RebKell's Junkie Boards

[toad455]

before we jump the gun on adding four teams, let's also be real and think that either Dallas or Atlanta might get relocated in a few years.

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LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[Jet Jaguar]

The irony is there is actually plenty of talent for mass expansion of the league, yet there are players currently in the league who have no business being on a WNBA roster (even if there was expansion).

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Oderint dum metuant - Let them hate, so long as they fear

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[sigur3]

A team with both Diamond and GloJo on it, kill me now

[caune]

[Richyyy]

I do think it'd be interesting how quickly we'd adjust to a 'new normal' of 'good' players/teams and 'bad' players/teams. The problem with expansion is it's pretty hard to tell whether the dilution to the player pool has made a meaningful difference to the overall quality, because you're not diluting evenly. It's not like you're adding a player to the end of every bench for every new team, or throwing them all in a big pot and redrafting. Typically you're having an expansion draft of weak players, and creating a couple of terrible teams who'll take at least two or three years to even become mediocre. So how the hell do you tell what it's realistically doing to the talent pool?

If there was a way to add 4+ teams to the league and even out the players, I don't think the entertainment level would drop that much, to be honest. We'd adapt, and I think very, very few people would stop watching while declaring "the games were so much better before all that expansion!" I think we'd all adapt pretty quickly.

Of course, the main impediment to expansion is finding committed owners who want to put the money in (and continue doing so in future years). It's not really about the players or the impact on the product.

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Independent WNBA coverage: http://www.wnbalien.com/

[WNBA 09]

[pilight]

[ArtBest23]

I'm not sure I understand what appears to be the underlying premise, that more teams in a league makes the league more "exciting".

I have witnessed expansion in every major pro sports league over the years. I don't recall a single instance in which the league became more "exciting" just by becoming bigger. Maybe it was appreciated by and more available to fans in the locations of the new franchises, but for fans in locations of existing franchises or in locations without franchises I don't recall any increase in "excitement". Nor do I understand why mere growth should be expected to improve the quality of the game experience.

Would baseball truly be any less interesting or exciting if the Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Rays had never been added? It improved access for fans in those four cities (to the extent there are any, which is dubious for the two Florida franchises). But did it somehow improve the quality or excitement level of Major League Baseball just by adding four teams? I'm sceptical.

[pilight]

[ArtBest23]

[Richyyy]

I would also argue that the league doesn't need 60 games. The implications of that - that the WNBA is thriving financially, can sell tickets for that many games, that players wouldn't even bother to go overseas because they'd be making so much in the US etc. - would be great. But I generally think that US sports play way, way, way too many games. Especially when you consider that all the regular season is doing is deciding playoff participation/position, not the actual final standings and champion of the season.

Frankly, given the choice, I'd rather see the NBA season reduced down closer to 34 games than the WNBA pushed up towards 82.

_________________
Independent WNBA coverage: http://www.wnbalien.com/

[pilight]

[StevenHW]

I have no problem or concern about whether or not the WNBA has enough talent for expansion of teams.

I'm more concerned about finding owners who are willing to invest in a WNBA team and keep it running.

Frankly, I get tired of reading/hearing about which cities should get a WNBA team. A city does not "own" a WNBA franchise. People or groups do. I would be far more interested in which persons should be interested in getting a WNBA team started.

There is also another concern: expansion means the existing teams have to give up a certain player. If there are more than one team expanding in a year, make that multiple players from that same team would be allowed to be taken. And I'm not sure if current teams are willing to give up a player that easily.

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"The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine." -- George Bernard Shaw

[ClayK]

[tfan]

[GEF34]

[GEF34]

The only way it would work to expand the teams is to redraft the entire league. Even if you say each team can only protect 4 players, I think it will still make it difficult for the lower teams and expansion teams to rise to the top because the top teams, Minnesota, LA, Washington, New York, Phoenix will still have their cores intact.

[MuneravenMN]

Minnesota belongs in the Midwest. We are a Midwestern State and all our teams have rivalries with other Midwestern teams.

West
LA
San Fran
Seattle
Phoenix

Midwest
Chicago
Minnesota
Cleveland
Indiana

East
NY
Connecticut
D.C.
Philly

South
Dallas
San Antonio
Atlanta
Tennessee

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Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.
--John Wooden

[toad455]

personally, I see the next four cities as Portland, San Francisco, Cleveland & Tennessee.

EAST
New York
Connecticut
Washington
Atlanta

CENTRAL
Chicago
Indiana
Cleveland
Tennessee

MIDWEST
Phoenix
Dallas
San Antonio
Minnesota

WEST
Seattle
Portland
San Francisco
Los Angeles

_________________
LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[toad455]

I was thinking today that Steph Curry's new $201 million contract would cover about the fees for 10 expansion teams and every player's salary for the next five years.

_________________
LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[SDHoops]

[Randy]

I think the whole business model is wrong. They need to get rid of the salary cap and make this into a league where billionaires compete against each other to buy championships. We have plenty of vain, arrogant, egomaniac billionaires. It might also keep them busy enough to stay away from other activities where they can do a lot more harm.