CHICAGO — The WNBA will have a replay center similar to the NBA next season as the league continues to invest in officiating, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced at her state of the league press conference Saturday before the All-Star Game.
Officiating has been a hot topic around the league for the last few seasons, with physical play being a major point of contention. The league put together a task force in the offseason to help clean up some of the physicality in the game.
“This is one of the most significant investments we’ve ever made in our basketball operations, this investments of tens of millions of dollars will help bring greater consistency, efficiency, and transparency to our officiating process while continuing to improve the quality of the game,” Engelbert said.
Engelbert said that a lot of the details on the replay center still need to be worked out, although she said, as of now, the last two-minute report that the NBA has won't be used in the WNBA yet.
Fouls have been up this season as there has been an emphasis to help players' freedom of movement. The increase in fouls has led to more offense as teams are averaging a record-high number of points. It has also led to longer games. Earlier this month, league gametimes were at an average of 2 hours, 8 minutes — the longest in league history.
Player safety
Engelbert said the league is continuing to work with the players to try and improve their safety off the court. The league and players' union had a virtual meeting on Tuesday night to discuss what more can be done to combat the online hate.
“(For) too many players across the WNBA, that experience is unacceptable,” she said. “Many cases, it’s disgusting. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, the harassment and threats directed to our players has no place in sport or anywhere else.”
Engelbert said the feedback from the players was helpful to her.
Las Vegas Aces investigation wraps up
The WNBA's investigation into whether a Las Vegas Aces sponsorship deal violated the salary cap was inconclusive, Engelbert said.
“No discipline will be recommended or imposed. Of course, if new or additional evidence comes to light, we’ll continue to investigate. But, you know, the integrity of our game is number one,” the commissioner said.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority offered in May 2024 a $100,000 sponsorship agreement to Aces players for each of the following two seasons. That amount exceeded the salaries for six of the players, according to Spotrac.
No such agreement was offered for this season, but player salaries also dramatically rose after the new collective-bargaining agreement was completed in May. Each Aces player earns at least $270,000, according to Spotrac. The initial offer prompted the league to launch a probe into whether it skirted salary-cap rules.
“We did this the right way,” LVCVA president and CEO Steve Hill said at the time. “We did something that we think works for Las Vegas and I think great for the players. We did this without the team. It was our idea and any questions they ask they’ll find that out.”
Increased communication between players and the league
Engelbert said that the league needs to do better communicating with its players, whether its through texts or emails or some other form. One of the chief complaints from players has been that they have no relationship with the commissioner. A'ja Wilson said before the game that the only time she talks to Engelbert is when she's receiving trophies.
“I’ve been talking with the players about how much they want to hear from us, how much they don’t,” Engelbert said. “We do send them a lot of email updates and things like that. They’re a generation that doesn’t check email as much. So we have to get better at a text chain. ... We have to be better at it. it’s something certainly like if a player is getting honored or players gets hurt or something like, I try to reach out to them, and, yeah. So we need to be better at it. There’s no doubt I need to be better.”
Engelbert's future
Engelbert sidestepped a question about if she planned to be the commissioner next season.
“I’m so blessed to have to be at the helm of this league during this incredible hypergrowth period. So blessed that these players are putting the product on the court,” she said. "I will just continue to, you know, do my job, execute the strategy because it has been working."
Positive metrics
Engelbert said that this is already the most-watched WNBA season of all-time, with the 117 broadcasts reaching over 73 million unique viewers. Twenty-nine of the games averaged over one million viewers — the most ever at the All-Star break. They had 11 all of last season.
There have been more than 2.2 million fans at games so far this year, which is up 16% from last season.
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