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WOMEN'S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION.
Term Paper ID:28920
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Essay Subject:
Formation (1996) & evolution of WNBA. Discusses challenges to recruit players, establish franchises, acquire broadcast partners & sponsors & gain fan loyalty & market share. Historical overview. Feminist perspective.... More...
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26 Pages / 5850 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Formation (1996) & evolution of WNBA. Discusses challenges to recruit players, establish franchises, acquire broadcast partners & sponsors & gain fan loyalty & market share. Historical overview. Feminist perspective.
Paper Introduction:
An Examination of the Evolution of the
Women’s National Basketball Association
Introduction
On April 24, 1996, the National Basketball Association (NBA) approved the concept and formation of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), with play to begin in June of 1997. With only 15 months from the announcement of the league’s formation to its first tip-off, the officials who were to manage the new league had much to do: they needed to recruit and hire players, establish franchises in key markets, acquire broadcast partners and sponsors, and create a viable seasonal game schedule (WNBA, 2000). More significantly, perhaps, the founders of the league and its supporters (as well as its players) had to
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It was through the NBA and its infrastructure that the WNBA and itsplayers secured major corporate sponsors such as Lee Apparel Company(Ebenkamp, 1997).Steve Lopez (1997) concurred with this view, noting thatthe NBA pulled out all the stops in hyping, choreographing and bankrollingthe WNBA. With WNBA playing in summermonths when fans of men's pro basketball have no option other than re-runsof old championship series or "classic" NBA games, NBA believed that it hada sure winner and would be able to retain much of the male-dominated probasketball audience. However, to becometruly competitive with male-centered sports, the WNBA and other women'ssports leagues must gain greater autonomy and must become their ownmanagers. TotalNBA sales, mostly on the men's side, had flattened but were expected torebound because of new superstars such as Kobe Bryant and "bad boy" playerslike Latrell Sprewell and Alan Iverson. WNBA, under the aegis of NBA and its own highly successfulmarketing division, was then marketing some 1 products ranging fromreplica championship jerseys to new lines of clothing. It further suggests that vast sums have beenspent on advertising and promotion to generate an instant fan base for theleague and that linking WNBA teams to NBA cities, offering almost absurdlylow ticket prices, and promoting WNBA merchandise through an excellent andwell-established NBA marketing and distribution channel have all helped tomake the WNBA a qualified success in relatively short order. To keep ticket prices low (in the $5 to $1 range), salaries must be held down; . Aggressive merchandising,according to Gina, coupled with equally aggressive public relationscampaigns for star performers like Cynthia Cooper, may well be the bestmeans available to enhance WNBA status. (1997). The WNBA must at some point stop being the step-child of the NBA and acquire a well-rounded and clearly articulated imageof its own. Lefton (2 ) also pointed out that a new league promotional sloganand campaign, "What You Got," is using WNBA stars like Nikki McCray tosolicit fan scripts or finished promotional spots. Business Week,(3679), 1 2. Further, it may also indicate that the profile of thetypical sports fanatic as a male in his late teens to the mid-thirties, isaccurate given that this is the primary market for ESPN and ESPN2. WNBA also managed to acquireplayers whose "marketability" was greater than that of players in the ABL,despite the fact that ABL "won" in the college draft. It alsoshowcases talented American female athletes whose only hope of a career inprofessional basketball required them to become expatriates only a fewshort years ago. (1999, November 29). Olympic team, noting that many worldchampion male professional players enhanced their own image in preciselythis manner. McConville, J. As Gina said, "none of our players have served time in jail,and the league is very supportive of the demands placed on its players byfamily, educational aspirations, and their desire to continue playing onthe U.S. Johnsen, M. Kort, M. With players leaving the league and the expansion having put 16 teams in 2 conferences into the field, there could be insufficient talent to fill team rosters; . Sports Illustrated, 9, 44-48. Bobbie believes that the strict control over WNBA players by theleague (and the NBA) is a disadvantage in that high profile players can notonly increase their own earnings by marketing themselves, but also help tofurther the appeal for the league. Women's Sports and Fitness, 19(2), 34-4 . It isvery possible that the WNBA will succeed only to the extent that itholds on to its younger fans and gains market share among older male sportsenthusiasts.The Feminist Perspective From a feminist perspective, there have been a number of concernsexpressed regarding issues relevant to the WNBA and other women'sprofessional sports. ESPN, Lifetime get in the game.Broadcasting & Cable, 126(31), 43. The issue may not be particularly significant from an economicperspective and a total of 63.6 percent of WNBA players surveyed by USAToday claimed no preference with respect to the gender of their headcoaches or other team managers and trainers. (2 ). Both of these leagues are enjoyingsuccess in foreign markets, with 47 broadcasters picking up the WNBA signaland several interested in the WUSA. Wulf, S. Finally, while recognizing that the NBA has an investment to recoup,Bobbie suggested that permitting private ownership for WNBA teams wouldhelp to professionalize the league and this in turn would increase fansupport. 2. Methodology and Results To augment the foregoing review of literature, three interviews wereundertaken in preparing the present report. Other,earlier efforts to establish a strong presence (and audience) for women'sprofessional sports had made it abundantly clear that exposure was aprimary concern if millions of potential fans were to be convinced thatwomen's sports were as "worthwhile" as those played by males (McConville,1996). A dud of their own. When the WNBA was formed, according to Bergand Huntington (1997), the talent pool of potential players was very deepand the corporate dollar was ready to support a woman's athletic movement.Additionally, fresh on the heels of a new prominence for American womenathletes in the Olympics, the fans were apparently ready to give theirsupport to women in "a league of their own." In the past, women's pro sports were short-lived at best. It offers young women athletes a groupof role models who in no way resemble the trash-talking, crime committingbad boys of the NFL and the NBA in the post-Michael Jordan era. What WNBA has from the outset, according to Wulf (1997), was thesolid backing and professional expertise of the marketing and salesexecutives and staff of the NBA. Hepointed out that WNBA coaches should be more assertive in convincing theirstar players to play for each U.S. Women's net loses ladies hoops. The existing infrastructure of the NBA,and the natural synergies gained by placing women's basketball teams in NBAcities, were seen early on as factors facilitative of long- and short-runsuccess for the new league. Women's Sports andFitness, 29(2), 5 -54. Olympic team . and around the world? Yolanda Griffith, a forward for the Sacramento Monarchs and a member of the 2 U.S. Sheryl Swoopes, top vote-getter for the 1999 WNBA All-Star game, one of the top three scorers in the league, a 1996 Olympian, and a starter for the champion Houston Comets . Fromthe perspective of the WNBA, what matters is not the sexual preference oftheir fans (or their players) but their success in the marketplace.Summary This review of literature has considered the evolution of the WNBAand a number of key themes related to its expansion and growth. WNBA franchises were, accordingly, positioned in majorsports markets such as New York City (Liberty), Los Angeles (Sparks),Cleveland (Rockers), Charlotte, N.C. There are different rules and there are certainly genderdifferences in the way the game is played. Bhonslay, M. "Sports is big business," said Gina, "and anyprofessional athlete who fails to recognize that this is the case should goback to college." She states as well that the NBA and the WNBA have done an "excellentjob" in a very short period of time in promoting the WNBA and its playersand teams. Should WNBA's coaching trend favor men? To what extent does player dissatisfaction with compensation influence WNBA growth potential? Ebony ("Sisters,"2 ) reported that the WNBA had quickly become the proving ground for"Sisters with Game" and has taken root among African-American fans of bothgenders. Whatmakes the difference in professional sports is not (as the case of the NewOrleans Saints football team so aptly illustrates) is not necessarilywinning or losing, but how well a sport and a team are marketed. Cooper is the league's top scorer and was also a goldmedalist with the U.S. Available atwww.wnba.com/basics/historyof_wnba.html. As Johnsen (2 ) points out, it was Jordan and Jordan alone who madethe NBA and basketball (not to mention himself and the six-time worldchampion Chicago Bulls) a household name in places as remote as Timbuktuand Nepal. It was decided early on that the WNBA would establishits season in the summer, when the domestic sports calendar was lesscrowded and the games could be televised live and in prime time to reachthe largest possible audience. She saw these restrictions asinitially necessary in order to get the league off the ground and believes,in light of the recent ABL bankruptcy, that it may be necessary to increasethe caps but retain them at a lower level than players might prefer forsome time to come. Women's professional basketball is not a clone of the male version ofthe game. Part of theexplanation for the growth of interest in women's professional sports,including basketball, is that there is a decline in interest in the NBAbecause of Michael Jordan's retirement. This waslargely because of the WNBA and its star players such as Cynthia Cooper ofperennial league champion Houston Comets and Rebecca Lobo of New YorkLiberty. (1996). History of the WNBA. Another positive achievement for the WNBA in 2 was the creation ofa multi-year marketing partnership between the league and SportsIllustrated for Women. What specific challenges does the WNBA face in gaining viewership and expanding its fan base? It is possiblethat the WNBA has not had the expected appeal to a mature female audiencesuch as that which watches the Lifetime channel regularly, drawn to thecable channel by a combination of disease of the week movies, sentimentaland romantic stories, and programs focusing on women's fashions and beautyor homemaking. Third, theprogramming of WNBA games includes "entertainment" vignettes for time-outssuch as dribbling contests, costumed performers, and T-shirt tossesblatantly geared toward kids. The arrangement calls for the publication toreceive in-game ad units on national WNBA game broadcasts, as well as localtelevision spots and on-court signage. (1997). Using areview of literature and a set of three interviews conducted with a WNBAteam member, a league executive, and a sportswriter for a major Americandaily newspaper, the report will explore the successes and failures of theWNBA. In his view,the WNBA represents a pioneering effort to bring women's professionalsports to the attention of the general public and he gives the WNBA and theNBA high marks for their efforts. For the WNBA, backed by the deep pockets of the NBA and sponsors likeNike, there is little or no necessity for aiming at any particular niche inits personality-based marketing blitz. She sees theWNBA as a leader in women's professional sports and has often suggested toher own superiors that increasing wages and benefits to retain players mustbe undertaken to prevent talent erosion. It is, of course, interesting that the launch(and the management and marketing) of women's professional basketball wasin effect "controlled" not by women, but by males (Berg & Huntington, 1997;Bhonslay, 1998; Wulf, 1997). Average attendance in the 1999 season was only 1 ,2 7 per WNBA game - a worse showing than Arena Football League, which averages 11, per game, and represents a decline of 6 percent from the WNBA's 1998 average; . A player withthe Houston Comets, a WNBA marketing officer, and a sportswriter working onassignment for magazines such as Sports Illustrated agreed to participatewith the understanding that their confidentiality would be respected by theresearcher. Lefton (2 ) reported that when L'Oreal agreed in 2 to a newthree-year sponsorship, WNBA sponsorship reached a 9 percent sold outlevel with respect to television inventory in mid-2 . and Watson, J. This simply serves to reinforce thebelief that what the WNBA is all about is money. By 1999, seven of the twelve head coaching positions in the WNBA were heldby men. More significantly, perhaps, the founders of the league and itssupporters (as well as its players) had to convince the American publicthat women's basketball was going to be as exciting, as challenging, and asappealing as the long-established NBA. It will conclude with an analysis of the future potential of thisprofessional sports league to become more competitive with the NBA and morecapable of drawing the kind of fan support that men's professionalbasketball enjoys in the United States and across the globe. Time, 15 (5),41-44. Jet, 96(12), 51-53. Sisters with game: The exciting stars of the WNBA. The NBA, throughits marketing division, was also targeting the technology/telecom/dot-comsector as potential WNBA sponsors, while planning to keep some minimaltelevision inventory in reserve. Evenmore important is the fact that about 25 percent of all NWBA players arenot American citizens and many did not play during the 2 season becausethey wanted to represent their home countries in the Summer Olympics. (2 ). Jet ("Should WNBA's," 1999) reported that when theWNBA was started in 1997, only one of the league's eight coaches was a man. (2 ). Player preference may not be particularly important to the players,but it might be important to the fans ("Should WNBA," 1999). Bobbie also saw the greatest challenge as being the retention ofplayers who have the opportunity to play overseas where salaries are higherand they are allowed to make personal decisions about product endorsements. It is doubtful that any of the WNBA players,regardless of their talent or popularity among fans, will ever offer theleague what Jordan brought to the NBA. The league wasjust four games short of reaching two million fans cumulatively for theseason. This report has considered theevolution of the WNBA, assessed its strengths and weaknesses and hasoffered insight into the strategies that can be used to improve theleague's acceptance and gain greater fan loyalty and market share. Clearly, the move is designed toattract younger fans with either skill in high-tech video production ordetermination to be linked to women's sports. To succeed, the WNBA mustdemonstrate that these differences are not particularly critical and thatwhat matters is that the WNBA and its players offer the basketball fan thesatisfaction of watching intensely competitive, fast-paced, professionalquality athletic events. Their viewscoincide with views expressed in the literature. (1998). Hawn (1999) offered several possible explanations for these problems.First, WNBA teams have a single owner - the NBA - and cannot compete or bideffectively for the best players as teams do in almost every otherprofessional sports league. WNBA. The WNBA and the ABL (before it went bankrupt and ended operations)are reluctant to acknowledge that a substantial portion of their most loyalfans are gay. This was then, and may well still be, the most difficult challengefaced by the WNBA. Interestingly, 34 or 25.7percent of the WNBA players said they preferred to play for a male coachand only 14 players or slightly more than 1 percent stated a preferencefor a female head coach. The blue-chip sponsorship roster of theWNBA also includes American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Gatorade, Spaulding,and American General. Most of the star players in the league are African-American.These include Cynthia Cooper, a two-time WNBAMost Valuable Player (MVP), and the catalyst for the Houston Cometschampionships. As the WNBA was formed, the American basketball League (ABL)and Women's Professional Fastpitch were also emerging as vehicles forprofessional women athletes (Berg & Huntington, 1997). 6. Players will be matched with fans who submit the best story boardsand will help them produce their spots. WNBA's player salaries are low - despitecollective bargaining, which has succeeded only in establishing a very lowand poorbase salary of $26,5 plus benefits per year for rookies, and some topdraft picks earning $5 , . Forbes, 8 -81. With only 15 months from theannouncement of the league's formation to its first tip-off, the officialswho were to manage the new league had much to do: they needed to recruitand hire players, establish franchises in key markets, acquire broadcastpartners and sponsors, and create a viable seasonal game schedule (WNBA,2 ). TheAdvocate, 748, 59-62 Lefton, T. (1997). It was believed that the league needed to signat least seven regular-season advertisers, though NBA Commissioner DavidStern said early on that more than twice that number of potentialadvertisers had expressed interest. The NBA's sister act. (1997). (1997). Lopez, S. Manystars are deserting the WNBA (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the ABL)for Europe and Australia, where salaries alone can top six figures. Each identified virtually the samecritical issues confronting the WNBA and offered similar strategies formeeting and overcoming the challenges that the league faces. References Berg, A., & Huntington, A. She further felt that the strengths of the WNBA depended on its ability toattract and retain high-quality American players. At the end of the first full season of WNBA play, Bhonslay (1998)reported that the WNBA was winning in its emergent rivalry with the ABL.While the ABL had a longer season, WNBA had more illustrious (and thereforepotentially profitable) broadcast contracts. BusinessWeek ("For the WNBA," 2 ) reported a year after its optimistic predictionof NWBA merchandise success described above that the league was facing somenew challenges. However, said Bruce, "I don't see Cynthia Cooper becoming the nextMichael Jordan. She also seesthe characters of the players as among the greatest strengths of the WNBAand compared individual players favorably to a number of their NBAcounterparts. Summer, in American sportstradition, is about baseball; basketball bridges the gap between footballin the Fall and baseball in the Summer, and die-hard sports fans are bothaware of and pleased with this schedule. One issue that is rarely discussed in the mainstream presswas addressed by Michele Kort (1997) in The Advocate. Title IX, a federal law, had made it possible for female athletes to gain access to equity in collegiate andsecondary school athletic programs, which helped to develop talented potential players for a professional league; . WNBA products thencomprised 15 percent of all NBA sales, up from 12 percent in 1998. This suggests not necessarily that the WNBA is more popular thanthe NBA, but that interest in women's professional sports is far greaternow than it was 2 years ago. In commenting on thedominance of the WNBA, Bhonslay (1998) compared it to Microsoft, andsuggested that it was the formidable marketing expertise and negotiatingtactics of the NBA that should be credited with the women's league'ssuccess. The All-American Girl's Baseball League (1943 - 1954) was mostly a wartimephenomena, while the Women's Pro Basketball League lasted from 1978 to 1981and the Women's American basketball Association endured for a single year(1984 - 1985). Early sponsors such as Lee Jeans have decided not to renew their sponsorship contracts, with Adidas and Reebok likelyto follow. AS of2 , there were 176 professional women players in the league, playing 256regular season WNBA games. How does the WNBA increase its exposure, both in the U.S. Her overall sense for the futureof the league is optimistic and highly positive. The official slogan of the league - "WeGot Next" - was deliberately chosen to present the players of the leagueand the league itself as a highly competitive entrant into an alreadymature market. Brandweek, 38(24), 4-5. Nancy Lieberman, president of theWomen's Sports Foundation (WSF) and head coach of the WNBA's DetroitRockets, told Johnsen (2 , p. Canadaaired a weekly Friday night game on CTV Sportsnet, and nearly one millionviewers per week watched the WNBA on national television during the secondand third seasons (WNBA, 2 ). A league or two of their own: Now or neverfor women's basketball. Olympic women's basketball team in 1996. For example, at the first Long Beach Sting Rays home game onOctober 17, 1997, nearly one-half of the 3, fans who showed up for theABL game were gay women. WNBAofficials argue that what matters is placing the most qualified applicantin the head coaching position and that gender should not be a determiningfactor in making such a decision. Other top WNBA players profiled by Ebony ("Sisters," 2 ) include: . (2 ). It is the purpose of this report to examine the evolution of the WNBAover its relatively short lifetime - a lifetime that began in the league'sfirst season in 1997 and is, as of this writing, only 4 years old. Even younger stars like Kobe Bryant, AllanIverson, and Shaquille O'Neill do not have the mass-market appeal andcharisma of Jordan. (2 ). With big bucks behind it, and the NBA determined torealize a return on its investment, it can be anticipated that the WNBA ishere to stay. Hawn (1999) states that the WNBA is wholly owned by theNBA and represents a classic brand extension. At the same time, Bruce arguedthat it will be extremely difficult to convince a large portion of themostly male fan base of professional basketball that women's professionalbasketball is "just as good." The greatest challenge that this sportswriter (who claims to havepersonally attended and covered more than 18 WNBA games over the past fourseasons) sees is that most die-hard sports fans are men and the WNBA mustincrease its share of a somewhat narrowly defined niche market in order tosucceed. On December 18, 2 , Broadcasting & Cable ("Women's," 2 )announced that the WNBA was moving from the women's cable network Lifetimeto sports network, ESPN. Review of LiteratureHistorical Overview Briefly, the history of the WNBA can be summarized by pointing outthat in 15 months from announcement of league formation to the first tip-off, events moved rapidly to bring women's professional basketball to thefans (WNBA, 2 ). It will beargued that while the players and coaches and owners of the WNBA are rightin saying "We Got Game," the league remains a relatively minor presence inthe crowded professional sports sector. Broadcasting & Cable,13 (52), 1 . 5. Secondly, this structure keeps salaries forplayers low, at an average of $58, , compared with an average NBA playersalary of $2.6 million, cheating fans of the most fervent play. The next section of this report will offer a series of threeinterviews undertaken to gain added insight into the attitudes of WNBAplayers and executives and sportswriters toward the league. Over time, however, this has not proven to be sufficient, as Hawn(1999) reported. Otherproblems identified by Business Week ("For the WNBA," 2 ) as negativelyimpacting on the WNBA were: . By 1999, WNBA games were being broadcast in over 125 countries with37 broadcasters in 17 languages. Bruce had a generally positive opinion of the WNBA, itstalent, its marketing (which he attributed to the expertise of the NBA),and its long-term potential for success. Ebony,55(9), 3 -33. 3. Hawn (1999) offers several sets of data to support this conclusion.For example: . Lee brings retail partners aboard for localWNBA promotions. While expansion from 8 to 16 teams in two conferences in short orderwould indicate that this has occurred, Robinson (1997) predicted that earlysuccess for the WNBA might encourage over-saturation of the market by otherwomen's professional sports leagues and also suggested that the existenceof the ABL could diffuse fan loyalty. With L'Oreal back in, WNBA is 9 % sold out.Brandweek, 41(18), 21. During the first season of play, more than5 million viewers watched WNBA games on the three networks carrying thegames (i.e., NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime) (WNBA, 2 ). They got next. WNBA hands the ballto aspiring creative in do-it-yourself ads. An Examination of the Evolution of the Women's National Basketball Association Introduction On April 24, 1996, the National Basketball Association (NBA) approvedthe concept and formation of the Women's National Basketball Association(WNBA), with play to begin in June of 1997. At the same time that somewhat negative assessments of the WNBA'ssuccess were being reported, Business Week ("Women hoopsters," 1999)pointed out that in November of 1999, branded merchandise sales of NBAapparel, accessories, and equipment (which has declined with the [second]retirement of NBA superstar Michael Jordan) were increasing. Each of the interview subjectswas guaranteed anonymity in return for their cooperation. Thisis a fact reflected by NBA ownership of WNBA teams, the salary cap imposedon players by the NBA, andthe placement of WNBA executive functions as a division of the NBA itself.Bobbie forcefully stated that the women with whom and against she playedwere every bit as skilled and talented as male professional basketballplayers, but were compensated at a level that was "ridiculously low." Itis her belief that competitive fervor is very much linked to economicrewards and that the players' collective bargaining unit is limited in theextreme by the NBA with respect to what it can accomplish on behalf of itsmembership. Berg and Huntington (1996) predicted in 1997 that economics - and nottalent or motivation on the part of players - would be the key tosuccessful women's professional sports and also asserted that as the WNMAwas formed, there were strong indicators that such sports could beprofitable. The TV networks agreed to cross-promote games toencourage viewership, and each network staked out a claim to specific daysof the week and game times. Many sports fans (i.e., men) were unimpressed with the level and quality of play, suggesting that it might be difficult to broaden the league's viewership beyond its core of women and children; . (1999). Business Week,(3654), 8. It has the potential to gain the loyalty of maleand female fans alike and to attract a caliber of player worth paying morethan $5 to $1 per ticket to watch. The girls in the bleachers: Phantom fans. In comparison, the ABL pays its players muchmore; for example, Jennifer Azzi, a 1996 Olympian and one of the sport'smost influential players, left a $2 , ABL job for $44, with WNBA andannounced that she was not returning to WNBA. Women's basketball is not a minor league version of men'sprofessional basketball. It is a given that both the ABL and the WNBApartly owe their early success to a loyal lesbian fan base. Ebenkamp, B. (2 ). Hawn, C. 4. The numbers game:This time around, the success of women's pro sports boils down to onething: Money. It is certainlyencouraging that more and more fans of both genders are watching WNBA gamesand supporting the league through purchases of branded merchandise.However, the WNBA is also well aware that fielding competitive andqualified players requires using the best coaching talent available. Edward Robinson (1997), in writing of the first WNBA season and itslaunch, stated that despite the enormous support provided to the league, itfaced some very real challenges. What marketing efforts would be most successful for the WNBA? The challenge now, according to Gina, is to gain greateracceptance for the WNBA among hard core male basketball fans whileincreasing adult female viewership. Torpey-Kemph, A. WNBA's top players can, with sponsor ties and bonuses, earn sixfigures, but base salaries cap out at $8 , ("For the WNBA," 2 ). 7. Before a single player was signed, or a staff member in place, theWNBA attended to the business of acquiring and then announcing itsbroadcast partners - NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime. Overall, what emergesfrom this report is the recognition that the WNBA has achieved rapid growthand an unexpected level of success in niche market. Robinson, E.A. It wassuggested that one change which could improve the WNBA's presence would beto free its players to pursue promotional and sponsorship associations ontheir own. Economically, the recognition that more and more women play sports, watch sports, and buy sports gear was seen as providing a meaningful rationale for giving greater attention, air and media time, and justifying a major capital investment in leagues such as the WNBA.Those who founded the WNBA took the position that fans of women's sportsare just sports fans - the largest concentration of whom live in drivingdistance of major metropolitan areas. Jump ball: With first seasons under theirbelts, both the ABL and the WNBA are holding on strong. Rick Welts, NBA executive vice-president and chief marketingofficer, said that the NBA worked with traditional corporate sponsors suchas Nike to ensure that an immediate media presence and image for the WNBAand its players would be created. Advertising Age, 71, 4. 48) that "internationally, interest hasobviously grown by leaps and bounds. (Of course, in recent years, onlyTiger Woods in golf and the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run derby havegenerated anything like the excitement that Michael Jordan produced merelyby walking onto a basketball court.) Johnsen (2 ) claims that it took the NBA 2 years to bring in morethan 1.9 million fans over the course of a season.In 2 , WNBA president Val Ackerman proudly and justifiably pointed outthat the WNBA had enjoyed in only four seasons a 2 percent growth on theLifetime cable network and a 16 percent growth on ESPN. It is his opinion that the WNBA is several years away atleast from reaching anything near its potential and his further view isthat the NBA must stop looking at the WNBA as an experiment and let it growat its own pace. To succeed over the long haul (and notmerely for a period of less than 5 years, which has not as yet beenreached), the WNBA will need to attract and retain male as well as femalefans. She pointed out that theSummer season might be ideal for the NBA, but not necessarily for the WNBAin that many basketball fans tend to associate basketball with a differentseason. Gina saw the NBA marketing infrastructure as the greatest strengthof the WNBA and as the best possible source for the new league's continuedexpansion and acquisition of market share. (Sting), Houston (Comets), Phoenix(Mercury), Sacramento (Monarchs), and Utah (Starzz) (WNBA, 2 ).Expansion of WNBA Since 1996, the WNBA has expanded from 8 to 16 teams, adding theDetroit Shock, Washington Mystics, Minnesota Lynx, Orlando Miracle, IndianaFever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire, and Seattle Storm (WNBA, 2 ). McConville (1996) reported as the WNBA was being formed that the TVnetworks did not pay the league up-front fees, but participated in arevenue-sharing plan with sales handled by the WNBA. Bruce also believes that the WNBA must increasecompensation packages for players, permit private ownership of teams, andgain greater media exposure by allowing its players to promote themselvesautonomously. Under terms of the agreement, theJuly/August 2 issue of the magazine featured an eight-page "advertorial"in support of Be Fit presented by Nike, the WNBA's national exercise andfitness initiative (Torpey-Kemph, 2 ).WNBA Launches Professional Athletes One of the most prominent characteristics of the WNBA is that it hasserved as a launching pad for the professional athletic careers of asubstantial number of African-American women athletes. Petrecca, L. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the WNBA? Women hoopsters run and gun. Despite the marketing muscle of the NBA, which hasthrown millions of dollars behind the extension league, response overall toWNBA has been lackluster. In arelatively short period of time, the WNBA has expanded from a base of 8 toa total of 12 teams. The do-it-yourself advertising approach was designed to let fansexpress their passion for the WNBA, according to Scott Weinstock, vicepresident and Senior Creative Director at NBA Entertainment AdvertisingGroup. She sees the WNBA as likely to become a more potent presence inAmerican sports and also looks to overseas markets for increased viewershipand would like to see WNBA exhibition games played in foreign arenas.WNBA Executive: Gina The second interview was with Gina, a marketing executive with sixyears of experience with the NBA prior to a 1997 move to the fledglingWNBA. For manyfans, Jordan was basketball. Kym Hampton, center for the New York Liberty, who played overseas for several years.What these women share, according to Ebony ("Sisters," 2 ), is adetermination to convince fans that women's professional basketball can beas exciting and as challenging as men's professional basketball.Unfortunately, while there is little doubt that these and other WNBAplayers "got game" and have enormous talent, they have not as yet managedto attract the kind of fan loyalty or media coverage that is automaticallygiven to men's professional teams and players.WNBA to The Forefront Mike Johnsen (2 ) believes that the era in which women'sprofessional sports will come to the forefront is beginning to emerge. Critical to the success and maintenance of the WNBA were suchvariables as attracting fans (people willing to pay to attend games, butbranded merchandise, and ultimately respond positively to TV advertisingmessages), winning media exposure beyond simply broadcast of games, andgaining corporate sponsorships. What specific strategies should the WNBA employ to expand its fan base? The success of this strategy was described by Petrecca and Watson(2 ). (1999). Thus, the emphasis that both WNBA andABL placed on recruiting and promoting the best and most marketable playersseems to have been logical and well thought-out. Summary and Conclusions The views of the three individuals who agreed to be interviewed forthis report seem remarkably congruent. Video Age International, 2 (6), 48-49. These questions were: 1. TheWNBA is entering its fifth season in 2 1 and in 2 the Women's UnitedSoccer Association (WUSA) premiered. SI for women teams with WNBA.Mediaweek, 1 (25), 34. How do you envision the future of the WNBA?Interview 1: "Bobbie," WNBA player In speaking with Bobbie, a two-year veteran drafted by the WNBA fromcollege, the most telling comments made by this player focused on herperception that the WNBA was very much the "step-child" of the NBA. "We have some problems,"said Gina, "but nothing that can't be worked out."Interview with Sportwriter: Bruce "I like the WNBA, but this is still girls' basketball and is a longway from the quality of the game that we see when men take the court,"said Bruce. This includes Sears, General Motors, Lady Foot Locker, and L'Oreal.Industry experts put the value of national contracts for the WNBA at about$25 million over three years ("For the WNBA," 2 ). Olympic teams." On balance, Gina's feels that it will take anywhere from three tofive years of further play for the WNBA to reach maturity. In sports, it's all about numbers:the more fans there are, the more teams a city can profitably sustain (Berg& Huntington, 1997). Without broadcast partners,it was recognized that the league had little chance of success. While personally considering offers to play in both Australiaand Europe, Bobbie seemed willing to remain in the WNBA for the foreseeablefuture, but stressed her growing discontent with player-managementpolicies. For the WNBA, it's no easy lay-up. Gina sees the end of the Lifetimebroadcast contract as positive in that it repositions the WNBA on ESPN, theestablished premiere sports networks in the United States. However, WNBA sales, though only 15percent of the total of !1.6 billion, were seen as contributingsubstantially to the profitability of pro basketball merchandising.WNBA - Entertainment & Economic Value The reality of professional sports - male and female - is that theyare entertainment vehicles and sources of enormous economic value. Nielsen ratings for WNBA broadcasts on NBC have slipped from 2 million households reached in 1997 to 1.5 millionin 19999, putting WNBA games (in TV parlance) on a par with drag racing and not far above pro bowling; . Dribbling against tradition, women's athleticstake hold. Telephone interviews lasting from 3 to 45 minutes wereconducted with each subject, and a semi-structured set of interviewquestions were asked of each participant. Among those countries were Germany, Ghana,Haiti, Italy, Lithuania, Uruguay, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, as Berg andHuntington (1997) pointed out, several factors suggested in the mid-199 sthat professional women's sports could be profitable: . Ratings on Lifetimefor the WNBA had stagnated and the games were pulling just .4 to .5 inthe Nielsen ratings - or 66 percent less than Lifetime's average.Interpreting this offers some interesting possibilities. The WNBA and the players announced in April of1999 that a collective bargaining union, the Women's National BasketballPlayers Association (WNBPA), was being formed to promote the interests ofplayers - a first of its kind in women's team sports (WNBA, 2 ). (1997). She felt that the league should not beexpanded again until attendance increases and viewership improves, and alsobelieves that a stronger emphasis on appealing to female sports fans isdesirable. S. Initially, 8 teamswere fielded by the WNBA, all located in NBA cities and operated by teamsin those markets. Lisa Leslie, center for the Los Angeles Sparks, and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist . Among those womenmost attracted to both the ABL and the WNBA, Kort (1997) includes lesbianfans. However, the WNBA responded bysaying that it markets to three groups: the female fan, boys and girlsaged 7 to 17, and the hard-core basketball fan who tends to be male. Frankly, I don't see anyone becoming the next MichaelJordan." Bruce commented that while male professional basketball had beena much-loved sport for decades in the United States, it was the emergenceof a superstar of such magnitude that his presence could not be ignored andthe new technology, that made watching professional basketball ontelevision a commonplace occurrence. It has garnered a substantial following among fans,and provides fans with a low-cost opportunity to physically attendprofessional athletic competitions. When Jordan retired, NBC pulled in a .6 rating representing598,988 households in its first NBA broadcast, falling from an average of .83 or 827,983 households from its first five games in 1999. Since the '96 Olympics, there's beentremendous focus on women's professional leagues....We've waited 5 yearsand we're finally to a point of respect in the business industry wherepeople want to put money behind women." Similarly, Heidi Ueberroth, the WNBA's executive vice president ofGlobal Media Properties and Marketing Partnerships,stated that as early as the WNBA's prelaunch, eight to ten broadcasters hadexpressed interest in carrying games overseas (Johnsen, 2 ). Fortune, 137(12), 32-33. This marketing professionalpointed out that most of the high profile male basketball players areconstantly presented in the press and other media by their agents. Four more teams had been added to reach the total of 16teams, and the WNBA was further being challenged by economic competitionfor players from the ABL. (2 ). Gina does not believe that the present salary restrictions and capson WNBA players are likely to last. This move is seen ashaving the capacity to create greater intimacy between players and/or teamsand their fans. Game attendance in-arena is known toconsist of 7 percent female and 3 percent male fans; TV games draw anaudience of about equal numbers of men and women, with a strong percentageof non-adult (under age 18) viewers (WNBA, 2 ). Finally, says Hawn (1999), basketball is notregarded by most fans as a summer sport. Though player compensation costs have tripled to about $11 million since 1977, the league has yet to break even.On the plus side, many current WNBA blue-chip sponsors have remained loyal. Beginning in May 2 1, the 12 regular seasongames of the WNBA that had been slated for Friday nights on Lifetime willbe shifted to ESPN and ESPN2 on Thursdays and Sundays. The tie-in to the victories of Americanwomen's Olympic teams is something that he feels should be stressed. (2 ).
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