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Randy
Joined: 08 Oct 2011
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 Posted: 10/04/18 6:47 am ::: |
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Interesting article on attendance trends which seems relevant.
https://medium.com/her-hoop-stats/wnba-attendance-declines-in-2018-what-does-that-mean-for-the-league-4b88e59583f1
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| Since 2010, when the WNBA shrunk to its current 12 teams, total attendance has hovered between 1.3 and 1.65 million fans per season, peaking in 2011. In 2018, average per-game attendance was 6,721 fans, down 13% from 2017. |
| Quote: |
| However, those numbers don’t mean that nobody is watching the WNBA. For games televised on ESPN, viewership increased by 35 percent from 2017 to 2018. ESPN’s 231,000 viewers in 2018 were the most since 2014, and a June game between Los Angeles and Seattle was the most-watched regular season game on ESPN since 2013. |
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| For the 2010–2018 WNBA seasons, winning percentage accounted for nearly ¼ (23.5%) of the attendance difference between teams. |
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| 2018 was widely considered the best season in league history in terms of parity across the league. (Just look at last-place Indiana: two of its five wins were over Minnesota and Los Angeles, last year’s finalists.) |
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GlennMacGrady
Joined: 03 Jan 2005
Posts: 8225
Location: Heisenberg
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| Posted: 10/04/18 8:21 am ::: |
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| Randy wrote: |
Interesting article on attendance trends which seems relevant.
https://medium.com/her-hoop-stats/wnba-attendance-declines-in-2018-what-does-that-mean-for-the-league-4b88e59583f1
| Quote: |
| Since 2010, when the WNBA shrunk to its current 12 teams, total attendance has hovered between 1.3 and 1.65 million fans per season, peaking in 2011. In 2018, average per-game attendance was 6,721 fans, down 13% from 2017. |
| Quote: |
| However, those numbers don’t mean that nobody is watching the WNBA. For games televised on ESPN, viewership increased by 35 percent from 2017 to 2018. ESPN’s 231,000 viewers in 2018 were the most since 2014, and a June game between Los Angeles and Seattle was the most-watched regular season game on ESPN since 2013. |
| Quote: |
| For the 2010–2018 WNBA seasons, winning percentage accounted for nearly ¼ (23.5%) of the attendance difference between teams. |
| Quote: |
| 2018 was widely considered the best season in league history in terms of parity across the league. (Just look at last-place Indiana: two of its five wins were over Minnesota and Los Angeles, last year’s finalists.) |
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Very scholarly article. Her Hoops Stats is a site that deserves attention. |
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ClayK
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 11140
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| Posted: 10/04/18 9:37 am ::: |
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Very good article ...
*Of course announced attendance and actual attendance are two different numbers, and it did appear to some observers (I'm not one of them as there's no nearby franchise to watch) that the count was more accurate this year. Still, basing analysis on WNBA figures is always shaky.
*I know MLB attendance is down, NASCAR attendance is down, the Alabama student section was half-full for a football game, and from personal experience, attendance at high school sporting events is down. It would be interesting to see how the WNBA numbers fit with the overall trend in attendance at live sporting events. My sense, for what it's worth, is that the golden age of American sports is waning, and that athletic events are becoming less important as live events and more important as content for on-line and broadcast media. It could be that compared to the overall decline in the sports audience, the WNBA is holding its own. Or not ...
*As always, however, I am heartened that 4,500 people are willing to pay cold hard cash to watch women play basketball on a regular basis. When I graduated from high school, girls' sports were one day all year, and the big goal for a lot of female students was to be one of the cheerleaders. Times have indeed changed ...
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hyperetic
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 5356
Location: Fayetteville
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| Posted: 10/04/18 9:46 am ::: |
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| Ay Mate wrote: |
I felt she never cared about the league or it’s players because she wasn’t a fan of the WNBA before she was president anyways. That said, she did a pretty decent job in her time with the league. Couldn’t stand her personality though. Fake and phoney.
The only person that I can think of that would be an outstanding President would be Amber Cox. In fact, she’d be the best WNBA President we’ve ever had no doubt in my mind. |
This is Lisa Borders right? A season ticket holder to the Atlanta Dream before she took the WNBA presidency? That Lisa Borders wasn't a fan?
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/sports/basketball/wnba-picks-lisa-m-borders-as-its-new-president.html |
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Randy
Joined: 08 Oct 2011
Posts: 10911
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| Posted: 10/04/18 10:15 am ::: |
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| ClayK wrote: |
| My sense, for what it's worth, is that the golden age of American sports is waning, and that athletic events are becoming less important as live events and more important as content for on-line and broadcast media. |
With ticket prices soaring ever higher and higher, traffic congestion seemingly always getting worse, big screen TV's that deliver a better view than you can ever get at a game, and DVR to let you watch it whenever you want, maybe people just don't see the need to show up for games. As Yogi Berra said " If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them."
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root_thing
Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Posts: 7365
Location: Underground
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| Posted: 10/04/18 12:05 pm ::: |
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| Randy wrote: |
| ClayK wrote: |
| My sense, for what it's worth, is that the golden age of American sports is waning, and that athletic events are becoming less important as live events and more important as content for on-line and broadcast media. |
With ticket prices soaring ever higher and higher, traffic congestion seemingly always getting worse, big screen TV's that deliver a better view than you can ever get at a game, and DVR to let you watch it whenever you want, maybe people just don't see the need to show up for games. As Yogi Berra said " If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them." |
Which is why on the Liberty and WCC threads, I've been talking about management using a TV show model. Keep the expenses super low and maybe you can just live off your ESPN money and the shared sponsorship money from Verizon or whomever else. A modicum of fans in the arena is needed to augment the scenery and provide ambient sound. Anything more than that is icing on the cake.
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Richyyy
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 24348
Location: London
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| Posted: 10/04/18 12:43 pm ::: |
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| root_thing wrote: |
| ...and the shared sponsorship money from Verizon or whomever else. |
That deal's expiring, by the way. Which isn't going to help the whole "pay us more" thing. |
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010
Posts: 9606
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| Posted: 10/04/18 8:48 pm ::: |
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| Richyyy wrote: |
| root_thing wrote: |
| ...and the shared sponsorship money from Verizon or whomever else. |
That deal's expiring, by the way. Which isn't going to help the whole "pay us more" thing. |
This article seems to say that the Boost and Verizon deals were with both the NBA and the WNBA. Which could mean that the WNBA has to either negotiate a new deal with the NBA, or just wait for the NBA to negotiate a new one.
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| Verizon is replacing Boost Mobile as the WNBA’s marquee partner. Boost Mobile is a division of Sprint, which did not renew its four-year, $222 million deal with the NBA when it expired last year. Verizon assumed those rights in the wireless service provider category, announcing a multiyear deal in November, with that sponsorship extending through all league assets: the NBA, WNBA and D-League. |
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Luuuc
#NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 21926
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| Posted: 10/04/18 9:26 pm ::: |
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| GlennMacGrady wrote: |
| Randy wrote: |
Interesting article on attendance trends which seems relevant.
https://medium.com/her-hoop-stats/wnba-attendance-declines-in-2018-what-does-that-mean-for-the-league-4b88e59583f1
| Quote: |
| Since 2010, when the WNBA shrunk to its current 12 teams, total attendance has hovered between 1.3 and 1.65 million fans per season, peaking in 2011. In 2018, average per-game attendance was 6,721 fans, down 13% from 2017. |
| Quote: |
| However, those numbers don’t mean that nobody is watching the WNBA. For games televised on ESPN, viewership increased by 35 percent from 2017 to 2018. ESPN’s 231,000 viewers in 2018 were the most since 2014, and a June game between Los Angeles and Seattle was the most-watched regular season game on ESPN since 2013. |
| Quote: |
| For the 2010–2018 WNBA seasons, winning percentage accounted for nearly ¼ (23.5%) of the attendance difference between teams. |
| Quote: |
| 2018 was widely considered the best season in league history in terms of parity across the league. (Just look at last-place Indiana: two of its five wins were over Minnesota and Los Angeles, last year’s finalists.) |
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Very scholarly article. Her Hoops Stats is a site that deserves attention. |
I agree. It's a great addition to WBB's online presence.
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