Whither the WNBA

Justin Slotman has been your one-stop-shopping center for all things WNBA lately. Unfortunately, as he notes here, it's been mostly bad. Two franchises have folded and will either find new homes or have their players dispersed throughout the league. The Utah Starzz have moved to San Antonio, the Seattle Storm is looking to move elsewhere in Washington, and now Paul Allen is looking to dump the Portland Fire.

One thing I dispute is in this WashTimes article that he cites:

But many of the WNBA's attendance counts remain dependent on free or heavily discounted tickets; the recently relocated Starzz gave away more than 3,000 a game last season. And aside from teams in New York and Washington, the league's franchises have not established a niche in the local sports markets.

Speaking as a season ticket holder to the Houston Comets, I can say that they're fairly well established in their niche. Their fan base is extremely loyal and passionate about the team. I suspect this is just lazy reporting.

I like the WNBA and hope it survives. This will be a rocky season, though.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 18, 2002 to Other sports | TrackBack