Dave Portnoy would love to be WNBA commissioner: ‘We would be flying, dining and driving’

With WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert potentially on her way out, Dave Portnoy is willing to offer his services to the league.

Despite being the commissioner of a league experiencing a surge in popularity, it’s hard to find many in support of Engelbert keeping her job. Earlier this week, one of the WNBA’s most prominent players, Napheesa Collier called Engelbert out in a prepared statement, revealing details from their private conversations and blasting the league for having the “worst leadership in the world.” Hours later, Sports Business Journal’s Tom Friend reported Engelbert is likely to exit the WNBA after their current CBA negotiations are complete.

If Engelbert does leave, who is the best candidate to help the WNBA realize its potential? On Wednesday morning’s Wake Up Barstool on FS1, Portnoy was eager to volunteer his leadership.

If the WNBA asked Dave Portnoy to be the commissioner, would he take the job?@stoolpresidente pic.twitter.com/rkFAv0KGWu

— Wake Up Barstool (@wakeupbarstool) October 1, 2025

“I’d love it,” Portnoy answered when prompted with the hypothetical. “All these women who think they hate me. Angel Reese, she thinks she hates me…these girls would be wining and dining like, ‘Oh my god, it’s not about the color of your skin, it’s about sports, basketball, and this guy’s putting money in my pocket. He’s a genius!’ We would be flying, dining and driving. I would absolutely take this league to a level it has never seen. Cathy Engelbert can’t market her way out of a paper bag. Embrace the stuff that’s going on in this league.”

Engelbert has been criticized for player pay, her handling of the league’s media rights deal and for not fully embracing Caitlin Clark’s potential value. The WNBA is expanding and reaching new heights in popularity, yet Clark, for example, had a base salary of just $78,000 this season. And those are things Portnoy would seek to fix.

As detractors cite a decontextualized report that the WNBA lost $40 million last season, Portnoy touts the need for player salaries to increase with the league’s popularity taking off. But the commissioner works for the owners. And in a CBA negotiation, team owners would rather push a narrative that the league is losing money as leverage to limit player salaries.

Needless to say, Portnoy is not going to be the next WNBA commissioner. Even if he is a marketing master, the WNBA isn’t going to want Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy running the league. But Portnoy has been one of the WNBA’s biggest supporters in recent years, even while receiving pushback from some of the league’s players. One thing all players will agree on, however, is Portnoy’s defense of their pay demands.