.”“Change is essential. Either Cathy has to change the way she relates to the players, or there has to be a change in that position. It can be fixed, but some things have to change.”
Team executive
“A Work Stoppage Benefits No One”: The State of Collective Bargaining Negotiations
Disagreements and unrest in the WNBA seem to be related to the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The last agreement was signed in January 2020, when Engelbert had been in office for about seven months. At that time, one of the country’s biggest sports stars, Clark of the Indiana Fever, was a high school senior in Iowa. No one knew the impact it would have on the league’s finances and growth. Now, almost six years later, the league and the players’ union must sign a new agreement for the 2026 season to take place. The current agreement expires on October 31, but that deadline is not definitive; both parties agreed to a 60-day extension before the 2020 agreement, and that is expected to happen again. A WNBA source said: “[But] in the end, a work stoppage doesn’t benefit anyone. I don’t know exactly how far apart the parties are. But, in general, when I’ve seen these things, usually, as the critical moment approaches, everyone gets a little closer, and we can reach an agreement that is reasonable enough.” Chelsea Gray of Las Vegas said that the negotiations “are not where we thought and wanted them to be at this moment. It’s market share, it’s salaries, it’s player safety, it’s everything.” One of the biggest points of conflict seems to be the distribution of income and whether the percentage of the players would remain static during the duration of the next collective agreement or would grow during it. Brianna Turner of the Fever said it’s important that charter flights, which were introduced for all WNBA travel near the start of the 2024 season, are guaranteed in the new collective bargaining agreement, as is asking teams to continue paying for players’ housing during the season. Turner believes that it may also be necessary to increase the size of the rosters (currently set at 12 players) and points to the Fever’s five season-ending injuries this season as an example. A league source said that WNBA owners who are affiliated with NBA teams and those who are not could have different priorities during collective bargaining negotiations. “I think there are some teams that view it as a business level, which means the appreciation of the teams and the growth of the league,” the source said. “And there will be some teams that will think of it as cash flow, and if I have this expense, what does it mean for my results? Often, that comes down to how people think about their business, as an investment versus a real day-to-day business.” Another source said that they expect the owners to be as unified in their negotiations as the players are. “The players are very important. There’s no doubt,” said a league source. “But what they don’t understand is that this league is still not that strong. It has a long way to go. So if they mess up the momentum right now, they’re playing with their livelihoods for future generations.” But the players feel they have heard those kinds of statements for too long. “There is no growth without the players,” Gray said. “Why wouldn’t we get something done that the players are happy with?”“They’re Simply Not Good Enough”: The Refereeing Crisis in the WNBA
Coach Nate Tibbetts listed all the things that went wrong on the court in his press conference after his team, the Phoenix Mercury, lost the fourth game and were swept in the WNBA Finals. But as he sat at the podium after the decisive game last Friday, he had another complaint: the officiating. At the end of the third quarter, Tibbetts received two quick technical fouls, making him the first coach in WNBA history to be ejected in the Finals. Two of their players, Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner, were also assessed technical fouls in the game. “He’s weak, weak, weak,” Tibbetts said. “We were playing for our lives in the playoffs… I didn’t feel I deserved it at all… It was bullshit.” “There have been problems with arbitration throughout the year.” Tibbetts’ comments were a fitting conclusion to a season defined by complaints and controversy over officiating. Players, coaches, and executives across the league have pointed to the referees’ lack of consistency, as well as the level of physical play allowed. An executive from a team said that those are valid concerns, but some of the problems have deeper roots. “My first problem with the arbitration isn’t the referees, it’s that it isn’t provided with resources from the pavilions in which we play, to not having a replay center,” he said. “That is a fundamental [resource], I believe, that objectively needs to be changed.” The executive pointed to the WNBA pavilions in Dallas, Connecticut, Chicago, and Atlanta as problematic: those courts do not have the same technology and camera angles as other markets, which are considered crucial for correctly officiating a game. The team executive also said that a Two-Minute report is needed as in the NBA to establish transparency and credibility with the referees, as well as a replay center to review calls in real time. “I just don’t think [the WNBA] is as operational, both in terms of resources and structure, and all that leads to a lack of transparency, which leads people to think there’s a lack of accountability,” said the team executive. A source from the league said that there is no increase in the level of physical play, and that the referees let the teams establish the level of physicality within which they want to play. “They innovate the game,” the source said, “and [the referees] are just trying to implement it.”Not everyone believes that physicality in the WNBA has increased much in the last five to ten years, but a different source from the league said: “Honestly, it’s like the NBA in the 80s and 90s. When the Bad Boys hit Michael Jordan, they had to change it. They got rid of handchecking. They got rid of a lot of things because people didn’t want to see it”.
There is also a clamor for more resources to be allocated to the training of referees. “They’re just not good enough,” said the team executive. “They have to keep improving and a lot of that comes from education and training… They’re not trying to mess up, it’s just very hard work and the level of talent is not at the level it should be.” A league executive said that all WNBA and NBA referees train in the G League and then choose between moving to the WNBA or the NBA. But, according to an executive, referees tend to choose the NBA more often due to economics. “They make more money. There are 82 games versus 42 games,” the executive said. “That’s part of what the WNBA is trying to figure out: how do we make sure the talent level is good across the board?” Another source added: “I hate to generalize, but if you’re training in the G League, marginal contact is going to look very different there than in a professional women’s game.” A league source said that a three-pillar investigation process determines its referees. After a review of each referee by WNBA officials, a panel of independent reviewers examines the referees and their work. Coaches can also submit feedback after each game via a WNBA text line. Each referee also receives a mid-season and end-of-season review. The WNBA will not punish – through fines or suspensions – officials for a single mistake, but will evaluate their work throughout the season. If there is a common series of errors, that is addressed, sources said.
