Dee W.
On January 25 th my original article on the WNBA wage gap was uploaded to the
website. If you haven’t checked it out, I recommend you do so because it is a great
read. The main focal point of the post was that WNBA players were making less
than half of what most NBA players was making and they both do the same sport.
There I described that the women players didn’t make as much because their
product isn’t viewed enough. From there I had some people ask me “what would
you do to get more viewers for the WNBA?” As I started giving different reasons
to different people, I decided to do a follow up to the original blog.
I feel like there are plenty of reasons why the league isn’t being viewed and for
some I fixes for some them. Frist, the WNBA players play their games during the
summertime going into fall. When they first made that schedule, it sounded like an
excellent idea. No competition between the NFL, NBA, College football, or
College Basketball. Most people believe the summertime is a down period for
sports in general. I can’t fault them for that reasoning but for some reason or
another it just isn’t working. I feel burned out at the end of the regular season of
the NBA and want a break from basketball in general so adding another season of
it afterwards feels like too much basketball. My fix to it is to move the WNBA’s
season to concede with the NBA’s. On heavy basketball days the NBA will run
four games throughout the day with a back-to-back headliner a couple day of the
week. I say whenever there are multiple games throughout the day put a women’s
game in between. That way you get the crowd from the last game coming in and
waiting for the next one to start. People aren’t going to just turn away if they are
already comfortable at a bar or with others watching some basketball. The same for
single NBA games I would put a WNBA before that for the people to have
something to watch before the big game. I believe at least that should raise new
viewer numbers to record levels for that season. But we got to do something
different for the brand to retain those new viewers. I would add former NBA guys
people know to the overall presentation. Retired guys like Reggie Miller, Chris
Webber, Mark Jackson, Dennis Scott, and many others already commentate during
the men’s games so I would keep them for their corresponding WNBA team.
If you don’t want to keep them there are plenty of other retired guys waiting for their
chance so this could be a good opportunity. Even during the games having more
retired NBA guys coaching will keep more eyes on the product such as Magic
Johnson and Derek Fisher. Getting big names as a constant presence on the show
will keep people engaged to the product because of familiarity. If a Pacers fan
hears Reggie Miller calling the game, he would stick around because that’s one of
his favorite players. During the halftime shows I would do the same with a mix of
retried WNBA and NBA players. Inside the NBA halftime show has actually done
this more throughout the past couple of years. They would give Ernie Johnson,
Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley a week or two off and replace them with others.
Before it was all men, but I started noticing they always have a WNBA player on
there now. I personally felt more interested in watching a WNBA game after
hearing people such as Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie give their insights on
games. Also seeing all-time greats like Shaquille O’Neal and Isiah Thomas respect
their opinions adds a little flair to it as well. For the first few seasons it wouldn’t
have to be the same cast every time; I would mix and match till I found a group
people love.
The WNBA’s season is incredibly short and would be done with the
regular season and playoffs before the NBA even got to the playoffs. So, there is
no competition between them during their playoffs. With the WNBA season
ending before the men’s playoffs, I would find ways to integrate the current
players onto pregame, halftime, and end of game shows to get more exposure. It is
small stuff like this that makes people start to identify both products together. Are
these the only fixes the league needs to be successful? No, there are plenty more
and If feedback is received, I will make a part two.
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