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The WNBA is having trouble declaring what the “W” in its name means. And yet the “W” is what distinguishes the WNBA from the NBA. If the “W” has no meaning, the WNBA is simply an inferior competitor to the dominant NBA, and customers or viewers are likely to see no reason to watch WNBA games over NBA games.
Being a business guy rather than a sports fanatic, I would suggest that league management go back to more fundamental business questions that any potential investor or customer would ask: What is the basic business proposition for a second professional basketball league? Why should the league exist? What is your defining characteristic that will bring customers (viewers/attendees) and thus investors?
Every business proposal needs to have a pitch for customers to choose your business over the existing business(es) in your sector. This is also important to describe to investors. What makes this enterprise different from what’s already out there in a way that will attract customers and allow the business to make money?
A restaurant in my town differentiates itself by claiming to serve steakhouse-quality steaks in a more casual setting (in a strip mall), allowing it to charge lower prices than other steakhouses. With that, it attracts budget-conscious customers. Each of several Mexican-style restaurants in town differentiate themselves by emphasizing the different regions of Mexico from which they derive their dishes and flavors or by providing different levels of formality to the dining experience.
One large car rental company differentiates itself by picking up customers rather than requiring them to find their own way to the car rental location. A different car rental company differentiates itself by promising to have the car the customer reserved right at the door and ready to drive off as soon as the customer arrives at the car rental location. A third competitor differentiates itself by letting the customer choose his preferred car from the models on the lot. Yet another car rental company differentiates itself by advertising that its fleet has European luxury cars instead of the mass market models other car rental companies use. More than one car rental company promises customers lower prices by keeping cars in inventory longer than the others.
If the people behind the WNBA believe customers will watch a second professional basketball league, there are many differentiators on which such a league could be based. It doesn’t have to be “women’s,” especially if those people do not want to define “women” in a way that excludes men who pretend to be women.
They could create a league centered on a cost-effective fan experience by focusing on cheaper venues in smaller population markets and using lower-salaried players—most likely ones rejected by the NBA. Or they could have a “senior” league using retired NBA players. Or they could create a different rule-set and/or inject comedy or other sideshows into the game, as the “Banana Ball” league has done with baseball.
But in any event, they need to be able to define and explain what differentiates their league from the existing NBA. A differentiation that will attract viewers and game attendees. If it’s not actual women playing, what makes you special?
Discussion (10)
CHARTER MEMBER
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A few weeks ago, looking for a ballgame to take my lady to, and finding the Triple-A Round Rock Express on an extended road trip, I said what the heck, let’s try professional women’s softball instead! We had no idea what to expect. Well, the game, indeed the whole show at Dell Diamond, was great. Exactly why it was, though, I had to meditate on. I think the reason was: anything you'd expect a baseball game to do, softball or this version of it did as well. Things like the catcher almost picking off a runner who was leaning a bit far off first base. Things like double plays that were perfectly executed because the runner and the batter made sure they needed to be. Things like the pitchers always throwing strikes or close enough to make batters think. Things like the batters seldom being fooled at all.
The only big difference between this game and a hardball one was, indeed, physically sizeable: the dimensions of the diamond and the outfield were scaled down by about one-third. I think down the right-field line to the wall was 220 feet, not 330. In a minor-league ballpark, this looked just fine. I don’t know how that factor was ever arrived at but almost all pitches were above 70 mph. I feel certain that if you are a seamhead, you will not be put off at all by this one tweak. You’re still getting very skilled baseball.
Now, how the WNBA can manage anything like this, I have no idea.
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Not men?
STAFF • CHARTER MEMBER
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They tried that. In 1967 we got the ABA. A red, white, and blue basketball, Dr. J, three-pointers and four teams absorbed into the NBA before hanging it up.
Then there was Michael "Mickey" Monus and the World Basketball League. It is a sordid tale too complicated to tell adequately in a short comment, but the league was for 6'5" and under, had teams in the US and Canada and played in the summer. Monus owned the Youngstown Pride and was a founder of the league. (He was also an original owner of the MLB Colorado Rockies.) He also was the founder of Phar-Mor Deep Discount Drugstores, which at its peak had 200 stores across the country. And it all came tumbling down when it came to light that he embezzled over $10M from the drug store chain to keep the basketball league afloat.
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W = Weak. It's basketball for the weak.
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Don't forget the AFL. which successfully merged with the NFL. The NBA has their own minor league system called the G league. There's also a 3 on 3 league that does involve former NBA players.
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