Despite a drop in attendance and flat television ratings, WNBA officials last week said they are pleased with their eighth regular season, citing increases in both ticket and sponsorship revenue.
The teams and league won’t release specific numbers, but sponsorship revenue at the league and team levels saw double-digit increases this year compared with 2003, WNBA President Val Ackerman said. At the league level, new and increased sponsor involvement from companies including Nokia, Russell, Dell and Procter & Gamble contributed to the increase.
Ackerman said ticket revenue benefited from strong group sales and better pricing.
Eight of the league’s 13 teams saw average attendance for home games fall. Phoenix, despite hopes that landing college standout Diana Taurasi on its roster would boost attendance, posted a drop of 10.1 percent from last year. The Mercury did, however, rank second (behind Los Angeles) for best road attendance, and Taurasi’s jersey was the league’s top seller this season, Ackerman said.
Phoenix officials were unavailable for comment at press time.
The two teams that were new to the league last year, Connecticut and San Antonio, had mixed attendance results: Connecticut was up 10.1 percent, San Antonio was down 18.2 percent.
Typically, teams in their sophomore years experience attendance decreases, team and league officials said. In Connecticut’s case, though, the announcement and relatively late organization of the Sun after the 2002 season hurt its first-year efforts.
Ackerman said the team’s ability to spend more time on ticket sales before this past season helped drive attendance for 2004.
Ackerman said overall attendance may have been affected by the league’s monthlong break for the Olympics, which did not allow the WNBA to capitalize on August ticket sales. August traditionally is the league’s strongest month.
The league numbers were also affected by New York playing six of its games at Radio City Music Hall instead of Madison Square Garden because of the Republican National Convention. The games at Radio City, while sold out, were played to capacity crowds of 5,945. MSG has a capacity of 19,763.
Television ratings for the league were relatively flat compared with last year. Broadcasts of games on ABC averaged a 0.8, the same as last season. Games on ESPN2 generated a 0.24 average, also the same as last season.
Ratings for the league’s other cable partner, Oxygen, dropped to a 0.1 from a 0.2, though only five games aired on the network this year compared with 13 last year.
The Olympics, while beneficial to the league from a publicity standpoint, is thought by league officials to have affected the league’s cable television ratings. Ratings on ESPN2 were up 14 percent going into the Olympics before falling to end up flat for season.
League and team officials said they will focus on developing strategies to enhance their ticket sales and promotional efforts once the postseason is complete.
2004 WNBA attendanceTeam Avg. (rank) ChangeCharlotte Sting 6,846 (12) -3.1%Connecticut Sun 6,635 (13) +10.1%Detroit Shock 9,462 (4) +20.4%Houston Comets 8,086 (7) -8.5%Indiana Fever 7,589 (10) -9.0%Los Angeles Sparks 10,428 (2) +12.2%Minnesota Lynx 7,418 (11) +4.9%New York Liberty 9,629 (3) -22.9%Phoenix Mercury 7,638 (9) -10.1%Sacramento Monarchs 8,659 (5) -5.4%San Antonio Silver Stars 8,497 (6) -18.2%Seattle Storm 7,898 (8) +11.1%Washington Mystics 12,641 (1) -10.0%TOTALS 8,571 -4.1%Source: Timothy Brandt for SportsBusiness Journal
