Posted on 08/16/2014 8:05:10 AM PDT by EveningStar
I don’t know of anyone, nor have I ever heard of anyone, who has watched even one quarter of the WNBA.
They’re about as relevant as MSNBC.
I’ve always said that the WNBA was nothing more than another lesbian freak show.
If the lesbians were hot, like in the movies, I might watch more WNBA.
The WNBA still exists?
I’ve heard that too, that the girls league doesn’t make any money, and that they would go out of business, except for being underwritten by the NBA.
I think the NBA owners see the WNBA as something to promote basketball in general. But, I wonder how many millions they pour into this hole every year.
At what point would they expect the WNBA to stand on their own two feet, financially? Ever??
I have attended a few women’s college basketball games. And I must say, there were quite a few mannish looking females in the crowd. They may have been “lesbian” fans.
special....and think of the beautiful children they’ll produce...oh wait...
When I went to Cal State Fullerton, we had a good women’s team with an all-American, Nancy something or other. I went to a game, but it was just not at the same level as the men. If i pay for a ticket, I want to see the best I can and the women’s game is still not up to par.
Brittany went down on her knee to propose? Suppose her wife wanted to go down first? Very confusing.
good luck to them but why this even merits any thread is beyond me.
The WNBA - Where you really can lick your opponent.
Lesbians? In the WNBA???
My cousin, who is a militant lesbian is the only person I know who is a WNBA fan. What a waste of a professional sport.
And probably 98% of female players are straight..and VERY feminine..check out the pics of Elena Delle Donna
I like the physicality of sport. I want to see the best performances and ability.
I can see a good high school team run plays etc and pay 5 bucks to get in.
The climate in club sports is eminently healthy. The girls are playing for fun. The stronger players tend to get seriously competitive. They will play through high school, and some will continue through college. Most will drop out from serious athletics at that point, as is the case with men, but a few will continue for many more years in adult recreational leagues, some coed and some all women. This is all as it should be. There are no problems with this model, and I am glad that parents and schools have created the leagues and facilities that make it possible.
What messes with perceptions and sours the discussion is the influence of money at the tippy-top of the professional level. In most of the world, professional soccer players earn the big bucks. In the U.S., the big three are baseball, football, and hoops, with hockey a distant fourth. Everybody else starves, and plays mostly for fun, with the exception of a handful of outstanding players in golf, tennis, track, etc. (Individual and team sports are very different animals at the pro level.) Many of our Olympians in the non-revenue (i.e. non-tv) sports scrape by financially, supporting their sports addiction with low paying jobs that accommodate demanding training regimes. Outside of the big tv sports, very few athletes, male or female, are making much money.
At the professional level, women's sports have to be taken as things unto themselves. The constant urge to compare them to men's sports is a no-win game. The men are bigger, faster, stronger, etc. Women's basketball, soccer, and softball/baseball will never be played at the level of the men's games. So why bother to ask the question in the first place? Let the women's games be what they are, and build their own fan base as best they can.
Women's golf and tennis have already done this. Soccer is on the cusp. Two women's professional soccer leagues have folded, but the current iteration seems to be doing well. I will be taking my daughters to the last Washington Spirit home game this evening, and the stands will be full of parents taking their 11-18 year old soccer playing daughters to the game, with a pretty good sampling of young adult and some older women, most of whom clearly used to play the game themselves. For my money, that's what a sports crowd OUGHT to look like. The first question is whether women's soccer will develop a bigger adult fan base as time goes on. If they can hook the youth players early and retain them, that will work. And then the big question: will 20-something young women who love the game (and used to play) start bringing their significant others? Women need to sell the game to men if they want women's sports to succeed at the professional level. That said, I'm decades past the dating game, but if I were younger, and a comely young lass with an attachment to her team wanted to go to a game, I think I would be able to develop an interest.
We go to occasional DC United game as well. The men's game is at a higher athletic level. But U.S. women's soccer is among the best in the world. The men can't say that, yet. Appreciate both for what they are.
I forgot to include my most potent argument..women players can make free throws..men can’t....so there..
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