Fans let their feelings be known to Cathy Engelbert during Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game.
The WNBA commissioner was in attendance at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. for the All-Star Game. She appeared before the crowd after the game, in which Team Collier defeated Team Clark 151-131, in order to present the All-Star MVP trophy (which went to Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier).
While Engelbert, who has been in charge since 2019, was speaking, fans in the arena broke out into a two-word chant — “Pay them!” Here is the video (with some players even seemingly egging the fans on in the background).
"PAY THEM! PAY THEM! PAY THEM!" pic.twitter.com/x5jVY4Y44R
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) July 20, 2025
The chant comes amid tense negotiations on a new collective barganing agreement between the WNBA and the players. The current CBA is set to expire on Oct. 31, 2025, and the players have made it clear that they are looking for a bigger slice of the pie in the next CBA.
Notably, all of the WNBA All-Stars (including Caitlin Clark) showed up wearing warmup shirts before the game that read, “Pay us what you owe us.” The move came after face-to-face talks between the WNBA and the players earlier in the week that Collier, who is the 2025 MVP frontrunner as well as the vice president of the WNBPA, described as “disappointing.”
The WNBA is still deeply unprofitable as a league, and the NBA continues to actively subsidize it in order for it to survive. But the WNBA’s overall revenue has surged recently thanks to the interest in and popularity of the Indiana Fever star Clark (with an impending $2.2 billion media rights deal set to kick in by 2026 too). Both sides will have to navigate those competing factors in order to strike a deal on a new CBA and avoid a potential work stoppage.
