Since the WNBA has "gotten far more viewers for the
three games broadcast every week on NBC, ESPN and Lifetime
than anyone had anticipated ... perhaps the league will
change its promotional slogan from 'We Got Next' to 'We Got
Respect,'" according to Leonard Shapiro of the WASHINGTON
POST. NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol: "It's probably the
first start-up league that will come out a tiny bit in the
black for all of us, which has never happened before."
Regarding WNBA ratings, Ebersol said, "[Y]ou'll see a whole
new peak in the number when we do the final" on August 30.
Shapiro noted that an NBC audience survey shows that 42% of
its WNBA audience is men 18+, 38% are women 18+, 11%
teenagers 12-17 and nine percent ages 2-11. Shapiro added
that, in comparison, the average NBA game attracts 52% men
18+ and "only" 30% women 18+ (WASHINGTON POST, 8/11).
NIKE EYES ABL? In Baltimore, the WNBA is featured by
Rumore & Kent, who write, "The new league is defying
conventional wisdom, first by drawing larger numbers than
were originally forecast into arenas in big cities
previously thought indifferent to women's basketball, then
by bringing people indoors during the summer, both to watch
the games in person and on television" (Baltimore SUN,
8/12). Both the WNBA and ABL are examined in a sidebar by
the SUN's Danielle Rumore. Nike spokesperson Kathryn Reight
said that Nike, a WNBA sponsor, is "in conversation" with,
and "interested in," the ABL (Baltimore SUN, 8/12).
ROUND-UP: Today's HARTFORD COURANT editorial focuses on
the two women's hoop leagues: "How refreshing for the sport
to be faced with an embarrassment of riches" (HARTFORD
COURANT, 8/12)....BLOOMBERG NEWS' W.D. Murray examines
agents targeting women basketball players, whose "sudden
prosperity is drawing sharks. Unlike their male colleagues,
female basketball players have no union and no agent
certification programs." ABL Legal Counsel Rich Nichols:
"There are a few (agents), probably about 5 percent, who are
less than adequate, less than honest and woefully lacking in
integrity" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER/BLOOMBERG NEWS, 8/12).
