(Non-Monarchs) Bentonville, AR gets a WNBA team?

[StevenHW]

I don't know if any of you ever visit the WNBA message boards on ESPN.com. Occasionally, someone brings up the subject of potential WNBA expansion cities.

Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that several investors from the San Jose who had been interested in investing a team, changed their mind when they found out that it would cost at least $10 million just to join the league.

And now, one of the more unexpected of places is making a move for WNBA expansion: Bentonville, Arkansas!

Should be interesting, because the Deep South doesn't have a WNBA team!

http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/38860/

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Interesting....I'd rather see Donna O move teams that need to be moved before she brought another expansion team in. But if Bentonville is excited and committed, and its a relatively easy travel route to and from existing W cities, if they've got the cash and the fan base...let'um in.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Interesting....I'd rather see Donna O move teams that need to be moved before she brought another expansion team in.

I'll agree with that, but I'll also restate that I think that the WNBA should consider not being overly committed to NBA cities and instead think about moving teams to areas with a stronger women's basketball fanbase.

Anybody think that the W could sell tickets in Baton Rouge?

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

That's harder to gauge...just because they follow the college game doesn't necessarily mean they'll follow the pro game. I've met several people @ Stanford games who don't even watch let alone trek up to a W city to attend WNBA games. This WITH the Monarchs having some marketing presence @ Maples. But its a good place to start. I don't think any more teams will come into this league with NBA ties, if there were NBA owners hankering for a team they would have had one by now and they wouldn't have needed to disperse the teams they dispersed. Plus there are a couple of NBA tied team whose owners I think really would rather not have them any longer.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

That's harder to gauge...just because they follow the college game doesn't necessarily mean they'll follow the pro game.

This doesn't make any sense to me. I have a hard enough time believing people that like men's college ball but say that they hate the NBA because they think that the players are spoiled and don't have heart, because I personally prefer to see a sport being played at it's highest level (which is why I generally don't watch college sports at all)... but at least I can understand the logic. But it's my impression that WNBA players are just as passionate as women's college players; it is also my impression that the level of basketball in the WNBA is far superior to the college game, so I can't grok the logic at all... why are these people who following these young ladies for four years in college suddenly deciding that they can't be arsed once they turn pro?

 

[RoyalDiva]

I think some of it is that the fandom that college bball fans have is rooted in the love and loyalty they have towards that particular college. When said player is no longer tied to Stanford, then interest is lost. Being a fan of college bball and a fan of pro bball is two entirely different things for some fans.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Being a fan of college bball and a fan of pro bball is two entirely different things for some fans.

I understand that. What I'm saying is that, the reasons I've heard for why fans of the men's college game don't like the NBA at least kinda/sorta make sense, even though I don't agree with them. I don't understand the reasons why fans of women's college basketball don't support the WNBA.

The reason I'm drawing comparisons to the men's game in this circumstance is because, when asking people that don't follow the NBA why they prefer the men's college game, the most common responses are that: 1) the players in the NBA are spoiled, 2) they lack heart/passion, 3) they aren't as sound fundamentally. The first two I don't personally perceive as good enough reasons to not like the NBA, and I don't think that the third one is necessarily true, but I can at least see where people are coming from with respect to those points of view.

But, if you tried to use those same three factors as reasons not to like the WNBA, they don't really apply at all: WNBA players aren't spoiled in relation to college players, they have just as much heart and passion for the game, and they are just as fundamentally sound; in fact, I feel that the level of basketball played in the WNBA is superior to the play in women's college ball.

That would seem to indicate that the reasons why fans who support women's college ball but not the WNBA are based on an entirely different train of logic, and I'm seeking understanding as to what that logic is. I mean, "loyalty" seems like a pretty flimsy reason to me, and that's the best one I've ever heard. The reason why I say that it's flimsy is because I don't see how supporting the WNBA could possibly preclude your loyalty to your college team, anyway. Where's the conflict of interest? Please explain to me the path of logic that leads people to the conclusion that if you're loyal to the college game then you can't like the pros?

 

[RoyalDiva]

It has nothing to do with if you like the pros, you can't like college as well, that is not what I'm talking about at all with the loyalty factor. People love a particular college, such as Stanford. They only like a certain player/sport when it's Stanford brand, and that's it. So when that player goes to the Monarchs, they don't watch her anymore because she's no playing for Stanford.

 

[StevenHW]

Before we veer off too much into the college game, here's a bit from today SacBee, in regards to expansion or the moving of existing WNBA teams:

Growing signs -- Ten years in, and the product continues to grow. [WNBA President Donna] Orender said that the league expects to expand from its current 14 teams, with no concrete timetable. For now, she carries two cell phones with her, with "a lot of interest" coast to coast.

"I'm getting calls all the time," Orender said. "I think it's fantastic. The league is at the beginning of its progress."

Orender said new teams do not have to be in existing NBA cities -- the Connecticut Sun, for example, does not play in an NBA city. She said that five non-NBA cities are looking into joining the WNBA.

 

[StevenHW]

Part of what the SacBee reported what Orender said:

She said that five non-NBA cities are looking into joining the WNBA.

Apparently, Donna did not name the cities.

So, I will guess which non-NBA cities might be interested in getting a WNBA team:

Oklahoma City (even though New Orleans Hornets played some games after Hurricane Katrina)

Pittsburgh (I often wondered why they haven't had an NBA team after all these years?)

Baltimore

Albuquerque, NM

Any city in Tennessee except for Memphis (which has an NBA team), that could attract the UT Lady Vols fan base!

Cincinnati and Columbus, OH

San Diego

St. Louis, MO

Kansas City

Buffalo, NY

Any city in Florida except Miami & Orlando (which have NBA teams)

Des Moines, IA (The Iowa Cornets of the old WBL came to mind)

Vancouver, Canada

Brooklyn, NY (aren't they building an arena there somewhere?)

Las Vegas, NV (though I'm not sure if the W is a good fit in that town!)

Somewhere in Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama or Mississippi

San Francisco or San Jose (if they are not co-owned by the Warriors)

Anaheim, CA (might get resistance from the Sparks organization, though)

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Pittsburgh (I often wondered why they haven't had an NBA team after all these years?)

Since my ex-wife is from the Pittsburgh area, I will tell you why they don't have an NBA team: because they don't give a **** about basketball... That's one of the reasons why I refused to move there; we had a huge fight about that some years ago...

That, and their economy is horrible and the tech industry there is non-existant, so I knew that I'd never find a job.


I'm pretty sure that Hampton Roads (the "seven cities" including Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach) could/would support a WNBA team.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

It has nothing to do with if you like the pros, you can't like college as well, that is not what I'm talking about at all with the loyalty factor. People love a particular college, such as Stanford. They only like a certain player/sport when it's Stanford brand, and that's it. So when that player goes to the Monarchs, they don't watch her anymore because she's no playing for Stanford.

How does that work? Are you saying that the people who support Stanford's women basketball don't actually like women's basketball, but only do it because it's Stanford? Do these same people show up at the wrestling meets and the water polo matches?

 

[RoyalDiva]

How does that work? Are you saying that the people who support Stanford's women basketball don't actually like women's basketball, but only do it because it's Stanford? Do these same people show up at the wrestling meets and the water polo matches?

I think some of them do. They are sports fans, but only within the college context, which is why they don't follow the WNBA.

 

[1kingzfan]

I'm with Mr. Slim on this one. I cannot understand it, have no explanation for it, and have yet to see an entirely plausible explanation for it.

When I went to LSU, I attended virtually all of the men's basketball games and a few women's games. Back then (kinda far back, actually), LSU's women's team sucked. It was Sue Gunter's early years. The men were great and went to the Final 4 once when I was in college.

For me, it was talent level, leading to fine team play, leading to winning, leading to entertainment and enjoyment. I couldn't stand going to a game and getting our brains beat out, or I would have attended more women's games.

I lived just outside Alex Box Stadium (baseball venue) for a couple years in Baton Rouge. Man, those Tiger baseball teams were just HORRIBLE back then, well before the age of coach Skip Bertman and the run of several NCAA baseball championships that eventually came to TigerTown. Well, one day my roomie says "let's got to a baseball game" Naturally, I resist, but he insists and I capitulate.

LSU gets their *** handed to them by frickin' Nicholls State, and I never go to another LSU baseball game again. Ever.

So, for me, it wasn't about loving every team clad in purple and gold (LSU colors...no off topic Laker comment, please), it was about getting that feeling. But that was just me. You can argue I wasn't a true "athletic supporter", and maybe you're right. What I did do, though, was follow the NBA exploits of LSU men's basketball players after they took the next step.

Everyone is different, and some co-eds go to games just for the social aspects, and that's all. I know that was a big part of it for my attendance at football games in Death Valley. I wasn't a big pigskin fan, and LSU was medicocre to good while I was there. So although I went more often than not, it wasn't nearly my attendance record at basketball games.

So I cannot explain the phenomenon cited by Mr. Slim from my own college experience, other than college kids will generally support a winner, and perhaps most don't really care too much about the game or individual players. Where I went, they just wanted to kick Kentucky, Florida, and Georgia's collective asses. It just feels good to win and be part of a larger collective in sharing that good feeling.

After all, you don't see colleges packin' 'em in to see women's basketball when the programs suck, do you?

It's the Tennnessees, Stanfords, and UConns rippin' the turnstiles, not most of the others.

Finally, I don't believe that Baton Rouge would support a WNBA team.

Neither will Bentonville, freakin' Arkansas. Read the fine print. Those arena/development investors want "hoopla" to sell something else altogether.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

For the schools that lead the NCAA WCBB attendance numbers, it's not about the student body, its about the overall community supporting those teams loyally for years. (See: Alberquerque's numbers for the Pit during WCBB season). The pricing is different, the atmosphere is different. There have been several articles written over the years (especially since the birth of the ABL and WNBA) re: why their attn. numbers are different. Not necessarily speaking directly to why the following does not always extend once the women go pro.

It isn't to say that none of the fan base follows the pro game, I just think it is not as automatic as people make it out to be.

I agree about Baton Rouge. The feeling was that alot of their attendance resurgence was a direct result of Augustus' arrival on that campus. I think the stat I had heard or read was that when she arrived ST sales increased 500-700 percent for LSU women's basketball.

 

[1kingzfan]

It isn't to say that none of the fan base follows the pro game, I just think it is not as automatic as people make it out to be.

True, but that's why Slim's got a good point, and it is somewhat perplexing. You would think with all these women's college programs going and their popularity and great attendance, it would translate over to the WNBA with resulting higher attendance at games than we see now.

I tried to give my own college fan experience as but a single data point, but I really have no idea why the situation exists as it does.