WNBA expansion

[Dokey]

When player of the year Megan Gustafson, whatever you think of her, was cut by Wings, it led people to suggest the talent is there to expand the league. There will be cries of solidify of what you have, especially with greater tv experience, but the truth here in Colorado where Denver has no WNBA team (but Sue Bird in Nuggets front office), most of the people I know have never heard of the WNBA. Since the NBA supports the league, it might help to have more men-women doubleheaders. But mainly I just want a team in Denver.

 

[Mdoggie]

Denver would be a great location for a team. Let’s name them. I’ll go first.
Denver Rush!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The Denver Flowers.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Cracking a roster is tough. I hate seeing talented young players get cut every year right before the regular season begins. I do think there is enough talent to support more teams. However the WNBA has already had a few franchises fold and generally speaking attendance and TV viewership isn't great. I just don't think there is enough demand for the product for the WNBA to support more franchises at this point.

 

[Mdoggie]

The Denver Flowers.

View attachment 43486

I see what you did there. Lol.

 

[Hayven]

Before expansion talks, let’s pay our top talent great money to stay in the country all year, so they don’t have to go overseas and risk being injured

 

[TerpWomenFan]

Cracking a roster is tough. I hate seeing talented young players get cut every year right before the regular season begins. I do think there is enough talent to support more teams. However the WNBA has already had a few franchises fold and generally speaking attendance and TV viewership isn't great. I just don't think there is enough demand for the product for the WNBA to support more franchises at this point.

This.
There are enough players to support additional teams but there are not enough fans to support the WNBA. There has been 6 teams that have folded and 5 teams that have relocated. If anything, the league should expand their roster from 12 to 14/15. I think 12 is a little small. I think the league can afford a few more players per team.

 

[Reypl21]

Denver Clouds

Lol, I am around three hours away from Denver, in Wyoming. It would be cool to have a WNBA team, but I'm not sure of it's successes. However, I like coming up with team names

 

[Lawrence]

When player of the year Megan Gustafson, whatever you think of her, was cut by Wings, it led people to suggest the talent is there to expand the league. There will be cries of solidify of what you have, especially with greater tv experience, but the truth here in Colorado where Denver has no WNBA team (but Sue Bird in Nuggets front office), most of the people I know have never heard of the WNBA. Since the NBA supports the league, it might help to have more men-women doubleheaders. But mainly I just want a team in Denver.

Someone will pick her up, OR, she can go overseas and make zillions...she's a great player and a good person.

 

[southofnorth]

I’m one of those that cries “solidify what you have”. I love the WNBA, but nearly every person I’ve talked to has either been indifferent to it or thinks women’s basketball is boring. It’s unfortunate that so many people shun the women’s game and choose instead to make fun of those talented, hard working women, but that’s still where so many people are at. With the teams (6?) that have already folded, I doubt the WNBA is leaping at the chance to expand until more—if not all—teams turn a profit year after year. Still, Megan Gustafson is a great basketball player and a good person so I imagine she’ll have overseas opportunities and might be able to make a roster in the future as she develops her game.

 

[azfan]

Cracking a roster is tough. I hate seeing talented young players get cut every year right before the regular season begins. I do think there is enough talent to support more teams. However the WNBA has already had a few franchises fold and generally speaking attendance and TV viewership isn't great. I just don't think there is enough demand for the product for the WNBA to support more franchises at this point.

You are on point.....current demand, attendence and audience strongly suggests there is a lack of fan interest in existing WNBA entertainment. While I find this unfortunate as a fan of women's basketball I recognize that, unlike those of us on the BY, most sports fans are not interested.

Here in Phoenix the Mercury have the GOAT and 90 per cent of residents have not heard of DT or the Mercury.

The local grocery chain is providing two free tickets to the home opener on the 31st against the Storm. I suspect less than 50 per cent capacity. So, free tickets on a Friday night with that turnout tells you all you need to know about demand, interest, and support at least in my home market with a very successful franchise (three time champ) with the greatest player of all time.

From SB

"NBA commissioner Adam Silver, for his part, hasn’t shied from emphasizing the league’s lack of revenue — even as he reiterates the NBA’s commitment to the women’s game. “Ultimately it’s a market economy,” Silver said in a recent interview with the Today Show . . .

”The tickets are very inexpensive, but even at low prices, we’re not selling enough tickets to run a viable business,” Silver told Bleacher Report. He reminded the Associated Press the league has lost an average of $10 million a year. (Last year, NBA revenue rose 25 percent to $7.4 billion.) ...

But the WNBA was never able to match its second-season attendance peak of 10,864 fans per game"

The WNBA is at a turning point, and the stakes could not be higher

Will a new TV deal and marketing strategy be enough to finally prove the longterm viability of an American professional women’s sports league?

www.sbnation.com

Think about what that last sentence means. Attendance has never reached the level of the second year of the league. Adam Silver is correct. Entertainment takes place within the context of a market system. For all its failings that market system is far superior to any other form of coordination. So while we may not like the results in this case we do have to accept that that's how coordination and allocation takes place in our free and liberal society. I wish more in our society shared my appreciation of women's sport...but I accept that most don't.

 

[Dokey]

Denver would be a great location for a team. Let’s name them. I’ll go first.
Denver Rush!

Not bad. Two mountains dominate the front range, Meeker and Longs, and many businesses are called Twin Peaks but when a teen softball team was issued uniforms with Twin Peaks across the chest...
Denver Gold...nah, Rush is better.

 

[Dokey]

Exposure is the name of the game. The problem may be that men are doing the promotion. You start by flooding the Ys and schools with free tickets, do doubleheaders with men.

 

[CL82]

The Denver High?

 

[Dokey]

Denver Weeders
Denver High Rollers

Seriously

The Mile High Thunder

 

[willtalk]

The Mile High Thunder

They would already have a theme song. " The Thunder Rolls"

 

[RockyMTblue2]

It may add a jarring note to this discussion, but I just went looking for data on the demographics of the WNBA fan base and the best I could do was Adam Silver on ESPN's "Get Up" show recently bemoaning that the target audience they should be reaching is young women age 21-34, while the real audience is old men like me.

Fact is, women are just not all that into sports unless you smother it in tailgates and a lot of very hunky men. If you pan the audience of any UConn game, particularly in Hartford, you see very, very many of the audience are old guys and old gals, and many of the old gals are there to assure the old guy will find his car at the end of the game.

I don't know whether gay/straight has any impact and it is not a topic that the league or media want to touch.

 

[Mdoggie]

Denver Larks or Colorado Larks

 

[Dokey]

I mainly followed Storm last year, for obvious reasons, and they seemed to fill the house every game. The demographics are hard. The pro softball league draws pitiful crowds and has a great product. They play, for most part, in smaller cities. It beats shelling out hundreds to take family to a Rockies game and sit through a dozen pitching changes. When CU was playing top wbb under hall of famer Ceal Barry the Buffs drew decent crowds but only the top programs can fill an arena. I don't think, as it has been said, that people know enough about the WNBA for gay/straight to play a role. If it's anything like softball evetyone assumes the players are gay, at least that was the case in softball before the fastpitch became as popular as it is in youth leagues and high schools. If the target audience is 21-34 women they won't care about gay/straight.

 

[Dokey]

Denver Larks or Colorado Larks

I like using Mile High somethings or Rocky Mountain somethings. The Rockies went Colorado instead of Denver for regional interest but the Denver Broncos are popular in a half dozen states--there were more orange jetseys in the stands for Cardinals and Chargers home games this season than home team.

 

[Mdoggie]

I like using Mile High somethings or Rocky Mountain somethings. The Rockies went Colorado instead of Denver for regional interest but the Denver Broncos are popular in a half dozen states--there were more orange jetseys in the stands for Cardinals and Chargers home games this season than home team.

The Lark is the state bird.

 

[j66kicker]

I like using Mile High somethings or Rocky Mountain somethings. The Rockies went Colorado instead of Denver for regional interest but the Denver Broncos are popular in a half dozen states--there were more orange jetseys in the stands for Cardinals and Chargers home games this season than home team.

Spliffs
Blunts
Reefers
Doobies

 

[triaddukefan]

They need to expand to NYC

 

[UcMiami]

Do any WNBA teams actually make money? A team like the CT Sun are used as loss leader for a casino which is fine, but ...

I get the idea that we all want to support a professional league, and pay the players, but the reality is this is a capitalist society and the bottom line is red ink. The NBA did a good job supporting the league but it only goes so far.

 

[JoePgh]

Do any WNBA teams actually make money? A team like the CT Sun are used as loss leader for a casino which is fine, but ...

I get the idea that we all want to support a professional league, and pay the players, but the reality is this is a capitalist society and the bottom line is red ink. The NBA did a good job supporting the league but it only goes so far.

I believe the Sun have stated that the team broke even in each of the last few years. They seem to have an average attendance around 6,000 with some big games (with recent UConn alumnae) getting into the 8,000 - 9,000 range.

But even if they do not really break even, they can’t be a significant expense to the casino — a few hundred thousand dollars a year at most, which can easily be justified as a marketing expense for the products that the casino really wishes to sell. It certainly brings people such as myself to the Uncasville facility who would otherwise have no reason to set foot there.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

It may add a jarring note to this discussion, but I just went looking for data on the demographics of the WNBA fan base and the best I could do was Adam Silver on ESPN's "Get Up" show recently bemoaning that the target audience they should be reaching is young women age 21-34, while the real audience is old men like me.

Fact is, women are just not all that into sports unless you smother it in tailgates and a lot of very hunky men. If you pan the audience of any UConn game, particularly in Hartford, you see very, very many of the audience are old guys and old gals, and many of the old gals are there to assure the old guy will find his car at the end of the game.

I don't know whether gay/straight has any impact and it is not a topic that the league or media want to touch.

Old folks are a significant part of the audience in almost all college sports. It is well represented in football and men's basketball crowds, there just are more of other folks. The other sports, lots of gray, you could say. We went to a lot of away games when we were based in NJ and it was true at virtually every school. At Rutgers, a lot of the fans we knew 20 years ago have passed or cannot get to games anymore and they have been replaced by other old folks.

That said, that was not the demographic of the pro games I have attended. I think it is difficult for older folks to necessarily get themselves to the pro arenas, and I think a down side to it is that they probably are not going to spend a lot of side money on concessions and merchandise.

Gay / Straight- if you mean the players, doesn't have any impact with me. Some are, some are most certainly not. As to audience, at least when I have attended games, there is a "higher than in the general population" number of gay females, but that doesn't mean there is an army more of them that want to attend.

 

[Triad]

I’m one of those that cries “solidify what you have”. I love the WNBA, but nearly every person I’ve talked to has either been indifferent to it or thinks women’s basketball is boring. It’s unfortunate that so many people shun the women’s game and choose instead to make fun of those talented, hard working women, but that’s still where so many people are at. With the teams (6?) that have already folded, I doubt the WNBA is leaping at the chance to expand until more—if not all—teams turn a profit year after year. Still, Megan Gustafson is a great basketball player and a good person so I imagine she’ll have overseas opportunities and might be able to make a roster in the future as she develops her game.

I love UConn and NCAA WBB teams. Like the NBA the WNBA has not one second of my desires. That certain something College ball has holds my interest and the W does not. They don't pay because they don't have FAN or TV viewers. MONEY makes ever venture work or not work in this case it doesn't work.

 

[Triad]

Old folks are a significant part of the audience in almost all college sports. It is well represented in football and men's basketball crowds, there just are more of other folks. The other sports, lots of gray, you could say. We went to a lot of away games when we were based in NJ and it was true at virtually every school. At Rutgers, a lot of the fans we knew 20 years ago have passed or cannot get to games anymore and they have been replaced by other old folks.

That said, that was not the demographic of the pro games I have attended. I think it is difficult for older folks to necessarily get themselves to the pro arenas, and I think a down side to it is that they probably are not going to spend a lot of side money on concessions and merchandise.

Gay / Straight- if you mean the players, doesn't have any impact with me. Some are, some are most certainly not. As to audience, at least when I have attended games, there is a "higher than in the general population" number of gay females, but that doesn't mean there is an army more of them that want to attend.

I don't ask a player for their preferences in beer, food, or otherwise. I watch a player not a preference. Yout analysis of the GRAY is accurate. I too attended games in the Brown facility tiny but adequate. Some fun games there. Went to a lot at Gampel, Nova,
I honestly can't say if the greater popluation there was Gray or Green. I like College games because of the KIDs/Students--crazy kid fans are great.

 

[Triad]

Do any WNBA teams actually make money? A team like the CT Sun are used as loss leader for a casino which is fine, but ...

I get the idea that we all want to support a professional league, and pay the players, but the reality is this is a capitalist society and the bottom line is red ink. The NBA did a good job supporting the league but it only goes so far.

Even in a Socialistic society if the 5 year plan fails they are gone. MONEY even in the Soviet plan needed to meet expectations--they gave it 5 years a few times. Seems like the W has had multiple 5 years in the PLAN.

 

[Dokey]

That 21-34 female demographic Adam Silver wants goes to whatever sporting event their male partner likes, like it or not, and that event will be men playing. Females don't take men to female games as a rule. Ironically, female athletes have long been at the point of the lance in feminism and yet they have to beg their sisters to support them. So when I call for expansion I am also calling for different marketing. Personally, I prefer the women's game to the men's. It seems closer to the original concept and--I can hear the roar of protest--the dunk bores me to tears, as is the whole concept of playing above the rim. We watch giants play a game designed for scrawny kids with a basket that remains at 10 feet. There is a lot of talk on this site about the need for a big--a big is the reason why Liberty lost last night when leading by one point with 7 seconds left--and I accept it but I don't have to like it.