homecourtloss wrote:GREY 1769 wrote:
I ask that you once again recall what the NBA was when it first formed, how teams were contracted by I think the mid-1050s; if the NBA folded then there would be no golden era of the 1960s (especially for the Cs). Then in the late 1970s to early 80s, with all the issues that had to be dealt with - drug use by players, poor tv ratings - tape delay, yikes, financial problems for teams, the NBA found a way to work through them and then Magic, Bird, and MJ came along. It's the broad version, but the point is that the WNBA, a very young league relative to other major pro sports, is in the process of working through its own issues (some apparent in the first video posted, some addressed by posters here - mostly the financial aspects).
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Twice you’ve mentioned this, but the analogy/equivalency isn’t quite sound. You had a struggling league in the NBA, but it was a men’s league. The chances that a men’s sports league had to gain a piece of the overall entertainment pie was always there because, well, it was a men’s sports league. There’s no new paradigm there.
Any hope that a newly formed women’s league can have any sort of meteoric rise in market share like the NBA did or any meaningful rise at all in a time in which 5,000,000 different entertainment options from streaming services, internet, social media, Youtube, music, online gaming, VR coming soon, etc., etc., are available is simply wishful thinking. Entertainment has never been as plentiful or of high quality. Only the best products can gain a hold of viewers. What were the entertainment options available when the NBA rose in the 1980s?
It's more about working towards progressing the league - as in the NBA and its issues, so too for the WNBA, even if the issues aren't all the same.
I disagree that simply being a men's league is what saved it. There was a lot of work and changes and time given to the enterprise to keep if from sinking. That the NBA was an amalgamation of previous leagues also shows a working through various manifestations before settling on the existing one. I get your point that a men's pro league will attract more people right off the bat, but that in and of itself isn't enough to keep it going if it's a consistently poor product. As you said, there are competing options.
There is a new paradigm precisely because of various ways to spread the word, and develop the game - something the WNBA needs to simply improve. And it's not about being exactly as popular as the men's league either (after all, it's not as if the NHL hasn't had issues staying afloat in certain US markets) or about some meteoric rise, but about being a self-sustaining league over time.
Which brings me to a central point: there is enough there established already, with metrics beyond raw numbers (and these are of some debate), to be coming up with ideas about how to grow the game. Instead, there's this dismissive air of impatience as if being around 50 fewer years is not a factor. There seems to be an underlying current by some of shut up and play or you're lucky to be supported so just be grateful and stop whining. If you weren't a women's league it would have shut down already, but early issues in men's leagues serve as a counterpoint. Prognostications that'll it'll never improve are simply throwing in the towel in the middle of a process that needs time because it takes time to grow. I'd agree if we were in year 60 or 70 and still in the same place. But FIBA shows that success of a pro women's basketball league is possible. Of course, it was established in 1958, so it's had decades head start, has established competition, and pays better.
As for social media, even Adam Silver talks about meeting the challenges of competing demands - the arenas are a fixed size and tickets aren't getting cheaper. Those factors, coupled with a growing international fanbase, means that social media plays a bigger part in connecting fans and spreading the word. So too with the WNBA. I don't think they're doing as good a job as they could, frankly, but since the game continues to be developed on national and international levels, even more so when girls know they can pursue this seriously as a career be it in the US or overseas, social media is a positive factor. I'm not discounting multiple competing demands for attention, just arguing for support for the space for WNBA. There's room and legitimate reasons for it to be.
That said, there are issues as I've mentioned before. It's a small gripe relative to other things, but the site isn't even SSL secure (nba.com is). As I mentioned, yesterday I got a cross-site scripting attack warning.
As to your point about competing for consumer attention, that the WNBA plays in the summer has to be even tougher to do so, doesn't it? I guess on the one hand people and families have more time, but on the other, there are more things to do. Ok, it does not conflict with the NBA season, so there's that, and it's more viable to keep the season short (this on the one hand limits WNBA player salaries, but on the other, gives them a chance to earn more playing elsewhere), but the problem is that it's out of people's minds for too long, and we don't hear about players who then play overseas. There is an opportunity to keep attention on players' lives and teams overseas.
But there also has to be better coordination with FIBA because if WNBA players go play overseas (and there are limited slots for other players, so best WNBA players get the best contracts; not all get such great money relative to WNBA), they at some point have to choose between the leagues otherwise they're playing all year round. Some have chosen to forego the WNBA as a result. Others have become naturalized citizens so as to play for a European country's Olympic team. FIBA's development - even with all the competing consumer interests - shows that a women's pro basketball league is sustainable, but I wonder in what ways they could to both attract more international players to the WNBA and end WNBA players currently having to make difficult choices between the leagues. Like the NBA has done, the WNBA could look into schedule changes and playing exhibition games internationally, just some ways to improve cohesion between the leagues and grow the women's game.
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