I agree with the others, in praise for Donna. She is exactly the right kind of person the WNBA needs in the league president's role.
Granted, it's still early in her tenure, and as MBF said, she still is in the "honeymoon" phase of her presidency.
But as a businesswoman, she has the sales skills to help promote the league into the next level. Through her years as the Vice-President of the PGA Tour, she knows about marketing, public relations, brand management, promotion through sales and TV exposure, . Plus the fact that she has played in a professional league once before --- in the old Women's Pro Basketball League in the late 70's and early 80's --- is all the more the reason why Donna is an outstanding choice.
From last year, here's a chat recap with Donna:
http://www.wnba.com/chat_and_mailboxes/orender_chatrecap_050220.html
Val Ackerman was hired mainly because she happened to be working as a legal counsel in the NBA front office when the WNBA began. Her plans to expand the league were well-intentioned, but she did not have the marketing know-how to sell the teams. And as a result, the league ended up expanding too much, too soon. Oftentimes, I felt that the league was missing out on a huge opprtunity to market itself, but the league under Val's stewardship just didn't have the imagination or the drive to promote the league.
But in fairness to Val, as an attorney, she had the legal background and labor expertise that a newly-formed league needs to have, especially since it was inevitable that the league was going to have to deal with issues such as free agency and the salary cap.
In retrospect, perhaps Val was the right person the WNBA needed at the time, but the league should've went with another person by the fourth of fifth year. She just hung around too long.
