WNBA faces financial, labor woes in sixth season

WASHINGTON -- The Women's National Basketball Association moved toward Monday night's All-Star Game with both hope and trepidation about its future. That the game was held at MCI Center brightens the mood, because Washington, its crowds large and supportive for the Mystics, understands. And the Mystics know most of those fans care as much about advancing women in every nook of society as basketball, and slant their marketing in that direction.

So successful has that marriage been that team president Susan O'Malley can utter the ultimate bottom-line statement many others in her position only dream about: "We make money."

Few outside the NBA, which bankrolls the 6-year-old league, can gauge its financial pulse. The WNBA players' association has been given access to lots of data, but Executive Director Pam Wheeler would like an independent audit. There is talk of a strike if a new collective bargaining agreement cannot be negotiated after the present one expires at season's end, although the usual NBA tactic in such situations is a lockout.

"We feel very good about where we are," said WNBA President Val Ackerman of the 16-team league. "We've doubled in size since our first year. The quality of play in general is noticeably advanced. The impact of our rookies is very real."

But several teams are in trouble, and the Charlotte Sting became a ward of the league when the NBA Hornets bolted to New Orleans.

"I hope it goes forward," said Mystics forward Vicky Bullett, who has played in the WNBA for its entire existence, the first three seasons with the Sting and the past three here. "For me, it seems like it's not going to last as long as people believe. I'm hoping it will last 10 years. But it's shaky. I don't know if we're going to make it another four. That's kind of hard to see."

The league does not have a rights fee in the six-year television contract it recently signed with ABC and ESPN. It sells the commercials and shares revenues with the networks. The WNBA also has a television presence with Oxygen Media.

"If the WNBA were a stand-alone league, it would have folded already," said Marc Ganis, who follows franchises in all the major sports for Chicago-based SportsCorp Limited. "`It could be self-sufficient five to 10 years down the road as long as either the players or the league don't self-destruct."

Investment, not expense

"We've invested $8 million in the WNBA, and the traditional male media (cry): 'Oh my God, it's losing money.' It's not losing money. It's an investment," NBA Commissioner David Sterntold Business Week.

The NBA's commitment, Stern said, "is indefinite. Unending. It's why we gave it our name."

WNBA attendance is on a pace to be the lowest ever. The average for each of the first five seasons was 9,669, 10,869, 10,207, 9,074 and 9,075. The average so far this season is under 8,500, but Ackerman said attendance picks up in July and August.

As to franchise stability, Ackerman said the league intends to keep the Sting in Charlotte. "They've built a foundation that we think will be successful long term," she said.

The WNBA doubled its original eight-team setup in four years. Ackerman said the league intends to put a franchise in San Antonio next season if it gets 6,000 season-ticket pledges by November.

After San Antonio on the WNBA expansion agenda, Ackerman said, is a team through the Golden State Warriors that would test the Bay Area. That could happen by 2004.

Much focus lately has been on the league's collective bargaining agreement with the players that expires Sept. 15. In addition to higher pay, the union wants at least limited free agency and better marketing deals for players.

"We want the league to make a commitment to the players that the players have made to the league," Wheeler said. "No one wants a stoppage, but (a strike) is a possibility. We've got to consider every possibility."