Does the WNBA Finally Have Next?

There's much to like about the WNBA under President Donna Orender's leadership.

There is increased visibility on four networks as well as five new coaches, including the return of two-time league champion, Los Angeles Sparks head coach Michael Cooper. Perhaps most important, is a commitment to building stable ownership.

"I think it speaks to our viability that we're still around," Orender said Monday.

However, the league is not without challenges as it embarks on its 11th season. The Charlotte Sting, an original franchise that struggled on court and at the box office, was disbanded in the offseason for want of new investors. It’s the third time the WNBA has had to contract or transfer a franchise. But the good news, Orender says, is that the remaining 13 teams will benefit from a talent shift through the dispersal draft—trades of marquee players like Becky Hannon, who will go from New York to San Antonio—and a promising crop of rookies. For the first time since the WNBA opened for business, it expects to turn a profit, albeit a small one.

"It's a real sign of maturation for the league," Orender said. "It's good for the players and the league."

In addition, WNBA officials have been in contact with potential investors—Orender declines to identify them—about expansion franchises that could start play as early as 2008. California’s Bay Area; Albuquerque, N.M.; Kansas City, Mo.; Atlanta and Denver are under consideration, and there may yet be another team in Charlotte.

“We have spoken with some groups in Charlotte,” Orender said. “There are several groups we’ve talked to with great business models.”

Professional women's basketball is still a stepsister in America's sports consciousness. Football, men's basketball and baseball still rule the roost, with NASCAR moving up. Women's college basketball has marquee programs like Tennessee, Connecticut and Duke, but the WNBA has yet to grab the nation's attention.

Max Muhleman, a Charlotte-based sports marketing consultant and a mastermind of the permanent seat license that funded construction of Bank of America Stadium for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, says the WNBA is a tough sell given the current market, especially where the product has already been sampled.

"It’s difficult to imagine any advantage to a second time around in women’s basketball," he said. Of former Sting owner and Charlotte Bobcats founder, he says, "Bob Johnson was a capable owner, but he apparently decided this was something that wasn’t going to be supported. He certainly gave it a try."

To be successful, the league needs crossover stars that light up the national stage and attract new fans beyond the diehard core, according to Carol Peck, ESPN WNBA color analyst and former Orlando Miracle coach.

"The WNBA is getting closer to finding the key that turns that lock," she said. "The exposure will come with the increased talent level."

As for the league's health, Orender believes the WNBA's bottom line will move closer to black with Charlotte out of the mix. The Sting, which failed to make the playoffs in its final three seasons, averaged about 4,600 customers in 2006, putting it next to last in the league.

With Charlotte gone, the league's attendance average is expected to improve. "I would like to look at it as strengthening our league," Orender said. "You can't build a league when you have attendance increases for more than half your franchises and you have one in Charlotte that's holding you back. [The Bobcat owners] had a property they needed to concentrate on. They needed to move on and so did we."