Is The WNBA A Sinking Ship?

A rumor is surfacing that 2014 could be the final year of the WNBA because of the upcoming retirement of the NBA commissioner, David Stern, an advocate of the women’s league. The WNBA could become defunct. People may not realize it, but the NBA is the biggest financial supporter of the WNBA and the feeling is that the girls’ program cannot stand alone without Stern’s support. What about the fans? One of the biggest reasons behind the story of doom falling on the ladies’ league is that there doesn’t seem to be enough support from the fans. Additionally, from the get-go, there has been mediocre coverage of the league by the media. Maybe there needs to be more of a sincere marketing plan to showcase the league and not have it be just an offshoot of support from the NBA. I believe the ladies’ schedule is during a bad time of the year. The WNBA’s season is set for late spring into summer (June–September), with the playoffs in early fall, which puts the WNBA in competition with the boys of summer in Major League Baseball. A professional basketball league with an indoor venue during the hottest months of the year at a time when people (the fans) would rather be outside is an obvious negative scenario. But, there’s still more to this. In sports, girls have never been given equal time compared to the boys no matter what game we’re talking about. I had the pleasure of coaching girls’ sports at Saratoga Springs High School for basketball and tennis and, just recently, at Saratoga Catholic, where I coached modified girls volleyball. Are girls’ athletics any different than their counterparts? Maybe yes, and maybe no. The biggest plus that I have experienced as a girls’ coach, generally speaking, is that the ladies are willing to listen and learn from constructive criticism. To their credit, there is little resistance to what the coach is trying to get through to them. I have had a lot of success as a basketball coach (boys and girls) and I feel it’s because I believe that athletes can learn skills and don’t necessarily have to have the innate ability to perform. Of course there are always exceptions, but I do feel that talent and skill can be taught and learned – I’ve witnessed it. Also, as a girls’ coach, when it comes to the learning of skills, females can be like sponges. I have seen what can happen to those metaphorical sponges. I was determined to make the Saratoga girls hoop program competitive. We won six games in our first year and two years later we made two consecutive trips to the final four in AA sectional play, along with upsetting the No. 1 seed in both years. In addition to our success in sectional play, we had back-to-back 16-game-winning seasons. It wasn’t all coaching because the players had an appetite for wanting to win, combined with a desire to succeed and a determination to learn. What does this have to do with the future of the WNBA? It’s a simple example of how far women have come in the sport of basketball. There are more girls playing basketball in America than any other sport. We Americans cannot allow the WNBA to deteriorate and become a passing phase in sports. People need to watch these exceptional basketball players do their thing— I did say basketball players. The women of the WNBA deserve as much credit for their skills as the men of the NBA. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and so on, have their counterparts in the ladies’ game like Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, to name a few. The fairness of stereotypical titles that society has generally placed on women in sports needs to be addressed, again. Some people will say, “Who cares!” But, we should all care and we need to take notice so leagues and programs for women, like the WNBA will survive. Our patronage of a worthy group of professional athletes, who are entertaining, is important. To follow the stars and teams that represent the league needs more consideration from the fans and media. These women are the Jackie Robinsons of the “glass ceiling”; they’ve been on a quest for equality since the beginning. Since Title IX was established in 1972, the girls at the scholastic levels have had more recognition in what used to be a male-dominated world of sports. It has offered numerous and unexpected opportunities for girls in the scholastic athletic programs, but it seems that there are times when its legitimacy is still questioned. This act of equality is an entitlement that needs to be expanded and fostered to continue beyond the scholastic and collegiate levels. The WNBA is an excellent example of what Title IX was meant to do and has done. At all levels of development, girls need role models, as do the boys, and what could be better for aspiring young female basketball players than to look at the WNBA. In retrospect, the WNBA needs to develop a better plan for marketing the league. Why don’t we see people like Diana Taurasi in more commercials, like we do with LeBron James? Given a chance to demonstrate the skills and personalities of these female basketball stars through more media coverage will enable the public to familiarize themselves with these accomplished basketball players. A new start for the season with better timing makes more sense as the current summer season is not working. These gifted basketball players need a venue where they can showcase their game. We need to prevent the doors of opportunity from being closed on the faces of the WNBA and tell the story that will affect all girls involved with basketball and sports in general.