Conspiracy Theory: the Real Reason We Have the WNBA

Yesterday was draft day for the WNBA, a league that has yet to be profitable and is still subsidized by the NBA. While the amount of money funneled from the NBA is apparently small (Commisioner David Stern once described it as a mere "rounding error of our marketing expenses overall") it is curious that he continues to support a league that after 10 years still negatively impacts his bottom line.

Or maybe it's not curious at all. Stern is obsessed with globalization, and the WNBA may be helping him on that front. While the NBA is able to further globalization efforts in part by capitalizing on foreign NBA players who are popular in their home countries, the WNBA does not have as many foreign superstars. But that's ok, because Stern has a reverse globalization plan in action.

WNBA salaries are low: this year's #1 pick (Lindsey Harding of Duke) will receive a base salary of only $43,200 and the maximum veteran player salary is only $97,000 (per the WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement: PDF). While these are certainly respectable professional salaries, they pale in comparison to what many pro-athletes reel in. And they are low enough to hatch Stern's plan.

Low salaries drive WNBA athletes to make extra cash by playing overseas in the offseason for foreign leagues. For instance, star players like Lisa Leslie have played in Italy and Russia, last season's scoring leader Diana Taurasi played in Russia, and her Phoenix Mercury teammate Cappie Pondexter played the offseason in Turkey. These WNBA players become stars in Europe, Asia, and Australia and -- presto bango! -- they bring with them Stern's NBA brand and a whole lot of much-needed American basketball goodwill.

The WNBA not only tolerates offseason play (it is explicitly allowed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement), the league actually encourages it. Did you ever wonder why the WNBA season runs from May to September when the rest of the world plays basketball during the winter months? The league even excuses players from offseason promotional duties if they can show they are playing overseas. Rule changes were also made last year to the WNBA to reflect rules used internationally.

Some may think Stern's continued subsidization of the non-profitable WNBA is motivated by a simple desire to support women's sports. Or that he views the WNBA as a gateway drug for hooking female and family fans on the NBA (this is plausible). But knowing his (crafty?) ways, I'd say the WNBA is actually just a front for his Master Plan for World Domination.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-05-2007 @ 8:05PM

Stacey Franchise said...

You're not far off, Miss Gossip...

The plan is to actually build a Master Race... a 4th Reich, that specializes in basketball.... an Uberballer.

The plan is for increasing interactivity between the NBA and the W, which will in turn lead to a high spike in cross-league breeding. Said offspring will have the gene pool advntages that Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning and Ken Griffey enjoy.

Stern will, during the upcoming lean years following our loss of prestige after the Olympic defeat, hammer clauses into the CBA that allow him to mate specific players to each other.

With a bit of practice, Stern will be able to take a pure athlete like Gerald Green and mate him to a technical WNBA expert like Sue Bird... and produce a Durant-like hybrid that plays like a coach on the floor.

"There'll be like 10 billion Asians by the time Carmello Leslie is 18, and we'll need every bit of selective breeding we can get by then," said Stern. "What I really need to do is get Adam Morrison to f**k that kangaroo."

4-05-2007 @ 8:04PM

If I posted that twice, feel free to get rid of one of them. I get confused once the wine is opened.

4-05-2007 @ 9:48PM

peteb80 said...

I was visiting my family in Hungary last year and went to a game by the local team Mizo P�cs, who apparently are one of the top ten women's teams in Europe. I was really surprised to hear that they had a WNBA All-Star on their team in Vickie Johnson. It must be really weird for an American to go play in Hungary. They don't really speak English there and there are absolutely no black people AT ALL. While Hungary is probably not the hot market the NBA is looking for, I guess it's a great experience for their players, especially since the atmosphere in that gym was absolutely amazing and something those girls will never see or hear in the WNBA.

4-05-2007 @ 9:53PM

TheHype said...

Wait a tic Stacey ... that kangeroo is spoken for .. weeell spoken for, by one Andrew Bogut. In face, they're banging as well speak (type).

4-05-2007 @ 11:17PM

Fred Leonsis said...

Nope...science needs him to prove that someone was able to have sex with an Emu.

4-06-2007 @ 5:45PM

honey said...

"Rule changes were also made last year to the WNBA to reflect rules used internationally."

it was my impression that the rule changes were instituted to speed up the game, create more buzzer-beater shot opportunities, differentiate professional women's game from college women's game and move it closer to NBA game.

actually, WNBA players do experience large, sold out and loud crowds. unfortunately, they are generally reserved for Championship playoff games.

~

4-06-2007 @ 6:38PM

J. Mann said...

God the WNBA sucks. No way would I ever voluntarily watch any game for free, much less pay money to see middle-school level of play. Lower the rims and maybe, just maybe I'd tune in. Start putting attactive looking women in the game, then you're on.

4-07-2007 @ 11:21PM

captive upskirt fan said...

Your comments: ..... Um, another idea, Can you imagine a women's pro basketball
competition with all sexy fasion model players wearing stilletto high
heels, hot pants, and wet t shirts ? (saw a commercial once) brilliant
? you bet ! oh ! a sport to wager on ,,,I'll wager a captive audience.
Profits of ads go to feed the hungry and promote love , not war.
Chubby leauge ? God Forbid !
----------------------------------------------

4-08-2007 @ 12:41PM

Ricky Lock said...

WNBA is a great place for Lesbians to meet etc.

4-13-2007 @ 7:12PM

Queenie said...

First note: ah, how I love the way comments on women's sports posts go so quickly into the gutter. #9, for the record, I met my boyfriend at a Liberty game.

#3: Oh, believe me, VJ was surrounded by an intense and loving crowd in New York for nine years.

More to the point of the original post: I think you're right in that Stern enjoys using the WNBA as an entering wedge into the global market, but it cuts both ways. One of the major reasons why the season is so odd is to make sure that players don't choose Europe over America; most of the best international players would play at home instead of in the WNBA if they had to choose, and more than a few Americans would go to Europe instead of staying home.

I think it's also to make sure that the Europeans *do* come over, that we *do* get the Lauren Jacksons of the world in the WNBA. Much as the NBA wants to position itself as the best men's basketball product in the world, the WNBA wants to be the best women's basketball product in the world, and you can't do that without the best players.

4-26-2007 @ 5:43PM

v said...

that's wack these companies makes millions while blacks makes bullshit . If we were to reverse it. thoses people would destroy the world.. Cause they dont like to work, t6hey only like to tell people what to do.