READY TO SOAR; WNBA PRIMED FOR MORE SUCCESS IN SECOND YEAR.Byline: Michael Rosenthal Daily News Staff Writer WNBA WNBA Women's National Basketball Association WNBA World Ninepin Bowling Association WNBA Wannabe Nasty Boys Association WNBA Women's National Book Association, Inc. WNBA Warszawski Nurt Basketu Amatorskiego president Val Ackerman Valerie B. "Val" Ackerman was born on November 7, 1959 in New York City[1] but grew up in nearby Pennington, New Jersey, United States. She is an attorney, sports executive, and former basketball player. , apparently tired of those who continue to doubt the viability of her league, pointed to an interesting statistic. It took the league's big brother, the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= , 29 seasons to average 10,000 fans per game. The WNBA averaged 9,663 its first season and officials will be surprised if it doesn't reach five figures when the second season begins Thursday. Sure, the women's league Women's League (in Swedish: Kvinnoligan) was a feminist organization in Sweden, based in Lund. It was founded in 1970. It consisted of autonomous basis units. Its policies were largely similar to Grupp 8. The organization was dissolved in 1973. is riding piggyback piggyback 1. A broker trading in his or her personal account after trading in the same security for a customer. The broker may believe the customer has access to privileged information that will cause the transaction to be profitable. 2. on the wealthy NBA, which has invested millions in its counterpart. And, yes, the WNBA - as well as the rival ABL - have had the novelty factor working in its favor. But the numbers, including healthy television ratings Television ratings may refer to:
``If you would've said 20 years ago that there'd be a day when we'd have two women's pro basketball leagues This is a list of current and defunct Basketball Leagues. Current Leagues The league names are listed below. Men's Leagues Leagues from the U.S., Canada, Mexico
in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. . ``The sky's the limit.'' Girls' and women's sports have grown dramatically since Title IX, the gender-equity law enacted in 1971. Specifically, basketball has become the No. 1 participation sport for girls, and attendance at women's college basketball games has quadrupled in the last 14 years. That swelling talent pool and increasing interest, punctuated by the gold-medal success of the 1996 Olympic women's basketball team, provided a solid foundation on which the WNBA and ABL were built and failed leagues lacked. Hence the early success. The WNBA, a creation of the NBA, has long-term contracts with three television networks (NBC, ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network and Lifetime) and an impressive and growing list of major sponsors. The ABL has TV contracts with Fox Sports Net and Black Entertainment Television and is negotiating with several networks that league officials hope will provide wide exposure. Television ratings are good. An average of almost 2 million viewers watched 11 WNBA games (10 regular season and the championship game) on NBC last season. In contrast, the NBA averaged roughly 4.7 million for regular-season games this year and expects up to about 16 million for the finals. Markey said he had no idea what to expect because so much was unprecedented: the league, summer basketball, the question marks that surrounded the public's opinion of women's basketball. No one is complaining about the results. ``Hopefully it will grow, but it's a very good start,'' Markey said. ``. . . We've made a long-term commitment. The ratings the next one, two, three years are not the important thing. NBC and the NBA is trying to grow the league. You have to take small steps in the beginning.'' Again, there is the live attendance. The WNBA attracted twice the number of fans it expected and its average attendance was double of that of the ABL. With limited marketing and competition from the NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga , NBA and NHL NHL Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, see there , the ABL drew an average of 3,536 its fist year and 4,333 its second, an increase of 23 percent. The ABL's Long Beach Stingrays The Long Beach Stingrays was a women's professional basketball team. It existed for only the 1997-98 season, and was a member of the American Basketball League. The Stingrays played most of their home games at the Walter Pyramid on the campus of California State University, averaged 2,366 this past season, its first in the league, the team said. (The WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1997, they are one of the 8 original WNBA teams and were one of the teams that participated in the league's inaugural game. averaged 8,931 fans last year.) The top players - mostly from the WNBA - are ubiquitous. Players like the WNBA's Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Swoopes are on television commercials and in print ads. All sure signs women's basketball is gaining the ability to reach its fans. Who are the fans? Apparently, they're not the traditional sports devotees who are committed to the NFL, Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. and NBA. The WNBA estimates that 67 percent of those who attended games last season were female (compared to 37 percent for NBA games, Ackerman said). New fans mean new consumers and that's attractive to sponsors, according to Sharon Barbano, president of the Women's Sports Marketing Group. Barbano said women make roughly 80 percent of household purchases - including sporting goods. And it's not just adults who are being reached. ``The WNBA brand is going to continue to develop,'' Barbano said. ``For heaven's sake, Mattel has a WNBA Barbie. Talk about starting brand loyalty early. ``When little girls think basketball, they're automatically going to think WNBA because of that Barbie.'' The ABL doesn't have such an advantage, which raises the inevitable question: Is there room for two women's leagues in the market? The backing of the NBA is an advantage for the WNBA, which has 10 teams (eight last season) only in NBA cities. Television and sponsors are more willing to link themselves to a proven product. The future for both leagues is unclear. They continue to lose substantial sums of money, typical of young enterprises but something that must ultimately shift. They must capture the attention of the male fan if they hope to grow substantially. And they must keep the attention of those already committed to their product - sponsors, television networks, consumers and, most important, fans. One day they will have to deal with the issue of merger, which some believe is a strong possibility, although officials in both leagues don't see it happening soon. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , they have many other things on which to focus. ``We have to keep this in perspective,'' Ackerman said. ``We've said from the beginning this is going to be a long process. It will take time to establish a league in a way that gives it the greatest chance to survive. That's the challenge of women's basketball.'' TV RATINGS Regular season and playoff games WNBA NBC (11 games) Avg. viewers: approximately 2 million homes ESPN (10 games) Avg. viewers: 600,000 homes ESPN2 (2 games) Avg. viewers: 186,000 homes Lifetime (10 games) Avg. viewers: 450,000 homes ABL (1997-98 only) Fox Sports Net (24 games) Avg. viewers: 111,000 homes Black Entertainment Television (13 games) Ratings unavailable ATTENDANCE WNBA 1997 Regular season Sparks 8,931 Phoenix Mercury 13,703 New York Liberty The New York Liberty is a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in New York City. They are one of the eight original WNBA teams that began to see action in 1997, as well one of the most successful teams in WNBA history. 13,270 Houston Comets 9,703 Charlotte Sting 8,307 Cleveland Rockers 7,971 Sacramento Monarchs 7,858 Utah Starzz 7,611 Average WNBA: 9,669 Each team played 14 games ABL 1997-98 REGULAR SEASON (x) StingRays 2,117 New England Blizzard The New England Blizzard was a women's professional basketball franchise based in Hartford, Connecticut. The Blizzard was a charter member of the American Basketball League (ABL). 8,857 Portland Power 5,476 San Jose Lasers The San Jose Lasers was a women's professional basketball team in San Jose, California. It was a member of the American Basketball League. The team folded along with the rest of the league during the third ABL season in 1998. 4,773 Atlanta Glory 3,898 Colorado Xplosion 3,822 Columbus Quest 3,500 Seattle Reign 3,321 (xx) Philadelphia Rage 3,238 Average ABL: 4,333 Each team played 22 games (x) First year in the league (xx) Team moved from Richmond, Va. to Philadelphia CAPTION(S): Photo, 2 Boxes PHOTO (Color) Center Lisa Leslie of the Sparks is one of the WNBA's marquee players, appearing in numerous print and television ads, giving the fledgling league tremendous exposure. Phil McCarten/Daily News BOX: (1) TV RATINGS (see text) (2) ATTENDANCE (see text) |
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