RebKell's Junkie Boards

[ChiSky54]

I got to meet Queenie and happycappie during the Title IX panel!

_________________
There is nothing new under the sun.

[Coyotes]

You’ve met legends! You’ve made it in life!

[Admiral_Needa]

Same

_________________
2002 WNBA Virtual GM Overall Winner
2006 WNBA Triple Threat Overall Winner
2007 NBA ESPN Fast Break Overall Winner

[ChiSky54]

I feel real special now!

Threw me off at first because I was looking for Liberty gear, forgetting the early description of their planned outfits. I kept looking at them, wondering. Then I looked at their hats, which had throwback Liberty logos. I tentatively approached and called their names. Stumbled saying mine (between never saying it out loud before and trying to contain my excitement ) I was thrilled!

_________________
There is nothing new under the sun.

[ChiSky54]

The WNBA LIVE festival was held directly across the street from Wintrust on a beautiful sunny day! There were sponsored booths by AT&T, Wilson and others where you could have photos with different backdrops. Wilson also sold balls. You could have your picture taken with the championship trophy. DICK's Sporting Goods was there - I grabbed a keychain from a table.

Connie's Pizza and Robinson's No. 1 Ribs had stands, and there were bar lines.

I got to the All-Star gear store about 90 minutes after it opened, and folks were asking about the shirts the staff were wearing - they had sold out in 30 minutes! The DEW Zone was popular as folks took their 3-point shots to win prizes as the crowd cheered them on.

DJs provided music from the AT&T Stage. Taj McWilliams-Franklin moderated the Title IX panel; participants were Ticha Penicheiro, Crystal Langhorne, Napheesa Collier and Betnijah Laney. They took a few audience questions.

A very diverse crowd included folks repping their team jerseys.

Seating was limited; doubt they added more for the festival watch party. I only saw one large screen, which was on stage. I have bad knees, so they were not happy walking around, standing through the panel, then walking to the indoor watch party I was invited to (where I got my pic with the trophy taken). Missed the meet and greet with Copper and Stevens at the festival right after the contests. It didn't make sense to rush back since the festival ended at 4. We could see part of the sponsored Basketball Clinic from the party, along with the line of Porta Pottys - the adjacent building wasn't open. (The Marriott restrooms were available, but it would have involved leaving the festival and doing some walking.)

The weather should be great again today. Will go to the festival before going across the street to Wintrust for the game!

_________________
There is nothing new under the sun.

[johnjohnW]

So glad.you are having an excellent time. Very jealous I couldn't be there!!

[Rock Hard]

[lynxmania]

https://twitter.com/alexaphilippou/status/1546168449268957184?s=21&t=923SoHKDXZHymyY_Y3yMqw

[ChiSky54]

You know...I thought it was odd that Chance the Rapper, who had been so ubiquitous last fall, wasn't around. So this is news! I had heard nothing about events outside of the daytime stuff that was supposed to end by 4. Today we hung out and things were still going after 4 but most was shut down. Gotta look into this more. Not used to being outside so much so just woke up from a nap to see this craziness!

_________________
There is nothing new under the sun.

[Queenie]

All right, I’m home and I have access to a keyboard. Y’all are not getting full Game Notes of Doom, but you are getting my exhaustive and exhausting rundown of the weekend. Overall I had a lot of fun, but as much of it was as of my own making as it was the league’s, and some of the mistakes that were made are ones that should be fixable.

First, the good:

-Chicago! I love Chicago as a city and as a basketball town, and Skytown rose to the occasion. As a central location and a major flight hub, it was easy for pretty much every fan base to show up and show out. I am pleased to announce that I saw gear from every team in the league, with reports trickling in of Monarchs and Comets gear as well. Special shoutout to Dallas- granted that Ogunbowale is from Milwaukee and went to Notre Dame, but I saw a lot of Wings gear, and I don’t think all of it was for Arike.

-Incorporating the high school players was a stroke of genius. That’s a market we should be getting and need to get to make the league better in the future. That structure for the skills challenge should stick around whenever possible.

-Wintrust Arena is beautiful! Seats were a touch narrow, or maybe I’m just a touch wide, but that’s a me problem, not a them problem. It’s well-structured and just the right size. 10/10 would recommend.

-There were some great concepts during WNBA Live. I enjoyed the Title IX panel (although in terms of speaking time, Taj should probably have been the panelist and Betnijah the moderator). The player accessibility seemed improved from the last few years.


But now, the mess:

-Closing the skills challenge and three-point contest to fans. All-Star Weekend is essentially WNBACon- this is when we all get together, put aside our team rivalries, and celebrate the best of the best. It is a lot less fun to do that standing out in a plaza watching on a screen than it is in the arena.

-Fewer organized activities that were open to the public in general. Everything, both announced and discovered after the fact, seemed to have been open only to the media or to select groups of VIPs. Which leads to...

-The half-assed work put in by the league offices. Actually, from all the chatter during and after the event, calling the effort half-assed might be overstating it. They dragged their feet on booking and arranging things, which was why Wintrust wasn’t available for the Saturday events. (Which does not completely excuse them from the first of these points. There are other arenas in Chicago. I’ve been to them. Imagine Quigley winning that three-point contest at McGrath-Phillips. Chi-town would have blown the roof off and I’m only 99% exaggerating.)

-#WNBAWeNeedMerch; there were horror stories going around about how little was made available

-STOP SAYING WORDS CATHY. Repeatedly emphasizing how “safe” All-Star Weekend was and bringing up the Chicago gun violence trope was unnecessary. If she wanted to use safety in the “no one dropped dead of ‘rona mid-event” sense, then clarifying that would have been helpful. It could even have been an excuse for paring things down. “Out of concern for the continued health of our players and fans from all across the country...” would probably have soothed some ruffled feathers.

-Last-minute gimmick rule changes are dumb. The refs seemed uncertain what to consider a shooting foul, and no one seemed to have figured out how to plug those four-point shots into the stat sheet. Also, maybe let’s not encourage players to chuck deep shots.


YMMV:

-I appreciate the emotional punch of everyone wearing the Griner jerseys for one half, but good grief was it confusing in the upper deck. The PA announcer definitely lost the plot at a few points, and the stat board disappeared for most of the third quarter while they all tried to figure out who was 42 and who was 42. (Sidebar to this: Doug Feinberg suggested that the players autograph and auction those jerseys for charity, which sounds like a lovely idea, and I’d even specify BG’s Heart and Sole Shoe Drive. Can you imagine the kind of money they could raise in her name, for her cause?)

-PA guy, what is with the ranDOM accent on the wrong sylLAble?

-if I were Sheryl Swoopes and the last time I was in Chicago I was being fired for NCAA violations, I would simply wish to not be perceived the next time I visited Chicago, not prance around in a “Fucking Legend” shirt, even if I were a WNBA legend like Swoopes is

-personal conspiracy theory: the league wants the Commissioner’s Cup final to be the big deal, not All-Star

_________________
"We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury."

[ChicagoAnnie]

[ChiSky54]

I will (totally unnecessarily) echo a few of Queenie's comments, just because I agree, and I can! (Got to wave at them again entering Wintrust - they were wearing what I thought they were going to wear on Saturday, thus easy to spot!)

BTW, it looks like the moose has ODd on pizza - an easy thing to do, and so worth it!

Yes, the high school player incorporation into the Skills Challenge was great. I'm not convinced they as a whole understood the significance of those pairings or even Allie's win! Since I have obsessively watched her 3-Point contest final round, it seemed to elicit a mostly lackluster response from the Nike participants. Reminds me of prior statements that a lot of college players don't necessarily know about or aspire to play in the WNBA, which is pretty crazy...

It's true about the seats being tight. Seems none of us - even the Mayor - were able to keep our same seats when we purchased our game tickets (but I was on my same row, just a few seats down). So I was sitting with others in my area who were scattered. One said the seats were made for high school athletes! One would think for a newer building (2017), a different seat size choice would have been incorporated.

The posted and online festival schedules contradicted each other. I thought the live link in the registration email would be updated as changes were made. But then, we're talking about the WNBA, which can't keep its cumbersome website up-to-date! Hope springs eternal...

The signs posted a Q&A with Rebekah Gardner and Dana Evans at 3, and I thought it would be on the main stage. But it started closer to 4 and was on the Mtn Dew court, to be followed by a 3-point contest that I believe was scheduled at 3, and they were still asking folks to sign up. The place was emptying out since the end time was listed as 4, and the food booths were packed up.

I am not surprised about the league's scheduling incompetence re: Wintrust's lack of availability on Saturday! Sheesh...you would have had such energy around the contests with people attending who actually cared about it and appreciated the historical nature of Allie's win. And everyone would have had a seat. It's crazy that they expected people to stand outside all that time! For some, that is an uncomfortable option. The fans should have been given priority to attend so many of the events that were closed to everyone but the media! I guess another venue wasn't considered because they wanted to centralize the events. The DePaul connection and easy public transportation accessibility with McGrath-Phillips might have been feasible were everything not tied to WNBA Live. The way it played out contradicted what I believe is supposed to be the spirit of the weekend - fans lay down their fierce team loyalties for a time and enjoy the fun of the cross-team competition!

When I think of how raucous we were at the VIP STH private contest watch party to have that energy amplified would have been awesome! They could have made it available to all STH - I would have been willing to pay some money to participate - I chose not to pay for VIP seats, but I'm still within ten rows of the floor, which is close enough for me!

Merch is always an issue - after we won the championship, even the local papers commented on how no sporting goods stores around town had stock or knew when to expect any. I finally got a non-official shirt from Amazon so I could have something! The All-Star Store at the fest underestimated the demand. Jerseys were on sale at Wintrust yesterday (don't think I saw t-shirts), but the line was already long. Even our Sky merch store has limited selections. It's frustrating.

It had to be confusing as heck for statisticians and refs when everyone wore BG's number during the second half! It was nice that Cherelle and family members were present to see the support.

Yeah, Sheryl - when you know you're gonna be on national TV, that was tacky to wear that t-shirt!


It was a wonderful time, but there is much room for improvement!

_________________
There is nothing new under the sun.

[myrtle]

thanks for the in-person updates. I hope there is a way for the league to actually get your feedback.

[pilight]

Chicago Police: We Didn’t Advise WNBA to Close Outdoor Chance the Rapper Concert to Public

https://news.wttw.com/2022/07/11/chicago-police-we-didn-t-advise-wnba-close-outdoor-chance-rapper-concert-public

[lynxmania]

The last 72 hours have had to be rough for Cathy. Between her comments about “safety,” this article calling her out for lying, and being outed as a Mitch McConnell donor… she’s been a PR nightmare

_________________
"stormeo don't miss"

[MNfan22]