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Leagues and Governing Bodies

WNBA President Borders Looks To Grow Attendance, TV Audience In Second Year

As WNBA President Lisa Borders heads into the league's 21st season and the second year in her role, she said full arenas league-wide will be "when we've made it," according to Nina Mandell of USA TODAY. Borders: "That’s what success looks like." The WNBA "has a long way to go when it comes to that," but attendance in '16 hit its highest number since '11, averaging 7,655. There were "other successes, too, in Borders’ first year," as viewership was up on ESPN and ESPN2. Borders said that the league "parlayed what was an excellent Finals series into better TV coverage." Borders: "Obviously, there’s other sports going on ESPN, but we will work with them closely." Beyond the "challenges of making a basketball league succeed in a crowded market, Borders faces a unique challenge as the head of a women’s league: stereotypes and Internet trolls determined to make it fail." Borders: "There’s always five or 10% of people, they happen to be using this little tool called the Internet, but they’re no louder than the 90% of the people that want us to succeed. So I’d rather listen to the people that want us to succeed and completely tune out the 10% who are the laggards who just don’t get us" (USA TODAY, 3/30).

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