It’s Still Balancing Act in WNBA’s Sixth Year

Happy birthday, WNBA.

The 2002 season will be the sixth year of operation. No other U.S. women’s professional sports league--the LPGA is a tour, not a league--has made it past five years. The WNBA’s former hoop rival, the American Basketball League, folded in 1999 after three seasons.

“I’m more optimistic than ever about our future,” said WNBA Commissioner Val Ackerman, predicting that 2002 will prove to be a watershed season by building on the league’s success to date.

WNBA attendance averaged more than 9,000 a game last year, and 12 of the 16 league teams reported increases from the 2000 season. The biggest jump was in Los Angeles, which went from 6,583 in its last year in the Forum, to 9,278 in its first year at Staples Center.

National corporate sponsors include American Express, General Motors, Lady Footlocker, Sears, Anheuser Busch and America Online. The biggest sponsor remains the NBA owners, whose financial support allows the league to survive.

More teams are on the way. San Antonio, which needs 6,000 pledges of $50 each to field a team in 2003, is more than halfway toward meeting the Nov. 15 deadline. Golden State Warriors’ officials have expressed an interest in unveiling a team in Oakland in 2004.

And then there is a high-profile rookie class entering the league, including four members of the NCAA champion Connecticut team, who are expected to bring a following with them. “Part of that optimism is [that] women’s basketball is coming of age,” Ackerman said. “It’s been successful at so many levels: the number of girls who play at youth levels is growing, the high school game is established and popular, the collegiate game is very solid and the international game is vibrant. And WNBA has made strides as well. The game is in great shape.”

Many challenges lie ahead. Start in Charlotte.

The Sting’s NBA counterpart, the Hornets, are moving to New Orleans. The WNBA has never operated a team in a non-NBA city. Until now.

Ackerman said the league will operate in Charlotte this season with the goal of keeping the Sting there. If successful, it’s more likely the league will look to establish other teams in non-NBA cities and welcoming non-NBA owners.

“[Charlotte] ... is a test,” she said.

The key will be fan support. The Sting’s attendance had fallen from a high of 8,561 in 1998 to 5,685 in 2000, before inching back up to 6,595 last year. And much of that increase can be credited to Charlotte’s rebounding from a 1-10 start to reach the WNBA finals.

League officials are eyeing San Antonio for an expansion franchise. But if the Sting can’t get back to an average of 7,000 a game and the league can’t find ownership to its liking, that Carolina drawl will fastbreak into a Texas twang.

“The bottom line,” said Sting General Manager Sam Russo, “is can the city can be successful with attendance and the corporate sponsorships that came in this year? We are doing better than in the past with [attracting] sponsors. The ticket sales aren’t where we want to be yet.

“The momentum we got from last year’s playoff run is where we’ll hang our hat. We have coming back the team that played the Sparks in the finals, where last year we had new players and a new coaching staff. Right now we’re in a better position to start the season.”

Ackerman is counting on a new crop of players to deliver the fans. Although rookies who are not first-round picks have a hard time earning a roster spot, only 26 of the 110 players that began the league in 1997 are still here.

The 2002 class, starting with that peerless Connecticut quartet of Sue Bird (the year’s top draft pick), Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams, and including other rookies such as Nikki Teasley, Stacey Dales-Schuman, Sheila Lambert, Michelle Snow and Danielle Crockrom are the next generation of WNBA player--bigger, faster and more athletic than her predecessor.

While the WNBA is traditionally seen as a more team-oriented, fundamentally sound game than the NBA, the move toward more one-on-one soloists seems inevitable and irreversible.

Many believe that could help generate fan interest. Cleveland President Jim Boland does not: “I think one of the very exciting things of WNBA is the team approach in our game. It’s a throwback to the old days. “Perhaps the biggest issue lurking for the WNBA is money--and who gets it.

Player salaries are among the lowest in sports. Ackerman says the average salary could reach $60,000 this season. The officials from the WNBA Players Assn. says subtract the health plan, housing subsidies and meal per diem, which the league pays for but factors in when discussing contract figures, and the figure is closer to $40,000.

That seems even more paltry considering players can earn double and triple those figures playing overseas.

“Forty thousand is not a sustainable salary,” said union spokesman Dan Wasserman. “The players aren’t getting more than 15% of the league revenues. They devote six to eight months of training and practice. And when a player signs a contract, they are obligated to make appearances and are required to participate in exhibition games.

The Basic Agreement, negotiated between the players’ union and the owners in 1999, expires after this season. Besides increasing salaries, the union will probably press for free agency and the ability of players to market themselves to others besides league sponsors.

Since the league and not individual teams negotiate player contracts, free agency does not seem feasible until the franchises are operating on their own. That, according to Ackerman. will not occur in the near future.

“Assuming our business model opens up and we place teams in non-NBA cities we go in that direction,” Ackerman said. “But there’s no intention now to make [the WNBA] a stand-alone league. We cannot replicate the infrastructure that the NBA makes available.”

Ackerman said the league is not yet profitable “and there is no timetable” to make it so.

That will make salary increases, and what is a fair raise, the driving issue of the negotiations.

Spark owner Johnny Buss believes it’s time for a generous salary hike, particularly for the first-generation WNBA players who may not be in the league that much longer.

“For me personally, I think we’re to the point where we should sustain approximately a 50% increase,” Buss said. “I would like to see salaries double.

“To compensate for that increase in player salaries we’d have to sell more national sponsorship, do better with TV contracts, and bleed it down to the local marketing. But a league that’s 6 years old should be able to start pulling in more sponsors and better dollars to compensate for players’ salaries.”

Buss’ words will hearten folks such as Bruce Levy, a New York-based agent who has been representing female athletes for 24 years. Last season his agency represented 40 WNBA players.

“Women should get a fair share of what they generate,” Levy said. “Give the women 5% of what the [NBA] men make and I would be happy, which means average salary would be around $200,000.”

Such sentiments do not thrill most WNBA executives.

“We all have an investment in the league, and that is to protect the expenses and operate prudently,” said Kelly Krauskopf, CEO of the Indiana Fever. “We’d all like to see the players get raises like employees at typical companies. But we have to continue to monitor our revenues versus expense and make sure we’re in business 10 years from now.”

Boland is more blunt. “A move like that could be extremely detrimental to a league still trying to establish itself. To double salaries makes no business sense.”

The players’ union and league management agreed there would be no strike or lockout, making sure the season will be played.

Negotiations will not intensify until September, meaning all the WNBA action this season will be on the court.