Ball Is in Their Court : WNBA Takes Its Turn on Basketball Stage Starting Saturday

By EARL GUSTKEY

June 18, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

In 72 hours, “We got next!” the catch-phrase used in the TV commercials, becomes “We got now!” and the war in women’s basketball will be officially engaged on all fronts.

In the 25th anniversary year of the passage of Title IX, mandating equality for women in sports, America’s premier female basketball players have gone from no pro leagues in this country to two--the Women’s NBA, which begins play Saturday, and the American Basketball League, which begins its second season in October.

The eight-team WNBA will begin its offensive Saturday in three cities, with the league opener on NBC at 1 p.m. at the Forum. There, the Los Angeles Sparks, led by Lisa Leslie, will meet the New York Liberty and Rebecca Lobo.

Saturday night, Houston opens at Cleveland and Sacramento plays at Utah. Charlotte is at Phoenix on Sunday afternoon.

There will be no monthlong playoff schedule at the end of the WNBA season. Its 28-gameschedule will finish with one championship game, on Aug. 30, after two conference title games.

So, after roughly 10 months of hype, the WNBA is going to put its orange-and-oatmeal basketball in play in scaled-back NBA arenas.

At the Forum, the Sparks had planned to curtain off all seats above the concourse. But the team announced late Tuesday that all 7,666 seats for Saturday’s opener had been sold, and it would open an additional 1,400 seats. The $7.50 and $12.50 tickets go on sale today at the Forum and Ticketmaster.

Houston and Cleveland also say their home openers are sellouts.

A sports-marketing veteran in New York, however, advises caution on all this. Says Marty Blackman, in the business since the 1960s, “Don’t get too excited over opening-game crowd counts.

“Look at attendance a month from now, and then let’s talk. I’m not saying they won’t make it. Just keep in mind the NBA has a lot of marketing and advertising muscle and they’ve done a great job of stirring up early curiosity.

“Let’s see if they can sustain this. You can only do so much with hype. Hype can’t sustain you.”

The WNBA PR blitz would have you believe that NBA Commissioner David Stern is the father of women’s pro basketball in this country, as the league’s ESPN infomercial indicated Monday night.

In truth, the ABL was first and it remains the better league. Of 13 premier college seniors from last season, for example, the ABL signed 10, losing only USC’s Tina Thompson, Stanford’s Jamilla Wideman and Kansas’ Tamecka Dixon to the WNBA.

“The WNBA’s weak point is that it doesn’t match up [in talent] with the other league and they’ve [glossed] over that very well,” Blackman said. “They buried it, in fact.”

But the WNBA certainly didn’t bury its three Olympians, Leslie, Lobo and the pregnant Sheryl Swoopes--the baby is due Saturday.

They’ve been the point players in the buildup, and never mind that eight of their 1996 Atlanta teammates are in the ABL.

The one area in which the WNBA has flattened the ABL is TV. The WNBA package:

* NBC: Saturday afternoons and the championship game.

* ESPN: Weekday evenings, prime time.

* Lifetime: Friday nights, prime time.

The ABL TV package, by comparison, is adrift somewhere out there in the confusing jumble of cable networks. Even with a satellite dish, it was hard to find ABL games last season.

Another major difference: paychecks.

ABL salaries for premium players are triple what the WNBA pays, from $150,000 to $200,000 to its top players, down to a $40,000 minimum salary.

The WNBA range is $10,000 to $50,000, but there are three major exceptions: Leslie, Lobo and Swoopes.

Those three are under WNBA personal-services contracts that could boost their 1997 incomes to seven digits. Leslie, including endorsement deals, is expected to earn $1-2 million this year.

In corporate sponsorships, the WNBA is far ahead.

Ten corporations have signed on as WNBA “marketing partners,” at what is believed to be as much as $3 million each. The total figure could be tens of millions of dollars.

So why the chintzy player salaries?

It’s assumed by some that the WNBA is warehousing cash with which to buy out the ABL, creating a 17-team WNBA.

Tuesday, WNBA Commissioner Val Ackerman denied that.

“I don’t see things moving in that direction for us,” she said.

ABL CEO Gary Cavalli also said Tuesday he was involved in no merger talks.

Added a WNBA insider, “If we can go out and raise that kind of money through sponsorships, why do we need to buy out the ABL?”

That same insider added that lawyers are already trying to put together a WNBA players’ union.

“That has to happen, once all the players become fully aware--especially those making $20,000--that the league has been so successful with sponsorships. The salary scale will have to go up next year.

“And remember, Stern stuck his neck out on this. . . . There was some arm-twisting with some owners in getting this thing started. Now that we’ve shown it’s working, some owners are going to want to see some checks.”

Three of the most visible players in the league will be at the Forum Saturday--Leslie, Lobo and four-time Chinese Olympian Zheng Haixia, who is 6-feet-8.

Haixia had only three practices behind her when the Sparks scrimmaged the Phoenix Mercury last Saturday, yet made six of seven shots and had four rebounds in 15 minutes. She isn’t pretty running the court, doesn’t jump much and appears to have bad knees. But she takes up lots of space, has a nice touch to 14 feet and passes well.

If she and another late arrival, Stanford’s 5-6 Wideman, can be blended in quickly with Leslie, 5-8 Penny Toler and 6-1 Linda Burgess, some believe the Sparks can make a title run. Certainly, no other team matches up with them in the post.

Wideman isn’t expected to challenge overseas veteran Toler at point guard, but she and second-round pick Dixon provide backcourt depth.

At the outset, the Sparks seem big, fast, deep and talented.

The coach is Linda Sharp, who returns to Los Angeles in quest of a pro championship to go with the two NCAA titles her 1983 and ’84 USC teams won.

WNBA Note

The Sparks said former USC player Kim Gessig had made the roster as a developmental player, and Heather Burge of Palos Verdes and the University of Virginia will try out for the last developmental roster spot.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Comparing the leagues

On June 21, eight new Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) teams start their regular season. Here’s how the WNBA measures up to the NBA.

Ball circumference

WNBA: 28.5 in.

NBA: 30 in.

Number of teams

WNBA: 8

NBA: 29

Avg. player height

WNBA: 5 ft. 11 1/2 in.

NBA: 6 ft. 7 in.