With all due,
@azfan , a good amount of the information you posted as factual in your previous post is simply not true or ignores critical factors/components.
As an aside,
@ucbart and
@EricLA have had multiple discussions regarding these issues, so I had much of the information below already in my archives.
In the thread on demand in attendance at women's basketball games I tried to support this argument with data. There is very little in person attendance at WNBA games. Attendance has dropped from 15000 + when the league began to just over 6,500 last year.
First, the attendance numbers of yesteryear were fictional. To establish interest in the product, franchises were giving away THOUSANDS of tickets in the early days.
In recent years (at least five), the WNBA no longer does that, for the most part (Bill Laimbeer talked about how Vegas ended that practice after using it in the Aces' first year to get people to a game as a tool to develop the fan base). Attendance equals number of people in the stands (turnstile), plus any unused but paid for tickets (whether season or single-game).
Putting that aside, let's look at various individual teams/factors:
Washington Mystics
Washington averaged 4546 fans per game, a drop of 1500 from last year. Per your post, you would point this out as a tremendous negative. However...
Washington (owned by the same ownership group as the NBA, NHL, and G League teams) moved the team from Capital One Arena to the St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports Arena. The ownership group negotiated the deal so St Elizabeths will serve as the home for the Mystics (17 home dates, plus exhibition games and playoffs) and its G League team (24 home dates, plus exhibition games and playoffs), plus serve as the Washington Wizards' practice facility.
Capacity at the new arena (which Washington started playing in this year) is 4200. Washington played 16 of 17 games there (it had one game at Capital One).
Taking out the attendance for the Capital One game, Washington averaged 3869 fans per game. That works out to be
92.12 percent of capacity at St Elizabeths.
Teams Experiencing Jumps in Attendance
Half the league experienced jumps in attendance, including the L.A. Sparks (+6.3%) -- who led all teams this season in average attendance for the second straight year -- the Connecticut Sun (+4.2%) and the Chicago Sky (+7.5%), who experienced the largest increase year over year.
Seattle Storm
Due to renovations and redevelopment at the Seattle Center Arena (formerly KeyArena), Seattle had to play five games at the Angel of the Winds Arena (in Everett, Washington) and twelve games at Alaska Airlines Arena (campus of University of Washington).
The Storm averaged 7562 fans in 2019, which was less than the 8100+ fans in 2018. But the team did relatively well, when one factors into the equation that fans had to navigate between two different arenas in two different cities (Everett is about 25 miles north of Seattle). The Storm will move back into its permanent home at Seattle Center Arena in 2021, once the redevelopment is complete.
New York Liberty
New York had the unfortunate situation of James Dolan ownership for many years. Before the team was sold to Brooklyn Nets owner Joseph Tsai, Dolan relegated the Liberty from Madison Square Garden (in the heart of Manhattan) to the Westchester County Center in White Plains. Dolan wanted to cut operating costs of MSG, and, to be frank, he never had anything more than a passing interest in the Liberty's viability.
In contrast to Washington's move (which kept the arena in the heart of DC), Westchester County Center is an hour away from MSG (with moderate traffic) … and even longer from a borough like Brooklyn.
Having a cornerstone franchise in the home of the NBA's/WNBA's headquarters move to the "burbs" killed attendance in 2018 and 2019. Liberty attendance plummeted to 2239 in 2019. Capacity was listed at 5000, but in reality it was a lot less (one report has the Liberty attendance at 89.79 percent of capacity).
Thankfully, Tsai bought the team and is moving the Liberty to Brooklyn to play in the state of the art Barclays Center beginning in 2020.
Without the Liberty, WNBA attendance was 6918 per game last year. Which brings me to my next point...
Injured/Missing Stars
Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Angel McCoughtry, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and other big-time players did not play at all in 2019. Diana Taurasi played in 6 regular season games out of 34.
That is
major star power missing -- especially for Atlanta and Dallas, franchises that are not owned by NBA teams and do not have ownership groups that also own the arenas in which they play (e.g., Connecticut and Las Vegas).
Certainly, that has a tremendous impact on attendance in a league like the WNBA, which is star-/personality-driven.
There are very few fans available to watch on TV or streaming media. When the WNBA season takes place there are so many other alternatives for sports entertainment fans.
First, the WNBA already receives money from its television deal with ESPN. In 2019, ESPN expanded its coverage this year with 16 regular-season telecasts.
Second, CBS Sports' television deal with the WNBA in 2019 meant that CBS Sports featured live broadcasts of 40 WNBA games in primetime and on weekends.
Third, to open the 2018 season (first weekend of games), the WNBA the averaged 148,000 viewers on ESPN2. During the opening weekend of 2019, with the additional programming on ESPN and CBS Sports, league viewership grew to 413,000 - a 64% increase year-over-year.
Fourth, looking at the first half of 2019, across ESPN/ESPN2/ABC, the WNBA averaged approximately 318,000 viewers – up 31 percent from 243,000 in 2018.
And to close the season, Game 5 of the 2019 WNBA Finals averaged 440,000 viewers on ESPN2. For comparison, a college football game averaged 714,000 viewers on ESPN at the same time.
Fifth, in 2019, major media outlets like Bleacher Report, The Athletic, Overtime, and SLAM all launched their own verticals dedicated to expanding coverage of women’s basketball and the WNBA, propelling the conversation around the league’s culture from a grassroots level.
And this is not even counting WNBA League Pass, broadcast of games (for free) via Twitter, and other platforms with which the WNBA has for broadcasting games.
The NBA stoppef direct assistance to the WNBA in the early 2000s. There are no indications in the near future that there will be a change in these demand factors. Therefore it's not surprising that the number of franchises in the WNBA would remain the same or perhaps even shrink. The trend has been shrinkage to quote Seinfeld. From a high of 16 franchises we're down to 12.
Actually, let me clarify the information/facts regarding WNBA ownership, NBA involvement, and profitability information:
- Initially, the NBA, a private corporation, owned the WNBA, also a corporation, and all its teams or franchises. In 2002, the NBA began to sell them. Some WNBA teams changed cities, some folded, others were added.
- Today there are 12 teams. Five belong to NBA owners; seven belong to independent entities.
- Collectively, the teams (WNBA) own 50 percent of the WNBA corporation; the other 50 percent is owned by the NBA's 30 franchise owners.
- This works out to NBA ownership of about 70 percent of the league.
In addition, WNBA teams have started to turn profits, and profitability is not as far off as your post makes it seem.
- The first franchise to do so was the Connecticut Sun (owned by the Mohegan Tribe, which also owns the arena in which the team plays), in 2011.
- By 2013, three NBA-owned/affiliated teams -- Minnesota Lynx, Indiana Fever, and Phoenix Mercury - were also in the black, as well as one non-NBA owned team (Seattle Storm).
Here in Phoenix we have the GOAT. Also very entertaining teams. Attendance does not increase.
Attendance numbers for the Phoenix Mercury during Diana Taurasi’s tenure with the team:
- 2004: 7638.12
- 2005: 7302.71
- 2006: 7495.88
- 2007: 7710.88
- 2008: 8521.59
- 2009: 8522.59
- 2010: 8981.53
- 2011: 9167.35
- 2012: 7814.06
- 2013: 8556.82
- 2014: 9556.71
- 2015: 9945.71 (note - Taurasi sat out the 2015 WNBA season, for rest)
- 2016: 10350.88
- 2017: 9912.71
- 2018: 9949.94
- 2019: 10192.53
en.m.wikipedia.org
Seriously, great stuff. You are the master of facts and figures/data!!
