USAsoccer has been busy lately, but I know he'll be wanting to do his thorough analysis of WNBA attendance. All WNBA business and attendance talk for the 2003 season goes here. Enjoy.
WNBA's first telecast on ABC drew a .9. Their first telecast last year drew a 1.4 Attendance so far has drawn some good numbers for opening games, especially with a bunch during the week. Andy
Numbers as of Tuesday night: TEAM.........G...TOTAL...AVERAGE Washington...2...30,107..15,054 Sacramento...2...27,798..13,899 New York.....2...27,410..13,705 Indiana......2...26,847..13,424 Detroit......2...20,849..10,425 San Antonio..5...49,488...9,898 Cleveland....3...27,672...9,224 Los Angeles..2...18,063...9,032 Phoenix......3...24,901...8,300 Houston......4...30,927...7,732 Charlotte....4...28,907...7,227 Connecticut..2...14,373...7,187 Minnesota....4...28,177...7,044 Seattle......4...26,401...6,600 LEAGUE......41..381,920...9,315 They averaged 9,344 last year for the season. San Antonio and Connecticut are the two new cities this year. Too early to make any grand conclusions. They're only 17% of the way through the season.
FWIW, I believe they are well ahead of last years pace. If memory serves, WNBA attendance picks up as the season moves along. Kenn, any info on their first few weeks of ratings on ABC? Andy
After 41 games last year, they were at 9,007. This is about 3% higher. They do tend to draw better towards the end of the season. TV ratings later, but they're not good, IIRC. .7 last time, but I'll post 'em.
Some recent numbers: Team.................G...Total....Avg. Washington Mystics...4...60,752..15,188 New York Liberty.....5...64,146..12,829 Indiana Fever........4...43,085..10,771 S.Antonio Stars......7...70,090..10,013 Sacramento Monarchs..5...50,060..10,012 Los Angeles Sparks...4...34,852...8,713 Detroit Shock........4...34,274...8,569 Phoenix Mercury......7...55,539...7,934 Cleveland Rockers....5...39,262...7,852 Houston Comets.......5...38,669...7,734 Charlotte Sting......5...36,465...7,293 Minnesota Lynx.......6...39,475...6,579 Seattle Storm........6...39,282...6,547 Connecticut Sun......5...27,873...5,575 WNBA................72..633,824...8,803 Yeah, put a team in Connecticut. Boy, that UConn women's program does great things, the people there can't get enough of it. They'll draw like you wouldn't believe.
Interesting piece for its discussion of tickets distributed versus actual attendance. Charlotte's official attendance was 6,667 per game. The actual crowd was only 4,197. http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2003/06/23/story6.html
Thanks for the link. Here are some gems (in case the link goes dead): "The Charlotte Sting gave away thousands of tickets last year -- and still ranked among the worst attractions in the WNBA. By last December, the team had just one employee, and one phone line" "Six months later, the eight-year-old franchise finds itself picking up the pieces. Billionaire Robert Johnson acquired the team in December as part of his $300 million bid for the NBA Bobcats. " "The Sting lost $2 million last season " "The toughest task -- winning sponsors and boosting attendance"
In other news, the toughest task Major League Baseball players have is hitting a baseball, the toughest task architects have is drawing up plans for buildings, and the toughest task brain surgeons have is operating on the brain.
Any idea of what the capacity of the arena is in Connecticut? I know its at the Indian Casino, so I'd imagine its in the 7-10k range. I'm surprised they're not doing better though, I always thought there was something in the water in Connecticut that made it the only place in the universe that goes nuts for women's basketball, but I guess it just proves the power of winning teams. That said, Mohegan Sun (the casino where they play) is a good 30 minutes from any population center in the state. Not that its really a good excuse, but I'd figure if they played in Hartford they'd probably get a couple thousand extra people to games. Plus, I'm sure playing smack dab in the middle of a Casino, and having to walk past slot machines to get to the arena doesn't exactly encourage the family element.
After seeing some of those attendance numbers it makes you feel not so bad about San Jose. Its amazing some of those teams have been in markets for 8 years and are still only drawing 5-6 k a game. I'm surprised they dont fold them or move them. I'm sure the NBA owners of some of those teams would love to dump them.
MLS's numbers would look pretty bad (maybe not WNBA bad but bad) if they played as many games on the weekday as the WNBA does. The lack of week day games along with double headers allows MLS to look much stronger at the gate. WNBA is in its 7th season, not 8th I believe. Andy
On the othr hand, WNBA attendance would not be helped if watching many games entailed sitting in the rain.
I agree in general if the % of games in the rain MLS plays equaled the % of games the WNBA plays during the week. The WNBA plays 112 out of 238 games during the week for a percentage of roughly 50%. No one can quantify how many MLS games are affected by rain or chance of rain but instinct tells me that is is far far less than 50%. Andy
Actually, I wasn't trying to say MLS games in the rain cancel out the WNBA weekday game effect. I was just pointing it out as another variable that prevents league to league comparisons from being as straight forward as they might appear.
Wow! A thread in my honor!!!!!! Well, the funniest things can happen to you when you are deployed... enough of that though. Now that I have my grubby little hands on a computer, I thought I would add my two cents. Here goes: WNBA attendence as of 1 July: Rank - Team - Attendance 1.)Washington Mystics - 14,315 2.)New York Liberty - 12,001 3.)San Antonio Silver Stars - 10,469 4.)Indiana Fever - 9,528 5.)Los Angeles Sparks - 9,183 6.)Sacramento Monrachs - 8,918 7.)Houston Comets - 8,255 8.)Phoenix Mercury - 7,934 9.)Cleveland Rockers - 7,519 10.)Detroit Shock - 6,935 11.)Seattle Storm - 6,618 12.)Charlotte Sting - 6,604 13.)Minnesota Lynx - 6,369 14.)Connecticut Sun - 5,024 WNBA AVERAGE - 8,428 Usually attendence moves up from here, but I am betting otherwise. Why... Well, Orlando got replaced by the Connecticut Sun who is drawing several thousand less than Orlando. San Antonio is drawing better than Miami, Portland or Utah, so it is a wash with Connecticut. However, Charlotte, Seattle, Detriot and Cleveland can all expect to see a downward trend. Also, Houston and LA are way way down. As is Pheonix from the first year. When you go back and look at the attendence trend lines for all these teams, it is BAD BAD BAD. Take New York: The Liberty once averaged well over 15,000. It is down over 20 percent. Washington, a mainstay is also suffering at the box. The league could usually count on New York, Washington, Houston, Phoenix, Indy, and Sacremento to all average over 10,000. Today, only Washington and New York. Consider also that the league still gives away thousand of tickets. All in all, it is still bleading red ink. At this rate, I give this league 2, 3 years at most. Who will go first...the WUSA or WNBA.... it will be close. Oh well, got to go!
Washington gets 14K for a losing basketball team, and can't get 10,000 for a winning soccer team? Let's see what happens Wednesday!!! (I can't figure what happened to New York. Has the attendance has gone down significantly since Rosie O'Donnell came out?)
A: Washington is a basketball town. B: Washington gets 14K for its losing soccer team. C: When have the Freedom ever drawn well on a Wednesday?
Point. But they will have a happy hour in Lot 8. And they once went head to head with the Mystics and they both drew about 13K. There is a critical mass, but it needs to be impassioned!
Looks like the trend continues. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35383-2003Jul9.html http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/boxscore?gameId=230709016
As of today, Monday, 21 July 1.)Washington Mystics - 14,943 2.)New York Liberty - 12,162 3.)San Antonio Silver Stars - 10,376 4.)Sacramento Monrachs - 9,009 5.)Indiana Fever - 8,707 6.)Los Angeles Sparks - 8,636 7.)Houston Comets - 8,190 8.)Phoenix Mercury - 7,951 9.)Cleveland Rockers - 7,866 10.)Detroit Shock - 7,017 11.)Charlotte Sting - 6,698 12.)Minnesota Lynx - 6,641 13.)Seattle Storm - 6,630 14.)Connecticut Sun - 5,569 WNBA AVERAGE - 8,579 The league dumps Orlando, Miami, and Utah, three places that had below average attendence....and yet is still down. Significantly, everyone has lost ground except Detriot, Charlotte and Seattle, who had no where to go but up. Also, San Antonio is nearly double what Utah use to draw. This league is slowly bleeding to death. Remember, that 25 percent of this is give aways.
My computer ate my spreadsheet, and I am loathe to rebuild it. Things don't look good for the WNBA, that's for sure. But then, attendance is down in MLS as well. And MLB.
Speaking of the WNBA, if you are a woman and you like women, that's fine. No problem. But if you're a woman and you even consider something that might be sorta like hetero spanking, forget about it. That's sending the wrong message.