Right before the July 25 All-Star game in Chicago, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the league was planning to launch its official replay center ahead of the 2027 season. Now, nearly three months later, and before she retires at the end of this year, Engelbert revealed that there has been progress.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
With the 2026 WNBA Finals Game 1 happening tonight, the commissioner spoke to the media in a pre-game press conference, and ESPN writer Michael Voepel has the scoop.
“WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, addressing media before Game 1 of Finals at Chase Center, said everything is on track for league having centralized replay system in place for next season,” Voepel reported on X.
While the reporter didn’t disclose whether Engelbert spoke about the exact date when the replay center will become operational, this statement confirms that the process of upgrading the arenas is on schedule.
The replay center will help officials speed up the review process and allow a much better look at any incident or play that requires review. That’s because every arena will have specialized cameras to track games.
Thankfully, the teams who share their home arenas with an NBA team won’t need to upgrade, as they already have the systems installed. That also means the league will essentially be using the same system that’s already proven to work.
“Leveraging the NBA’s state-of-the-art replay center is an important step in the continued evolution of our game,” Head of WNBA League Operations Bethany Donaphin said in a statement in July.
“It allows us to enhance the consistency and efficiency of replay reviews while embracing innovations that strengthen the competition and deliver the best possible experience for all our stakeholders.”
With the controversies surrounding regular-season officiating, it’s not surprising the WNBA doesn’t want to delay any further.
The WNBA had already tried to curb the hard contact challenges that have been prevalent in the league since the start of the 2026 season. It set up a special officiating task force to address the increase in foul calls, and the task force was also responsible for better enforcing the rules of the game.
While that initially seemed to work, with whistles and foul calls increasing, fans soon grew frustrated whenever the officials missed calls. This issue reached fever pitch when the Indiana Fever took on the Phoenix Mercury on June 24, 2026.
During the game, Mercury star and veteran Alyssa Thomas struck on Caitlin Clark’s throat with her fist, pushing her down on the floor. While the broadcast caught the moment, the referees completely missed it, and Thomas initially went unpunished.
The uproar became so extreme that the league later reviewed the play, upgrading Thomas’ foul to a Flagrant 2 and even suspending her for one game, yet it didn’t quell many fans’ anger on social media.
Following the incident, Thomas publicly called out Engelbert for remaining silent as the backlash turned into threats on her life.
This is exactly the kind of incident that WNBA wants to avoid by using the replay center and improving the overall officiating. Whether the replay center actually achieves that goal during the 2027 regular season remains to be seen.