NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave a frank assessment of the WNBA on Thursday afternoon as the league closes its 19th year of play. “I thought we’d be further along,” Silver said when asked if the league now stands where he thought it would be back when launch discussions were being had two decades ago. Silver made the comment during a featured interview at the SportsBusiness Daily/Journal Game Changers conference at the N.Y. Marriott Marquis. “In terms of our marketing overall, we may have lost our way at certain points,” Silver said of the WNBA. He added that there is no singular or easy solution, but said, “The onus is on us as a league to do a better job with (the) imaging.” Silver later in his presentation showcased a league spot debuting last night for the start of the WNBA playoffs. He said he is telling prospective WNBA sponsors over time that there is "premium sports content that has enormous value; that this is some of the best sports content in the world." Silver: "I know we can do much better, and that their investments will pay dividends over time."
THOMAS THE TRAIN: Basketball HOFer Isiah Thomas created some controversy at the start of the season by coming to the WNBA as Liberty President. Silver said, “Life is complicated. I don’t necessarily think it sends the wrong message in that people can make mistakes and then move on in their lives. I'm not sure what message we're sending by saying Isiah Thomas should never work in basketball again. ... I wish Isiah would do more media. I wish he would talk more directly about it because in this day and age, transparency is critically important and people can make their own decisions.”
Other Takeaways:
* On the prospect of higher salaries for WNBA players: “We can’t have it both ways. We can’t say ‘Well, why isn’t this league making money?’ and at the same time say the answer is to increase our expenses. I’m having that conversation with the players.”
* On the importance generationally of the WNBA: “I’ve now seen those new generations of players come in, oftentimes the very best athletes who could have played other sports, and they will say, ‘I very intentionally made a decision to move to a basketball track when I got to a certain age because the WNBA did exist, because there was going to be this opportunity for me to play professionally after I got out of college.’”
* On finding an audience, noting that 47% of the NBA’s audience is female compared to 34% of the WNBA’s audience being female: “Where we haven’t broken the coding, in many ways, is how we can convince women, especially, frankly, young women -- which would be most powerful from a marketing standpoint -- to be interested in watching women who are often roughly their same age and generation play basketball.”
* On talk of WNBA expansion: “We certainly can be in more markets than 12. ... It’s a function of demonstrating that this is an economically feasible and strong business, and that I think we can over time expand a lot. ... Until we have a strong, stable, all-economically viable league of 12 teams, it makes no sense, even if somebody just wants to write a big check to expand.”
* On the NBA being praised for having women in leadership positions: “We recognize by having a diverse organization, by going out and expanding the pool of people from where we hire, that we’re going to have the best possible organization. My suggestion to people in this room is that if you’re somehow, even if it’s subconsciously, discriminating in some way by only hiring from a certain pool of applicants, you’re not going to be able to compete as well in the marketplace.”
* On his relationship with NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts: “The relationship has been terrific with her so far. She’s relatively new in the job. She certainly is formidable based on the enormous success she’s had so far in her career. Union representation is a new aspect in her career, but I’m a relatively new commissioner, as well. And as we’ve both said many times publicly, we deserve to be judged harshly if ultimately our relationship turns sour and it results in lost games. We’re both completely committed to working hard, working early, being creative ... to make sure that these leagues continue to prosper.”
