WNBA Will Weather Shocking Move

It's a bit of whiplash that two weeks after fans filled arenas in Indianapolis and Phoenix, after the WNBA got some momentum out of a fabulous Finals series, one of the league's most successful franchises is packing up and leaving its town.

The Detroit Shock reportedly are headed to Tulsa, a new ownership group ready to take over with former Arkansas men's basketball coach Nolan Richardson at the helm. It's another blow to a league that has gotten awfully adept at absorbing them over the years.

The Detroit Shock debuted in 1998. They earned a reputation as a hard-nosed, battle-ready reflection of coach Bill Laimbeer and won titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008. Just a few weeks ago, the Shock were facing off with the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference Finals. And now, they are off to Oklahoma.

But the Shock are not the first team in the league to move or to fold -- in fact, they are the eighth. And they won't be the last. Franchise stability has never been an indicator of the league's stability.

Attendance is down -- but viable -- and the while the TV package isn't as visible as anyone would seem to like, the league still appears on solid footing. Playoff television ratings were up 54 percent, 73 percent during the Finals.

Franchises in Charlotte, Cleveland, Miami, Portland, Utah, Portland and Houston have folded or moved during the league's 13-year-history. And the league has always picked up and moved on.

The demise that's been predicted annually for years isn't imminent and the fact that new ownership groups are willing to step up and invest says as much. It would be much more worrisome for the league if the Shock just went away.

And Detroit might not even turn out to be the league's only move. After just two seasons as an expansion team, Atlanta may be in the midst of an ownership change, with the team's primary owner, Ron Terwilliger, informing the league that he wants to relinquish control. The Dream went from four wins in their inaugural season to the playoffs in their second. Now the team is shopping for new ownership and hopes to stay in Atlanta.

Heck, even the WNBA-finalist Fever needed their owner to issue a statement at season's end that said the team would be staying in Indiana in order to fend off speculation that it was in jeopardy as well.

Detroit is a city that has been hit especially hard by the economic downturn. The Shock drew an average of 8,011 a game this past season, just under the league average, but well off the 9,749 they drew in 2007. Corporate sponsorships couldn't have been easy to find in a beleaguered city suffering through the collapse of the auto industry.

Tulsa represents a fresh start. Oklahoma has been good to women's basketball, providing enthusiastic support for Sherri Coale's Sooners program through the years. Tulsa is a city of 385,000 and will be one of the smallest markets in the league. The team will be looking to fill an arena of 18,000 seats, but at least they are selling big names such as Cheryl Ford, Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan, along with winning basketball.