New Los Angeles Sparks Ownership Concern Me

[Purple Reign]

Is it just me, or does anybody else have concerns with the sale of the Los Angeles Sparks to two season ticket holders with not a shred of basketball, marketing, or ownership experience (outside of being high school players) buying one of the model franchises of the WNBA without their franchise player.

I know that they can not help who can and can not get pregnant. But I believe in my gut, that this sale and the future condition of the Los Angeles Sparks will have a ripple effect upon the league if the new owners do not handle this properly. Because as the Sparks goes, so goes the league IMHO.

FROM THE LA TIMES
"They (the new owners) are embarking on the most difficult sports sales mission in this city and, oh, by the way, they just lost their only recognizable asset". And........

"We need every night to be a special night," Christofferson said. "Daddy Date Night, Girls Night Out, that sort of thing. Every night will be unique." For all their generosity, the Buss family still treated the team like a strange cousin. They didn't market it well, didn't sell it hard, didn't really do much but open the doors and lean on Leslie". (It just gives me the impression that every night at the Staples Center will be like "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh")

and.....

"There were lots of reasons to not own this team, mostly centering on the fact that this is a club losing $3 million a year in a town where it has zero buzz."

And now Lisa Leslie is gone for 2007 and maybe for good.

I know that what is going on down in Los Angeles should not be our concern here in Sacramento, but I am not quite convinced that this whole independant ownership and the evenual weaning franchises off of the NBA is good right now. I don't think the league is ready, especially if . And too me, it is not all about the health of the Monarchs, it is about the health of the league.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I'm not sure I see the league "weaning" off NBA franchises-the weaning took place years ago as teams that were strong armed (or so it felt) onto NBA owners who had zero (with a capital ZERO) interest in owning them but they were in cities where they needed the TV market(or so it felt).

Up until they won their first title, you could never have convinced me the Buss family cared about the Sparks. The marketing was weak, the fan base was anemic and it just struck me as general disinterest. I'm not sure the fan base and marketing got all that much better since then, but I seemed to notice it more.

I don't care what their background is, if they have (1) interest in the league (2) enough money to buy the team (3) intestinal fortitude to stay invested in the team for the long haul or at least be committed long enough to find another buyer. They don't have to know anything about marketing/promotion etc., hell, they don't even have to know anything about basketball for that matter. That's why they hire staff who can create a plan and a vision.

Show me one professional sport where model franchise(s) have not changed ownership hands. (I also beg to differ with the term "model" being attached to the Sparks....I think we might be one of the teams most deserving of that label with the way our franchise has been run since the Maloofs took it over. ) There aren't any.

If this league folds, it will fold with NBA affiliations or without. There's no guarantee either way so I don't know that I necessarily see this as a bad omen. I just want owners owning these teams that want to own them, and aren't doing so out of a sense of obligation. I don't know many people who can can throw around the amount of money needed to buy into the league and do so on a whim. Although I can be as impulsive as the next shopper, I don't have that much cash laying around under seat cushions.

 

[Carole]

The new owners look quite young to have amassed that much money - where did I go wrong!!!!

 

[Purple Reign]

(I also beg to differ with the term "model" being attached to the Sparks....I think we might be one of the teams most deserving of that label with the way our franchise has been run since the Maloofs took it over. )

I guess the reason I say model franchise for the Sparks, is because every league is driven by big market teams. And the league is better off when the health of your big market teams are doing well, i.e. New York Yankees, New York Giants, Chicago Bears Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. A small market team such as in Sacramento or Salt Lake City or Green Bay will never drive the marketing of a league.

To me these ladies seemed to be more "enthusiastic, hands on" owners like Mark Cuban than the "buy the team and go back and sit in their season ticket seats" owners like The Maloofs.

By the way, now that Leslie is gone for 2007, my Western Conference Predicitons are:

1. Sacramento
2. Phoenix
3. Seattle
4. San Antonio

The schedule will be released in a few weeks, i can't wait for the season. It is good to have a little WNBA off season talk.