In spring 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the country, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was locked down in her New Jersey home. The league was facing a season on the brink right as its stakeholders felt it had begun to gather momentum.
In conversations with league owners and players, Engelbert sensed in those early weeks of the pandemic the tension over what was at stake. Without a season, the league faced what she later called an “existential” moment about the prospect of going dark for 20 months.
“I don’t know if we would have made it, but I do know we wouldn’t be where we are today without having had that highly competitive 22-game season in the bubble,” Engelbert said.
Four years after the “Wubble,” the league is celebrating the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx as a capstone to its most successful year. The WNBA has never been in a better place. Television ratings are up. So is attendance. The league is riding a boom in interest and talent, driven by the steady excellence of longtime stars like A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, and the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Three expansion teams have already been named and another is expected. A lucrative new media deal is set to start in 2026.
LIBERTY LEVELS UP 🗽
The #WNBAFinals…
