WNBA Sees Regular-Season Attendance Spike, But Still Faces Issues

WNBA Sees 2.7% Increase In Attendance This Season

The WNBA saw average attendance increase 2.7% this season, marking the “second consecutive year of attendance growth following the 2006 season,” according to John Lombardo of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The ’06 season averaged just 7,610 fans per game, the “lowest attendance in league history.” The WNBA this season also had 47 sellouts, “three times the number from last season.” WNBA President Donna Orender: “This is a business that is starting to mature and the product is improving. We are developing stars in the league. [Sparks rookie F] Candace Parker was significant. She affirms the core fans’ belief in the league, but also brings us a broader array of fans” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/22 issue). But in Hartford, John Altavilla reported as the league grows, a "continued push for local ownership, separate from the NBA ties that spawned it, seems imperative." The WNBA "needs to find the undeveloped hotbeds, push to expand or move under-producing franchises there, like it did by moving the Miracle to Connecticut." And "perhaps most important, it must figure out a way to market more efficiently in the offseason, while its core players are in Europe and Asia making the big salaries that sustain them" (HARTFORD COURANT, 9/21).