After a successful first year, it seems the WNBA is here to stay.
Probably. Most likely. We think.
“We’re not profitable yet, but we have gotten into the mainstream,” said league president Val Ackerman on Tuesday. “Our expectations were exceeded in every way, in terms of the media interest and the attendance figures.”
While an average attendance of 9,669 would send most NBA teams into bankruptcy, the number was almost double the WNBA’s announced target figure. The league had national television contracts with NBC, Lifetime and ESPN, and the heavy sponsorship was stunning for a league, and sport, that had been an unproven commodity.
Not bad. But also not a guarantee that the league will continue to grow, let alone fulfill Ackerman’s hopes of being “the fifth major league.”
Elbowing into the nation’s consciousness was made easier by the marketing muscle of the NBA. That, as much as anything, is why when people think of women’s basketball, they think of the WNBA more often than its rival, the American Basketball League.
When the WNBA season begins in June, it will feature two new teams, the Detroit Shock and the Washington Mystics, bringing the league total to 12. Chicago doesn’t have a team in either league. Like the rest of the WNBA, the new outfits will be owned by the NBA team in each city.
Ackerman cited the NBA’s help as one of three reasons the league has been successful so far. She also said the television contracts and the summer schedule were other reasons.
The ABL, meanwhile, plays a winter schedule and competes, for the most part, in smaller cities. And despite having more 1996 Olympians than the WNBA, the ABL hasn’t scored a broadcast network television contract like the WNBA.
Can both leagues survive in the long term?
Executives from the ABL and WNBA always have been careful to say yes, a sentiment Ackerman repeated at the James Jordan Center, where she was kicking off “WNBA Be Active,” a four-month, 18-city tour to raise fitness awareness among youths.
“As a women’s basketball person, it is good for the sport that there are two leagues, giving it a longer spotlight,” she said.
Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, who also was in Chicago for “WNBA Be Active,” was just as diplomatic.
“I felt like the WNBA was better for me,” she said, adding that her friends in the ABL are pleased with their choice.
Ackerman said when the league started play last summer, she was “hopeful.” That hope has been replaced with confidence, although Ackerman is not comfortable enough to do any boasting yet. One of her goals is for the league to average 10,000 fans this season, an increase of just 331 from last year’s numbers.
That may not sound like much, but a year ago nobody would have ventured to predict five-figure attendance.
