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.
There was a halftime serenade of the All-Decade Team and acknowledgement of other past stars like the Liberty’s Rebecca Lobo and Teresa Weatherspoon during timeouts. And while most of the reflections of 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.
The East claimed its first-ever win in seven All-Star Games with a 98-82 triumph over the West before 12,998 fans in the Garden. But if not for the deep pockets of the NBA, there likely would not have been a game at all, considering attendance is down from the WNBA’s 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 pre-game press conference last night. She pointed to a potential U.S. 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 as for men,” she said in a preacher’s tone.
Nonetheless, when compared to the two major women’s professional sports organizations – the LPGA and the Women’s Tennis Association – the WNBA has a long way to go.
The LPGA is rising in popularity with the emergence of young stars like Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Lorena Ochoa and Natalie Gulbis.
Check your average sport page today and see what receives bigger play: the WNBA All-Star Game or Wie 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 prize money similar to its male counterpart and attracts its share of attention whenever Venus and Serena Williams are involved.
Of course, both the LPGA and WTA 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, insists 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 if the WNBA stays its current course it will gain more appeal from the general public. “As our talent continues to grow and our product continues to develop, all those who want to be inspired and 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.
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.
