THE WNBA held its annual All-Star Game last night, draped in nostalgia since it marked the 10th anniversary of a league some doubted would survive its infancy.
While most of the reflections on the past and the prospects for the future had an optimistic spin, there’s no camouflaging the WNBA remains as much a novelty today as it was 10 years ago.
If not for the deep pockets of the NBA, there would not be a 10th WNBA All-Star Game considering attendance is down from the first season of 1997, television ratings barely beat hockey and most of its 14 teams are losing money.
Still, WNBA president Donna Orender focused on the big picture during her spirited press conference before last night’s game at the Garden. She pointed to a potential fan base where “one in two” females currently participate in sports with “100 million” females playing basketball around the world.
“It’s a global game for women as well or for men,” she said in a preacher’s tone. “[The WNBA] provides much-needed role models for women and young girls.” Nonetheless, when compared to the two major women’s pro sports organizations, the LPGA and the Women’s Tennis Association, the WNBA is an afterthought.
The LPGA is rising in popularity with the emergence of young stars like Michelle Wie, Paul Creamer, Lorena Ochoa and Natalie Gulbis who have created intriguing competition for established veterans like Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Julie Inkster.
Check your average sport pages today and see what receives bigger play: the WNBA All-Star Game orWie attempting to become the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make a PGA Tour cut at this weekend’s John Deere Classic.
Women’s tennis often competes for equal prize money as their male counterparts and attracts constant attention with personalities like Venus and Serena Williams, Marina Sharapova and the feisty Justine HeninHardenne.
Both institutions have been in existence much longer than the WNBA. The LPGA was established in 1950, the WTA in 1970.
Each has had to overcome its own struggles for public attention.
The WNBA is still struggling.
Attendance dropped to an average of 8,174 last year after a high of 10,864 in 1998. But Orender, who assumed her role in February 2005, insisted the WNBA has enjoyed “a 20-percent growth” in its fan base.
“We define it by people who consume our product,” she said.
“Whether it’s attendance; whether it’s viewership; whether it’s buying our products.” Orender is confident that if the WNBA stays its current course, it will gain more appeal from the general public.
“As our talent continues to go, all those who want to engage in that entertainment will come,” she said.
The league seems eager to trumpet its new stars, going so far as to nickname the four rookies who played in last night’s game – Candice Dupree, Seimone Augustus, Cappie Pondexter and Sophia Young – the Fab Four. But it should be careful not to draw attention from its established heroines.
Sheryl Swoopes is the WNBA’s Michael Jordan, having won four championships and three MVP awards. Lisa Leslie has played in every WNBA All-Star Game and is arguably its most recognizable player. Dawn Staley retires after this season.
Clearly Orender is pointing to the future and developing ways to make the game more attractive.
The addition of a 24-second clock has increased scoring and additional corporate sponsorship has provided much-needed dollars.
Maybe 10 years from now the WNBA has more universal appeal. Right now it remains as it began: a novelty searching for acceptance.
