Q&A with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert: On All-Star Weekend in Indy, Caitlin Clark and NIL
The WNBA Commissioner talked with Fieldhouse Files during NBA All-Star weekend about several topics — including Herb Simon, Indy potentially hosting WNBA All-Stars and the impact of Caitlin Clark.
From meetings with executives to bouncing between events, stopping by NBA Crossover to check out the WNBA Draft experience and showing up to support players in both the Celebrity Game and All-Star Saturday night, Cathy Engelbert had a full schedule this past weekend.
And she got the full Indianapolis experience.
This was all ahead of the 2024 WNBA season tipping off in just a few months, on Tuesday, May 14. The Indiana Fever will open the new season on the road at Connecticut, who is coached by Indiana basketball legend Stephanie White.
And for the second consecutive year, the Fever have the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Indiana basketball fans are hopeful that Iowa star Caitlin Clark will not return to school for another year, which is possible because of the additional COVID year. Drafted her No. 1 would result in a significant boost in fan interest, ticket and merchandise sales, and most importantly — wins.
On Thursday night, the 14th-ranked Hoosiers host Clark's No. 4 Hawkeyes at 8 p.m. ET on Peacock.
Engelbert was hired as the first commissioner of the WNBA almost five years ago after a successful career at Deloitte, most recently as CEO.
Before entering lower suite 35A at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night, she talked with Fieldhouse Files about a variety of subjects.
Note: The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
First of all, can you take me through what you’re trying to get accomplished this weekend and all that you’ve been up to at All-Star weekend?
This is a great opportunity to showcase some WNBA players. I think we have 13 or 15 players here and obviously we had some in the Celebrity Game. We have Sabrina (Ionescu) and Steph (Curry) tonight, and really it’s about exposure and building these players into household names they’ve become. And using a big name tentpole event, our big brother, to do that. I’ve been up to a lot of meetings with corporate partners and with media companies as we prepare ourselves for our 28th season — the longest-tenured women’s sports league in the country. So I’m just thrilled with how our players are showing up.
I was walking in between two restaurants today and I saw like three people with WNBA orange hoodies. I go, ‘That’s a dawn of a new day!’ That’s pretty cool.
Ah, that orange hoodie. That marketing person crushed that. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has spoken a lot recently about Pacers and Fever owner Herb Simon. I’m curious if you have any stories or memories from your time working with him?
Absolutely. Herb and the Simons have been in this league since the beginning. They’ve been such great supporters of this league and Herb will tell you, the Indiana Fever won the championship in 2012 before I got here. He’s an investor in our capital raise so he even doubled down on the WNBA and just the co-branding of the Fever and the Pacers that you see in the Indiana facility. So I can’t be more bullish on Herb’s support and his family’s support of the W.
What is the possibility of Indy getting one of these, a WNBA All-Star game, having seen it on display all weekend?
Our All-Star game is in July so we wouldn’t have to worry about snow in July here in Indy. It’s a great basketball city, a great basketball state. I saw the governor (Eric Holcomb) last night and I know the governor is so behind the NBA and the WNBA, a big basketball fan. So yeah, this would be a great place to ultimately have a WNBA All-Star game.
What can you say about the potential impact that Caitlin Clark can have on the league and presumably on Indiana with the No. 1 pick?
If you look at our activation at NBA Crossover here, and we obviously have our equivalent at WNBA alike, one of the unique things we did here was the draft. You can get drafted into the WNBA knowing that the Indiana Fever, for the second year in a row, have the No. 1 pick in our 2024 WNBA Draft. Caitlin, obviously, is showing everybody the player she is, the person she is. There’s a lot of other generational talent in the NCAA right now so I think the quality of the game and the strength of the talent coming out from the NCAA, including Caitlin, is amazing.
And these players will kind of be the first class coming out with huge followings, not just from social media but also their NIL deals and they have national brands for their NIL deals. People don’t process how they have the Gatorades, State Farms and the Nikes — and those are our partners, too, in the W so those will all translate over beautifully. They’ll have more of a national platform when they get to the W so we’re excited for Caitlin and everybody else that will come in over the next couple of years.
And you look at the next level after Caitlin, (USC’s) JuJu Watkins and (Notre Dame’s) Hannah Hidalgo. Look, the strength of the game couldn’t be (better). And I have nothing to do with that. We’re trying to do more with youth girls making sure they stay in sports so we have more Caitlins and Hannahs and JuJus coming through the system over the next few years — and globalizing the game too. As we globalize our players, I think we’re (at) 17% (of) players born outside the U.S. now, and growing. I admire what the NBA has done on globalizing their game and we need to do the same thing.
Following up on the NIL piece in all that. It seems like many do not realize how deals naturally translate because we hear a lot ‘what would this player leave?’ So is a lot of what you’re having to do is reinforce that message or make people aware of that message?
Yeah, I’m reinforcing that message because 1) they have those (deals) because they’re an elite level of athlete and 2) they only have so much NCAA eligibility. This will be the last COVID year and then it’ll go to four years of eligibility and players will have to come in. And, it’s just called endorsements in the pros. We’ve always had endorsements, but we’re seeing a lot more value in those endorsements coming off of NIL deals for female athletes in college and into the pros.
It’s rising tides lifting all boats on this one with female athletes because I was a little bearish on this when I first came into the league. And one of the first questions I was asked was around NIL — and I said I hope it’s not another era where women athletes will be undervalued because we know we are. But it’s actually turned out pretty good, at least for the elite athlete, whether it’s softball, gymnastics, and I think four of the top 10 NIL earners are women’s basketball players. And the rest are like football players.
I actually think that it’s been a positive. I hope it keeps going because it allows us to then bring them in. No one ever said anything about Michael Jordan and LeBron James’ endorsements. Those are huge dollars, much more than they made in the NBA, so this is going to help us to supplement their WNBA income with all this NIL money, and now endorsement money once they come out. We just call it endorsements, it’s the same thing.
To that end, do you feel a direct correlation between the current TV deal and the exposure because we continue to see the record ratings? And how much is that part of that regular discussion about what the TV deal will eventually beecome?
Absolutely. I think, again, it’s bringing in more viewers who were not traditional viewers of women’s sports. And now bringing them in, knowing that the quality of the games is so great in the W today. Most people who have never watched a W game, if they come or they watch, the first time they watch they’re hooked. So you just have to get people exposed to the game and I think what these NIL college players are doing is getting people exposed to the game and their like, ‘This is a really exciting game. This is the way it should be played.’ You’re going to see Steph and Sabrina tonight in the 3-point competition. This is something where we can compete equally with the men. I think it’s really a good thing for women’s sports overall.