From the late 80's on the NBA has enjoyed a boom in it's popularity. Fueled by great player Bird, Magic, Thomas, and Mike and the rivalries that were spawned from them. The NBA found itself with a lot of extra income it used it to expand into Canada while other places like Mexico City were considered. This also culminated in a time of some very strong USA olympic basketball teams ( dream teams) in which the rest of the world was hilariously outmatched. This includes the womens teams anchored by standouts like Swoopes, Lobo, and Leslie. Since the NBA was trying to take advantage of all this growth NBA commishioner David Stern saw a great PR opportunity. A chance to use the women's succes to market Basketball to a new demographic. He knew by pairing a lot of women teams with established NBA franchises the newly formed women teams could operate at a loss ( most WNBA teams still do). And this way it's like an extension of the men's franchises. The women would play during the NBA off season. So they don't compete with the guys for revenue as they'd surely loose. Ask the ABL, a women's league formed at about the same time. It was founded in 1996 and had folded by 1998. As long as the NBA rides this boom they can afford to keep rhe WNBA going. But if the poularity if rhe NBA starts to falter u guarantee you the WNBA is going to be one of the first cuts the NBA will make.
The WNBA is great - every bit as good as the NCAA or NBA, but they've had a difficult time getting legitimate TV time so people weren't seeing it.
However, the situation is improving both on the TV front and, just as important, the salary front. We can't have our best WNBA stars going to Europe or China and then having career-ending injuries making them unavailable for the WNBA.
Really, the WNBA should be on BROADCAST TV (ABC) regularly during the summer because there's not much else on sports-wise. If we really did support women, we'd respect them.
You think it’s as entertaining as the NBA? I think watching the NBA is boring college players are wayyy more entertaining but the athleticism in the NBA is absolutely unreal so that’s what I watch for but the WNBA just doesn’t have that absurd factor that would drive me to actively want to watch it
It was like what Howard Stern said shortly after the WNBA was inaugurated. He was open-minded (being so tall himself and liking hoops) and, after watching one of the first games said "I guess vagina just doesn't belong in the paint."
However, about 3 years ago, I got hooked on the playoffs. These women were busting their ass with all sorts of drama and clock management issues that it was easy to be exciting for it. I was irked that some of the playoff games went solely to cable. Anyway, in non-COVID years, I do look forward to both WNBA and NWHL seasons.
I can understand women’s hockey as it will still be the same game as men’s hockey just like track or tennis. But basketball is probably the only sport that I can say loses entertainment between the sexes solely due to the height of the rim for the women I think they should lower it a little bit so the women can do the same things as the men then I believe it will take off more. It already has the fact that women are playing going for them so people are already going to watch for that and if they wind up dunking over each other then the ratings are going to go crazy. AND they’ll be able to get paid more in that case but the players don’t like that solution because of their pride
@Birdlegs The rim is standard at 10 feet for all sexes everywhere on Earth. It's been 10 feet since 1891 when the average male player was about 5 foot 6 inches.
In the NBA, players got bigger and the style of play changed because of the ABA. That's what makes it more intense around the post now. The WNBA will do the same thing over time with women players getting taller. Right now, the average WNBA player is slightly over 6 feet tall - considerable more than the 5-foot-6 man when hoops was invented.
That’s true but the game was also SOOO much worse back then. Those black and white highlight reels from back before the 3 point line are painful to watch. And back to the athleticism of the average height is slightly above 6 feet how come no one is dunking? I think there’s been a few dunks in the WNBA but they were rim grazers that you’ll see at a boys middle school game and they are professional athletes. Track makes accommodations for women to keep the intensity up. In the Olympics the women’s hurdles are lower, the shot put is lighter, the discus is lighter. I’m sure they originally weren’t different but now it is. Who would want to see women race at the hurdle height of the men? It would be so much slower and they would hit the hurdles way more. Or who would want to watch the women throw the same weight shot put as the men it won’t go nearly as far. People want to see the fastest, the farthest, and most exciting things thats why people watch professional sports
@Birdlegs Yes, the NBA was lame until the ABA changed the game. The ABA did not adopt 3 things from the NBA: 1) The ABA had a 30-second clock. 2) In the ABA, at times, you could have a 3-to-make-2. I believe it was invoked if a player got 6 fouls (so fouling out was different and this was necessitated by the economics) or a team had more than 5 team fouls in a half. 3) The red, white, and blue ball. Had the ABA been able to copyright that color scheme, we'd be watching the ABA and not the NBA because, in the 1970s, we ALL had "ABA balls" on the playgrounds. After all, that was the decade of the Bicentennial. The ABA would have made money hand-over-fist because of those balls.
Men are far more interested in sports than women. Therefore, women in sports don't attract many women fans. And, obviously there is a huge difference in abilities of men and women in sporting events. Therefore, unless the women have something that appeals to men, men are going to be interested in watching athletes that have significantly more ability.
So what is it that women athletes can have that attracts men? It's sex appeal. Women figure skaters appeal to men because they are extremely beautiful and sexy. In the past, women tennis players had that appeal--pretty and sexy outfits. However, when monster size women that have no sex appeal dominated women's tennis, men lost interest in watching women's tennis.
With size (height and weight) being such a huge advantage in basketball, WNBA players are not sexy. Men don't have much interest in watching ugly women and since few women are rabid sport fans, the WNBA doesn't attract a large number fans that are needed for ticket sales and to attract advertisers.
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NathanDavis | 173 opinions shared on Sports topic.
Master
1 y
Then I guess every single athlete in the Olympics should get a gold medal just for showing up, minus the skill, performance and achievements, they're all doing the same in their categories, "no differences"
You just don't uinderstand sports one bit. That is why you prefer to blame it on gender.
You see it "obvious" for the Olympics but not for the other competitions, it's all there, the skill is different, the performance is different, and so are the achievements, there's also decades of tradition, there's history, and the need to belong, there's investments, there's projection, there's interest or the lack of it, and so much more, many other things that come first... and all before gender.
you don't even bother to understand why the WNBA is the WNBA, before you make this post... and you expect true fans of the game to take it more seriously... even true fans of the game are having a hard time watching the NBA, so that's all you need to know, you don't care one bit and others don't have to either.
Watching the best drivers/fighters/athletes fighting for the most prestigious titles and championships is what interests me. Sure, 2 random dudes on my local court may lead to a more interesting, closer match, however watching the best NBA teams will provide big names, players with better technique fighting for stakes way higher than in the first game.
The value fans place on it. NBA has been around longer than the WNBA. Fans were treated to that and then look at the WNBA and it's such a downgrade in every single way.
But they don’t need to, they have a huge audience... for now. Once the boomers and some other start dying off I don’t know if the Millennials and Gen Z will be big fans. So perhaps then.
Anonymous
1 y
LMFAO! Yeah--no shit you're not a sports guy! If you think there's no difference between the WNBA the NCAA and the NBA you're leaving NO doubt that you're not a sports guy!
But what makes a game fun? Seems like it’s gender based for you.
Opinion Owner
1 y
LMFAO! It seems like it's gender based for me? REALLY? Based on what? I'd recommend spending less time with the "absolutely EVERY phenomenon in the world is about gender and race" crowd. *smh*
Fuck you’re dense. You like NCAA and NBA but hate WNBA. I’m asking for actual reasons why.
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Opinion Owner
1 y
The level of skill is MUCH higher in the NBA than in the others. If my only options were to watch a WNBA game and a group of 5th graders playing basketball then I'd probably opt for the WNBA for the same reason. But fortunately that isn't the choice.
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