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I think that with the recent surge in popularity of womens basketball at the college level and some of those stars migrating to the WNBA that they have an opportunity to grow that league.
Saw the Iowa star say "hey you're missing out", which is the kind of message and ambassador the league needs.
The WNBA has had a series of whining, surly, unlikeable top players that are quick to blame everyone else and make ridiculous claims.
It's a different game obviously, I think they have potential they just need better ambassadors.
Actually, the WNBA needs to find a way to market themselves better. The only way these players in the WNBA will make the salaries the NBA players make is to get more eyeballs fixated on their league. This coincides with your take on needing better ambassadors for their league. Otherwise, the WNBA will continue to be subsidized by the NBA. Moreover, it makes more sense financially to stay in college because these players can make more money on NIL deals than going pro.
Every feminist who reads this is going to have a heart attack but here goes:
The way to get the WNBA back on track? Read on:
1) Lower the rim. I've seen WNBA stars react violently to this idea as they feel it makes them inferior to men or something. Newsflash: you are. The women already use a smaller ball than the NBA so it's not new. But lowering the rim would allow dunking, add another element to the game.
2) This is really going to get me on someone's hit list: Cater to your audience. Men overwhelmingly consume sports. Women dont. They would rather watch reality TV, soap operas, anything but sports, including women's sports. So if straight men are your primary audience, then you have to dress in a way that attracts them to watch you. The tennis girls do that, wearing those cute outfits, and not coincidentally, female tennis players make way more than any other female athletes.
Most basketball players are in great shape. Some of them are pretty. Let them play in spandex shorts like the volleyball girls do and that will get guys to watch. No they wont initially be watching for the reasons you would want, but advertisers dont care about the reasons. More eyeballs on the games translates to higher ad revenue which translates to bigger TV contracts which then allows the higher salaries that they complain about.
Every feminist who reads this is going to have a heart attack but here goes:
The way to get the WNBA back on track? Read on:
1) Lower the rim. I've seen WNBA stars react violently to this idea as they feel it makes them inferior to men or something. Newsflash: you are. The women already use a smaller ball than the NBA so it's not new. But lowering the rim would allow dunking, add another element to the game.
2) This is really going to get me on someone's hit list: Cater to your audience. Men overwhelmingly consume sports. Women dont. They would rather watch reality TV, soap operas, anything but sports, including women's sports. So if straight men are your primary audience, then you have to dress in a way that attracts them to watch you. The tennis girls do that, wearing those cute outfits, and not coincidentally, female tennis players make way more than any other female athletes.
Most basketball players are in great shape. Some of them are pretty. Let them play in spandex shorts like the volleyball girls do and that will get guys to watch. No they wont initially be watching for the reasons you would want, but advertisers dont care about the reasons. More eyeballs on the games translates to higher ad revenue which translates to bigger TV contracts which then allows the higher salaries that they complain about.
Well, enjoy that cross you are hanging from, lol Anyway, you pretty much summed it up. The cute girls are making that NIL money in college right now. They are staying the whole full 4 years so that gives them revenue while they are still young. Brilliant of them to that, too. Sorry, but us male species are just visual and we'll spend are hard earned money on "cheesecake." Meaning tight female anatomy. I guess I'll have a matching cross next to you.
Strangely enough I just started watching the WNBA this week and I’m hooked. Watched 3-4 games and I’ll probably get league pass since it’s only $25.
Honestly I don’t know why it isn’t more popular. Probably because a lot of people like me haven’t taken time to watch a game or read up it. Right now you have 2 super teams who aren’t getting any attention.
It’s a better product than the NBA in a lot of areas.
- 40 games in a season vs 82 in NBA so the games matter more.
- playoff series of 3, 5, 5 is better than NBAs 7 game series where often the first 2 games don’t matter much and the series drags on forever.
- Only 12 teams so every team has stars and has more talent relatively compared to NBA or other leagues that have 30 teams and you see all these blowouts.
- players whine much less for calls
- better offenses. Much more ball movement, play calling. Lot of the teams look like they’re running the Warriors and Kings offense out there with beautiful ball movement and constant motions. Coaching seems better.
- No or less load management. At least as far as I can tell. Last night I watched the Aces vs Liberty game. Aces have 4 stars and Liberty have 3. Both super teams, yet all the stars actually played, in a regular season game. You never see that in the NBA during the season. NBA would often schedule a big matchup like Nets vs Warriors and then when the actual game rolled around half the stars would be resting. LeBron and KD went 5 years without facing each other because one is always resting or has a minor “injury” or something. Worst part of NBA in my opinion is the load management.
Every feminist who reads this is going to have a heart attack but here goes:
The way to get the WNBA back on track? Read on:
1) Lower the rim. I've seen WNBA stars react violently to this idea as they feel it makes them inferior to men or something. Newsflash: you are. The women already use a smaller ball than the NBA so it's not new. But lowering the rim would allow dunking, add another element to the game.
2) This is really going to get me on someone's hit list: Cater to your audience. Men overwhelmingly consume sports. Women dont. They would rather watch reality TV, soap operas, anything but sports, including women's sports. So if straight men are your primary audience, then you have to dress in a way that attracts them to watch you. The tennis girls do that, wearing those cute outfits, and not coincidentally, female tennis players make way more than any other female athletes.
Most basketball players are in great shape. Some of them are pretty. Let them play in spandex shorts like the volleyball girls do and that will get guys to watch. No they wont initially be watching for the reasons you would want, but advertisers dont care about the reasons. More eyeballs on the games translates to higher ad revenue which translates to bigger TV contracts which then allows the higher salaries that they complain about.
I was going to say that glad you did first. You look at track and volleyball. The women wear outfits that look good, sexy. There are social media videos just showing women in those sports. Softball also. You never see WNBA women shown that way. Because women do not look good wearing mens basketball shorts. Very unflattering.
Otherwise you are watching players at a talent level way below NBA players.
I think that with the recent surge in popularity of womens basketball at the college level.. I think they (WNBA) have potential they just need better ambassadors.
Thing is, the WNBA has been losing money for 25+ years now. Their collective losses are (literally) in the hundreds of millions. It is essentially the NBA's subsidized virtue signal.
Every couple years there's overhyped hope that the league is gonna finally break thru.. but even if it finally does grow an audience & become financially solvent.. it would be because it has been unconditionally funded, and viewed as too important to fail. If left to its own (profit) merits it would've collapsed years ago.
And my opinion, they have to fix all the non-stop steals & missed layups to garner more interest and respect.. or bring back Juwanna Mann.
Women not supporting the WNBA as fans is what’s preventing it from reaching the next level. Women are just not big on sports in general, and if they are they stick to men’s sports. Unless that changes, the WNBA is never going to be more than it is now.
Most basketball players are in great shape. Some of them are pretty. Let them play in spandex outfits like the beach volleyball girls do and that will get guys to watch.
Fixt.
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Anyway, you pretty much summed it up. The cute girls are making that NIL money in college right now. They are staying the whole full 4 years so that gives them revenue while they are still young. Brilliant of them to that, too. Sorry, but us male species are just visual and we'll spend are hard earned money on "cheesecake." Meaning tight female anatomy. I guess I'll have a matching cross next to you.
