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Leagues and Governing Bodies

ACKERMAN OFFERS UNION STRATEGY; COOPER'S UPPER BODY STRENGTH

          WNBA President Val Ackerman was interviewed at halftime
     of NBC's coverage of Game Two of the WNBA Championship
     Series.  Ackerman, on the proposed players union: "We have
     always supported the right of the players to unionize, to
     speak to us in a collective voice, if you will.  It's our
     hope that whoever is involved in that process recognizes the
     realities of our business.  We're a bit differently situated
     than the NBA, than the other major league sports, although
     that's what we're trying to aspire to be.  And it's our hope
     that whoever is involved is reasonable and recognizes those
     realities" ("WNBA on NBC," 8/29).
          TIME RIGHT FOR UNION? Lifetime TV analyst Mary Murphy
     said she doesn't feel the "time is right" for WNBA players
     to unionize: "We're only in our second year as a league, the
     ABL just folded a franchise [Long Beach].  We've had some
     attendance problems with some of our franchises.  TV ratings
     aren't where we want them to be.  To me, the time just is
     not there.  We've got to get some credibility going first." 
     But former WNBA player Fran Harris countered, "You've got to
     get some things in place, like health care, some equity with
     the players' salaries" ("WNBA on Lifetime," 8/27).
          COMPAQ-ED: Game Two of the Mercury-Comets WNBA
     Championship Series on Saturday drew a sold-out crowd of
     16,285 at Houston's Compaq Center (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/30).
          MERGER? In Sacramento, Ailene Voisin wrote that the
     WNBA "is here to stay and sure to expand, a grand experiment
     no longer.  The [ABL]?  Doomed."  Voisin: "For the good of
     the game, it's time to merge" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 8/29).
          FEELING FIT: In N.Y., Neal Travis reports that WNBA
     officials "are likely to get their knickers in a knot when
     they see" Comets G Cynthia Cooper's pictorial in the new
     issue of Women's Sport & Fitness.  Travis hears that Cooper
     was "supposed to do the shoot in her regulation uniform,"
     but when her "minders departed," she "doffed her top and
     posed in all her glory" (Neal Travis, N.Y. POST, 8/31).

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