← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Robbie
Thread ID: 4058 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2002-12-17
2002-12-17 14:55 | User Profile
[url=http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1705083]http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1705083[/url]
WNBA dogged by sagging teams, labor issues Houston Chronicle ^ | 12/17/02 | W.H. STICKNEY JR.
Next summer, the WNBA will celebrate its seventh birthday. And as its president Val Ackerman has done since day one, she painted a rosy picture last week regarding the future of the longest-living professional league yet for women's basketball in the United States.
But when the seventh WNBA season begins in late May, it will do so on a landscape covered with clouds.
The Miami franchise folded almost two weeks ago, Orlando shut down in October, and Utah moved to San Antonio after failing to increase attendance since 1997.
The Seattle franchise announced last week it has lost $3 million during its three-year existence and is considering a move to another Washington city when its KeyArena lease expires on Dec. 31.
Ackerman has said the 2003 season could begin with only 14 franchises, down from last year's 16, depending on whether other cities replace Orlando and Miami. But that isn't the only headache with which she is grappling.
There's also the thorny issue of the most crucial collective bargaining agreement yet for the WNBA and its players. At the heart of negotiations is the matter of players' salaries.
The WNBA Players Association says the average player earns $43,000. The league says a player's annual "compensation package" is $55,000. Regardless, players are almost universal in the thought they're being grossly underpaid.
Coquese Washington, the former Comets guard who now plays for Indiana, feels the league is in good shape nonetheless.
"I kind of liken it to college when you change coaching staffs," she said. "Inevitably, a couple of players transfer, (and) a couple of players are thrown off the team until the new coach really gets their new thing in place."
On another front, NBC, the WNBA's flagship network for the last six years, is being replaced by ABC. That's because the parent NBA terminated its longstanding contract with NBC and has switched to ABC.
The WNBA will maintain ESPN and ESPN2 as broadcast partners. But there are kinks to be worked out with the newest addition to the league television family, the Oxygen network, which came on board in 2002 with its limited viewership.
Bottom line: Naysayers are having a field day predicting the eventual demise of the WNBA.
"It's about the money. You need to follow the money. The whole league is in trouble," says Lynn Lawrence, a former season-ticket holder for the Orlando Miracle.
Ackerman remains optimistic.
"We remain as confident as ever that the WNBA will be a force on the sports landscape," Ackerman said.
She said women's basketball is becoming more popular in high schools and colleges, and that can only be good for the WNBA.
"We've always had the long view," Ackerman said. "This isn't about what's happening tomorrow. It's really about what's happening 10 years from tomorrow. We've set a very strong foundation for the league; (we) can't ask more from our players. We know that the players of tomorrow are going to take the league to even greater heights."
TV ratings, which took a hit last summer, might indicate otherwise.
"Overall, ratings were down on NBC and ESPN and even on ESPN2 (compared with 2001)," said Rita Sullivan, a WNBA spokeswoman.
However, Sullivan said, the league "saw double-digit ratings growth among its key demographics (kids, teens and women)" on the three networks.
A change to the structure of the WNBA since last summer led to Miami and Orlando's demise. In October, the league set in place a "new model" under which each franchise will now become independently owned. Previously, franchises were owned by the WNBA but operated by an NBA parent club.
"The restructuring for us is a major change designed to strengthen the league," Ackerman said, "and we believe that it's going to have that impact, even if that means a short-term shakeout of certain parts of the operation."
Individual franchising carries with it a higher degree of financial overhead, most notably players' salaries that had been paid by the league.
"I had a tough time taking the resources from this $90 million franchise (the Magic) that we have and have them focus on the Miracle while we still have a lot to accomplish with the Magic," said John Weisbrod, chief operating officer of RDV Sports, the owner of the Orlando Magic of the NBA. "This frees us up to do that."
Utah owner Larry Miller decided to forgo operation of the Starzz, but the franchise has been relocated to San Antonio to be owned by the NBA's Spurs. San Antonio has been trying to land a WNBA club for three years.
"If we could have seen the daylight at the end of the tunnel, we would have stuck with it," said Miller. "There was a very loyal fan base of around 3,000, and I'm grateful to those people, but there weren't enough of them. We felt going in that there might be some start-up costs (and) that it would take a little time to put down roots and develop the market. And we were fine with that.
"But there comes a point when it's no longer start-up costs. It's just the price of doing business. The question was raised: `Do you really want to keep knocking your head against the wall?' "
Utah was one of the eight charter members of the WNBA in 1997. That season, the Starzz averaged 7,611 fans per game, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.
Last year, the most successful for the franchise, the Starzz attracted an average of 7,420 fans per game, despite beating the Comets in the playoffs and advancing to the Western Conference finals for the first time.
Attendance, or lack of it, has also been an issue in Detroit and Charlotte, where the Sting was left behind when the parent NBA Hornets moved to New Orleans.
Orlando ranked 14th out of the 16 teams in attendance in 2002, averaging 7,115 per game. That was down significantly from the 13,808 the club attracted each game night in 1999.
On a positive note, overall attendance in the WNBA was up in 2002. A record 2,362,430 fans attended games. The average crowd was 9,220, up from 9,075 in 2001.
As has been the case since they entered the league in 1998, the Washington Mystics continue to be the attendance anchor in the WNBA. They attracted a total of 259,237 fans (an average of 16,202 per game) in 2002.
Detroit (5,886 average), Charlotte (6,667) and Seattle (6,986) remain near the bottom. But should any of them falter, several cities are eager to take their place.
Ackerman said there is a window of opportunity for a non-NBA city to land a WNBA franchise that would play next summer. At least two others are being looked at as potential members.
The Hartford, Conn., area -- back yard to three-time NCAA women's champion Connecticut -- is interested in fielding a franchise. Ackerman said the league is also considering the Oakland-San Francisco area by 2004.
"We've had some other non-NBA cities come forward, including Nashville and Pittsburgh, which we're kind of looking at and assessing," Ackerman said.
The last time the WNBA expanded, four teams -- Miami, Indiana, Seattle and Portland -- were welcomed three years ago.
Of course, the state of flux regarding the face of the WNBA is about to take a back seat to negotiations for a new players' contract.
Players have threatened a walkout this summer if their demands aren't met. A walkout is something the WNBA can ill afford at this point in its infancy.
Ackerman said the league and the players' association held their first negotiating session in October. Progress was made, she said, but nothing was resolved. A date for more talks hasn't been determined.
Still, Ackerman said she looks forward to a long, prosperous future for the WNBA.
"The NBA remains solidly behind us," she said. "The game is getting better all the time. We've proven what's possible in a number of the existing markets, including Houston, in terms of the prospects for fan support. Women and girls are supporting us in a major way. So we think that the future is bright. And if anything, what we're going through now is simply a transition period within the life cycle."
Adds Washington: "We survived six years, and that's probably a lot longer than a lot of people had anticipated the WNBA would be around."
2002-12-17 20:58 | User Profile
I say good riddance to the Congoid Lesbian League. Even with all the network coverage, and 8,000 Rosie O'Donnells at every game, they still can't generate enough interest or revenue. NBC tried to shove these hideous freaks down our throats. I hope the whole league folds. Also, their stupid season runs through the summer months when vacations and MLB rule the land.
The 99.9% White NHL barely gets a squirt of network coverage, but still keeps on pumping year after year. Real talent, all-White, what's there not to love?
2002-12-17 21:20 | User Profile
I love the NHL. That and the Tour de France are the only televised sports that I can stomach any longer.
2002-12-18 04:49 | User Profile
Originally posted by Javelin@Dec 17 2002, 21:20 I love the NHL. That and the Tour de France are the only televised sports that I can stomach any longer.
Let us not forget the World's Strongest Man competitions. No non-White has ever won it in its 25-year history.
And now they've got a World's Strongest Woman contest as well. I saw it for the first time last weekend. Like the men's, it was an almost all-White affair (one obvious bulldyke, unfortunately). There was one big-thighed nigress, an ex track star. I'm pleased to report that she was in next to last postion at the end of the show.
I don't like heavily-muscled wimmin, but at least it affords the opportunity to prove once again that while jungle bunnies may excel at runnin' & jumpin', when it comes to great strength, Whitey is king.
2002-12-18 19:27 | User Profile
There is no left or right. There is only Semite and anti-Semite.- JAVELIN
Priceless!!!
2002-12-18 20:29 | User Profile
xmetalhead:
Thanks. ;)
I forgot about The World's Strongest Man competition. Itz usually won by a very blonde competitor from Iceland or Sweden. Former NBA negro Charles Barkley once said that he didn't like it because "a fat German always wins".
2002-12-19 04:17 | User Profile
Originally posted by Javelin@Dec 18 2002, 20:29 ** I forgot about The World's Strongest Man competition. Itz usually won by a very blonde competitor from Iceland or Sweden. Former NBA negro Charles Barkley once said that he didn't like it because "a fat German always wins".**
Well, it's heartwarming to know that fact irritates the ugly, rubber-lipped ape.
2002-12-19 06:53 | User Profile
Charles Barkley had his trophy wife years back before a divorce crumbled the racial-harmony-brothersisterhood-blackmanwhitewoman marriage. He also professed to be a Republican.
I have not seen a German win a Strongman competition. They are usually won by a Swede, Finn, or Icelander. There have been some Dutchmen in the games, and are a fine accompaniment to the mostly Scandinavian/Germanic presence.