Storm Starts Own Gay Outreach

Jacqueline Jordan wrapped her arms around her partner, Mauraan Schultz, as they listened to Seattle Storm coach Lin Dunn.

“I want gay and lesbian people at our games!” Dunn hollered to a large group of lesbians at a bar at Key Arena. “Bring two friends next time you come. Bring all your former lovers.”

The Storm, like several other teams in the WNBA, are reaching out to the lesbian community--advertising in alternative publications and planning postgame events for the city’s lesbians.

With WNBA statistics showing that 75 percent of game audiences are women, targeting lesbian organizations for group ticket sales is a natural move.

As a second-year franchise that lost a league-worst 26 games last season, Storm attendance is sparse, averaging a WNBA-low 5,445 fans. The team has improved, already surpassing last year’s six wins. But now it’s competing for fans with the Seattle Mariners, who are having a record season.

“The lesbian market has shown a lot of support to not only the Storm but in other WNBA cities,” said Storm vice president of operations Karen Bryant. “We’re trying to be as broad-based and inclusive as we can get so people will come out and sample our product.”

In May, the Sparks made a promotional appearance with Girl Bar, a 12,000-member lesbian club and Sparks sponsor. The Miami Sol also have held public appearances for lesbians.

The Sacramento Monarchs planned a gay pride night for Saturday--the first time the team has dedicated a night to the gay community. A pregame concert was part of the deal, along with a gay pride T-shirt.

“Just like we’re reaching out to the swim community and the military community, we’re reaching out to the gay and lesbian community,” said Monarchs spokeswoman Sonja Brown. “Whatever we can do to add value to the experience of that particular group.”

The Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury are advertising in gay and lesbian magazines.

In New York, however, the Liberty don’t feel the need to target the lesbian community. They already have one of the league’s biggest fan bases with more than 15,000 people per game.

“We don’t look at it as needing to target specific groups because the response to what we’ve said to the world and New York has been fantastic,” Liberty spokeswoman Mary Pat Clarke said.

Though lesbians may be included in marketing in some more conservative cities, those teams aren’t using the L-word.

“We do broad-based advertising,” said Utah Starzz spokesman David Allred. “We kind of follow the demographic the WNBA says is our market: families, kids and women. And I think that’s who’s in the stands.”

The league says marketing is mostly up to the individual teams, but it stresses that everybody should be targeted.

“We’ve tried very hard to be an inclusive league,” said WNBA president Val Ackerman. “That’s the beauty of basketball and the WNBA. We’re really proud of the diversity of our fans, our players and our staff, but what unifies everybody is what goes on out there (on the court). The game is what brings it all together.”

While Seattle’s lesbian community seems to appreciate the Storm’s efforts to make them feel welcome -- and ultimately take their money -- some believe the team should do a lot more, such as passing out handouts every night to show fans it supports women’s organizations and activities.

Schultz works for an 80-member social organization called Seattle Women’s Network, which aims to draw lesbian couples “out of their nest and get active.” Going to Storm games is one way to do that, she said.

Yet she and Jordan say the Storm didn’t advertise well enough for the recent postgame event they attended at a Key Arena bar. There were no signs or announcement at the game. Players didn’t show up, and some said they didn’t even know about it.

“I wish they were walking the talk and not just going halfway and dropping the ball,” Jordan said.

“The word ‘lesbian’ is taboo,” said Schultz, wearing a green Storm cap. “You’ve got 5,000 parents out there with kids and they don’t want to hear about lesbians. Even if they’re tolerant, they don’t want it shoved in their face.”

The same night Schultz and Jordan partied after the game, a gay and lesbian bar in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood offered a 75-cent discount on drinks for Storm fans and held a raffle for T-shirts, tickets and other prizes.

“We just want basketball fans in the building,” said Valerie O’Neil, Storm director of public relations.

Seattle rookie Semeka Randall said she agrees with the organization’s efforts, but believes the Storm shouldn’t just focus on women in the lesbian community.

“We want families and kids, little boys and little girls saying ‘She got game, she can play,”’ she said.

Arlis Stewart, a volunteer at Seattle’s Lesbian Resource Center, believes it’s important the lesbian community shows support for female athletes in Seattle, whether at the professional or college level.

“With any community and any sports team, people have all kinds of different reasons for going and wanting to go,” Stewart said. “Some just love basketball, some were basketball players in college or high school and for others it’s a point of supporting women in sports. It’s a really mixed bunch of motivations, but it all amounts to this community saying to the Storm, ‘We’re delighted you’re here.’ ”