I was asked by someone on the board to recap of President Donna Orender’s Q&A with season ticket holders last Friday. From what I was told when I arrived 400 season ticket holders RSVP’d to the invitation and both the East and West lounges at ARCO were filled to capacity. Donna spoke and answered questions in both lounges.
I was in the West lounge and here’s what she had to say there….she started her remarks with a shout out to Sacramento fans and quickly followed that with a “look, I know you wanna bark at me about the officiating” disclaimer before talking about the process for reviewing the officials and where the pipeline for officials originates. Seemed more of the standard line Ackerman used to come up with, these are the best of the college ranks and it’s the same as for those headed to the NBA. The refs review video of their calls after each game and the coaches rank the officials etc. She answered questions about expansion (its coming), about the alllstar game coming west/Sacramento(teams need to ask to get it and want to have it before it comes – one will be West in the “next two years”). She was asked about the lack of national games or accessibility to more non local games (they are working out something with the satellite carriers to provide access to more games I believe for next season and I think something else with another network and more broadband etc).
She was asked about expanding the season and her answer here was related to another question about raising the salaries of the players so they aren’t going overseas to make their money(until the attendance grows, more local and national corporate sponsors come in neither is happening – teams have to become viable with the level of tickets and revenue they generate now before we can start looking at significant levels of growth in the number of games played and salaries). She also was asked if the younger players (i.e. Taurasi) are tarnishing the game with their behavior (she didn’t believe so, she felt playing with passion and being a detriment to the league aren’t the same thing, she felt the players are all committed to growing the league and keeping it positive). Interesting question which seems sorta off kilter with what Stern said in his Bee interview - she was asked if the league was considering a re-branding/brand changing effort and she said that was on the table for discussion, but I don’t remember her elaborating on that too much beyond that other than being interested in the ideas the person who asked the question had.
Someone who heard her in the East lounge…any comments you want to add from what she said there that might have been different from what she was asked on the West side?
Thoughts I had during her remarks…I hoped she was intimating that League pass was coming back…, I’m not sure I entirely buy why they won’t expand the schedule if they expand the league, I hate their unbalanced schedule as it is and if your teams can’t sell tickets to more games, let’s help them figure THAT out first before we go bringing new teams in and jacking up schedules. If we go bring 2-3 more teams back into this league and go back to a schedule where you may only play 1 game against an opponent in the other conference and an unbalanced schedule against half the teams in your own conference I think that’s stupid and screws with the marketing teams can do. But it was a better answer to any that Val Ackerman ever gave. And the allstar game coming West in two years…roll eyes.
I was in the West lounge and here’s what she had to say there….she started her remarks with a shout out to Sacramento fans and quickly followed that with a “look, I know you wanna bark at me about the officiating” disclaimer before talking about the process for reviewing the officials and where the pipeline for officials originates. Seemed more of the standard line Ackerman used to come up with, these are the best of the college ranks and it’s the same as for those headed to the NBA. The refs review video of their calls after each game and the coaches rank the officials etc. She answered questions about expansion (its coming), about the alllstar game coming west/Sacramento(teams need to ask to get it and want to have it before it comes – one will be West in the “next two years”). She was asked about the lack of national games or accessibility to more non local games (they are working out something with the satellite carriers to provide access to more games I believe for next season and I think something else with another network and more broadband etc).
She was asked about expanding the season and her answer here was related to another question about raising the salaries of the players so they aren’t going overseas to make their money(until the attendance grows, more local and national corporate sponsors come in neither is happening – teams have to become viable with the level of tickets and revenue they generate now before we can start looking at significant levels of growth in the number of games played and salaries). She also was asked if the younger players (i.e. Taurasi) are tarnishing the game with their behavior (she didn’t believe so, she felt playing with passion and being a detriment to the league aren’t the same thing, she felt the players are all committed to growing the league and keeping it positive). Interesting question which seems sorta off kilter with what Stern said in his Bee interview - she was asked if the league was considering a re-branding/brand changing effort and she said that was on the table for discussion, but I don’t remember her elaborating on that too much beyond that other than being interested in the ideas the person who asked the question had.
Someone who heard her in the East lounge…any comments you want to add from what she said there that might have been different from what she was asked on the West side?
Thoughts I had during her remarks…I hoped she was intimating that League pass was coming back…, I’m not sure I entirely buy why they won’t expand the schedule if they expand the league, I hate their unbalanced schedule as it is and if your teams can’t sell tickets to more games, let’s help them figure THAT out first before we go bringing new teams in and jacking up schedules. If we go bring 2-3 more teams back into this league and go back to a schedule where you may only play 1 game against an opponent in the other conference and an unbalanced schedule against half the teams in your own conference I think that’s stupid and screws with the marketing teams can do. But it was a better answer to any that Val Ackerman ever gave. And the allstar game coming West in two years…roll eyes.
