MPR’s William Wilcoxen joins a crowd of women basketball fans near Detroit, Michigan and discuss the new Minnesota WNBA team coming the next year. As the Women’s National Basketball Association nears the end of their second season, the WNBA has plans to expand to Minnesota in a team that would develop into the Minnesota Lynx.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: As a crowd builds in an arena near Detroit, Michigan, a middle-aged woman provides a two-word explanation for her presence at a women's basketball game.
SPEAKER 1: My daughter.
[CHUCKLES]
My daughter.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: 17-year-old Constance Smith, dragged her mother to see Detroit's entry in the WNBA.
CONSTANCE SMITH: I've always wanted to see the women play basketball. And since I had the chance today, I just wanted to see him play.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Are you a fan of the men's league, too?
CONSTANCE SMITH: Yeah, but I like watching the women better because I've seen enough of the men. It's time for the women.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: A majority of the 7,000 fans at this game are female, many of them teenagers. Some of the fans are basketball purists, who love the sport. Others, like Francine Hachem, are here to show their support for women's athletics.
FRANCINE HACHEM: No, I'm not a basketball junkie. I've always supported women's sports, even from the beginning, from the late-- early '70s on, of getting it into the schools and everything. So it's basically because it's women.
SPEAKER 2: Gary [? Friction, ?] 115! Looks like a party over there! Make some noise! Shut lights! Louder!
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The Women's National Basketball Association is a product of the NBA-- the 52-year-old organization that is the world's premier basketball league. There are some minor rule differences in the Women's League. The ball is a little smaller, the three-point stripe a little closer. The zone defense is permitted, and the game is a little shorter.
A more obvious difference has to do with the style of play. The soaring slam dunks that are common in the men's league are a rarity in the WNBA. Former University of Minnesota women's coach, Lunda Hill-MacDonald, who's now with the WNBA's Cleveland Rockers, says some fans may find the women's style of play more appealing.
LINDA HILL-MACDONALD: I think that the average person can relate to the women's game because the average person plays below the rim, male or female. And so men watching the women's game can really relate to what's happening on the floor. It's because that's what they play when they go and they play pickup in the gyms.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Hill-MacDonald says Minnesota is a national leader in girls high school basketball, and she expects the state will support a WNBA team. Right now, organizers of the Minnesota team are focusing on gaining 5,000 season ticket deposits. The league is requiring its expansion teams, Minnesota and Orlando, to meet that season ticket threshold by September 1, in order to be awarded a team for next season. Roger Griffith, a Minnesota Timberwolves executive overseeing the season ticket sales, says the campaign is focused on women-owned businesses.
ROGER GRIFFITH: We think, especially the businesses, have a real solid reason why they should support it because there's more women in business. More of their customers are women-owned businesses. There's a lot of reasons why they should support this league just the way they support the NBA.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The WNBA owns the teams that comprise the league, and the league, in turn, is owned collectively by the NBA, which plans to eventually establish women's teams in all 29 cities that have men's teams. The women's league, nearing the end of its second season, currently has 10 teams. The women play a shorter summer schedule to avoid competing with the men. Another fledgling women's league, the American Basketball League, plays during the traditional wintertime basketball season. For players, the arrival of two women's leagues in the United States is a breakthrough.
LYNETTE WOODARD: For so long, if women wanted to play professionally, the only option was to go abroad.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: 39-year-old Lynette Woodard is in the twilight of a basketball career that has seen her play professionally in Japan, win a championship in the Italian League, and become the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. Happy to be playing in her home country, Woodard and her WNBA teammates now come back onto the court after home games to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
LYNETTE WOODARD: OK, thank you for the support. Come on, get in here.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: For the men in the NBA, there are no mandatory autograph sessions. Woodard says in the women's league, the players understand it will take more work to get the league established.
SPEAKER 3: Can I get a picture with you?
LYNETTE WOODARD: Let's do it. We have to sell the women's games. Men's sports will be there no matter what, has been for years. Well, the NBA has a great marketing machine. So now, we're just trying to look at the things that they've done and trying to copy. You got to follow the leaders.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: US women's basketball leagues were tried in the 1970s without much success, but past leagues did not have a relationship with the NBA, which is perhaps most valuable when it comes to television exposure. The WNBA was promoted heavily during national telecasts of NBA games, and three different national networks are broadcasting WNBA games this summer. Detroit coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline says the accessibility of the WNBA is what distinguishes it from past women's leagues.
NANCY LIEBERMAN-CLINE: The power of TV is an incredible medium. I mean, I always say cereal is not a cereal until you see it on Saturday morning cartoons, then it's legit. Well, we're on Saturday mornings. We're on Sundays. We're on Mondays and Thursdays, and people want to see us.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: In Minneapolis, Roger Griffith says he hopes the WNBA team will draw 10,000 fans per game in Target Center next year, but he still needs nearly 1,000 more season ticket deposits to ensure the arrival of a team. Griffith says decisions about what to call the team and who will coach it will come after the September 1 ticket deadline. I'm William Wilcoxen, Minnesota Public Radio.
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