How the WNBA recovered from its worst ever season
The outlook surrounding the WNBA was bleak just two years ago. The league posted the lowest attendance in its 19-year history, the long-term president stepped down, and TV viewership stagnated.
Something had to change if the league was going to thrive past its 20th season, a landmark for women’s sports in America. Fast forward to the 2016 WNBA Finals, and a different atmosphere had emerged.
"You couldn’t even hear. Everyone was cheering on every shot, every situation," Keith Wilson, a decade-long Lynx fan, recalls of the series between defending champion Minnesota and the Los Angeles Sparks.
Last season’s stellar rookie class, coupled with a brilliant ad campaign and punctuated by an amazing Finals, gave the league a springboard. The league had to get butts back in seats, and the 20th season saw attendance reach its highest level in five years, a bump in viewership, and new ways to keep fans interested. Here’s how it happened.
Uncertain Times
Following the 2015 season, Sports Business Daily reported the WNBA posted a league-wide average attendance of 7,318, the lowest in its 19-year existence. The drop in attendance, came with instability at the top. After four seasons at the helm, League President Laurel J. Richie stepped down to pursue opportunities working with nonprofit ventures.
Lisa M. Borders was named the WNBA’s fourth president in February 2016. In Borders, the league found a high-powered business mind and a fan of the league. Before taking the reigns of the WNBA, Borders was chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation, the company’s nonprofit. She also helped bring the Atlanta Dream to the city in 2008. Having worked with the WNBA in the past, Borders understood the task she was given.
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"This is a business, and you need better TV ratings, better attendance and better merchandising," Borders said in a New York Times interview after getting hired. "We have the best players in the world, no question; the athleticism from 20 years ago is unparalleled. So we need to connect the individual stories of our players to our fans."
The NBA had a renewed focus on the success of its sister league, but even then there to were obstacles to overcome. Perhaps most important was the lack of fans at games, but with their advertising push for the new season, the league struck gold. Their "Watch Me Work" campaign was an immediate success.
The first ad featured some of the league’s top stars, including the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi, Minnesota’s Maya Moore, Candace Parker from the Sparks, Sue Bird from the Seattle Storm, and Skylar Diggins-Smith from the Dallas Wings. These stars gave fans a glimpse at their training regime, an opportunity to watch them work. Plenty of fans tuned in as the ad premiered on the first NBA Saturday Primetime game of the 2015-16 season.
The video struck home for fans and players alike.
"That dream of being a little girl, and the generational gap, highlighting the women who had done it before us," Atlanta Dream point guard Layshia Clarendon said in an interview with SB Nation. "It highlighted that now, girls who were growing up can look at the WNBA and say ‘now I have a place I can play’."
The campaign made regular appearances during the NBA All-Star weekend and throughout the NBA Playoffs, drawing in basketball fans who might not otherwise have given the WNBA a chance.
Building a Brand
The 2016 season opened with a new crop of stars. Former UConn star Breanna Stewart went to the Seattle Storm with the number one pick and immediately made her mark on the league with a series of outstanding performances. Her name recognition helped too: Stewart had the highest revenue in jersey sales across the league. The league as a whole saw a 30 percent increase in jersey sales on WNBAStore.com. Stewart isn’t an isolated phenomenon. As more former college stars enter the game, the WNBA hopes to capitalize on their already existing fanbases.
"It’s that big question - which I don’t know the answer to - ‘why do we have more people following college women’s basketball than the WNBA?,’" Clarendon said. "We’re seeing now, Breanna Stewart’s fans carried over... College might do a better job [at marketing], but it historically just has a longer standing brand and they have more resources than we have in the W."
Players are starting to build up their individual brands, too. Skylar Diggins-Smith, for example, has excelled at building her brand on social media and turning that into a successful enterprise. Diggins-Smith has one million followers on Instagram and a deal with Nike, despite the Wings ranking last in attendance their first season in Dallas.
"Before, the WNBA would pick and choose who they wanted to market," free agent Mistie Bass said. "Now, you don’t have to be a superstar to be really relevant."
Even though the Wings didn’t even qualify for the playoffs last season, Diggins-Smith has made a name for herself off the court, as the first female athlete to ever sign with Jay Z’s management company, Roc Nation. She has also been featured in Vogue and Sports Illustrated.
According to Bass, The bridge between athletes and fans is "very very small" compared to what it was before social media.
"Just being able to have the reach into these players lives is a different fan experience," Bass said.
Evolving World View
The WNBA is also in tune and evolving with social and political culture, enticing a younger audience. Borders has embraced a more progressive view than most league commissioners. Borders is not interested in a crackdown on expression, preferring to allow the players more freedom.
"The WNBA did a great job of realizing that we’re not just athletes, but we’re people that have to deal with things that are happening in our society," Bass said. "We have a voice. Our platform isn’t just to showcase abilities and talent but to make it count when it should."
The NFL’s Colin Kaepernick made waves when he took a knee during the national anthem, but the Indiana Fever went further. It was the first team to have all of its players kneel during the anthem, surprising even their own coach.
Earlier in the season, players on the Fever, the New York Liberty and the Phoenix Mercury were fined for wearing black warm-up t-shirts in protest of police violence. The fines were eventually dropped after Borders intervened.
"There are still social justice issues that need to be addressed in this country," Borders said in an interview with WNBA.com. "I don’t presume the players will take a step back. I expect them to remain fully and completely engaged."
Earlier this year, Stewart joined in social conversation as well. The rookie was in Los Angeles, rehabbing from tearing her PCL while playing in China, when she heard about a protest to Donald Trump’s travel ban and LAX. The Storm star went to the airport to join the protestors.
"I play for Team USA. My dad wears an American flag tank top. I feel deeply patriotic, but I also recognize how privileged I have been, and this ban just goes against everything that makes me proud to be an American," Stewart told USA Today.
The WNBA has done a better job than most other professional leagues of evolving with the country’s changing social and political climates.
"The WNBA as a league had the most organized response to a lot of social issues," said Gabriella Levine, a writer who covers the WNBA. "They haven’t been afraid to take activist role and push for change off the court."
According to Borders, that’s because the league is philosophically aligned with its players. The league has welcomed the exposure that comes with socially aware and socially active players.
"We believe social media has almost as much power to give our league exposure as ESPN," Borders said. "People don’t support leagues, and they don’t always support teams. But they do support individual players. And we are developing ways to authentically share our players’ stories."
A Fast Start and a Worthy End
Change breeds excitement. Ahead of last season, the WNBA decided to experiment with an idea long discussed in basketball circles. Despite pushback from basketball purists, the league changed the playoff format, eliminating conferences in favor of simply seeding the top eight teams.
The regular season schedule was adjusted to reflect the format adjustments; every team now faces each other at least three times, and plays one team four times. Conferences were originally created before team travel was as efficient as it is now: with advances in technology and engineering, the importance of location has diminished.
"It puts that much more value on every game, and not just a conference game," Clarendon said. "Like ‘Oh, we can afford to lose to the West because it’s not going to matter as much.’ Now, it’s like you can’t lose to anybody."
The playoffs were exciting. The new rules also expanded the number of rounds from three to four and made the first two single-elimination, bringing a tournament feel to the opening games.
"Some teams were losing money in markets where, in the first round, people weren’t interested in a three-game series between an 8-seed, or whatever," Clarendon said. "So they tried to spark that interest with a ‘do-or-die.’"
It worked. For the first time, every team that qualified for the playoffs had a real shot to make the semifinals. The Mercury was the first beneficiary of the rule change. After sneaking into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, all Phoenix had to do was win two games to make it to the semis. The Mercury bounced the Indiana Fever in the opening round, before beating the New York Liberty to make a best-of-five semifinal. With two of the league’s biggest players in Taurasi and Griner, the Mercury made the most of its playoff run, while the WNBA enjoyed the boost from having four of its "Watch Me Work" stars in the semis.
In marketing, the atmosphere around a product and its feel are almost as crucial as the product itself. Apple can afford to come out with a new phone each year with minimal-to-modest upgrades because it created a sense of "being included." The WNBA is learning how to capture that same feeling and bring it to its arenas.
"The fans you see there, you see them like all the time," Wilson said. "It’s a real loyal following. So it’s a real tight-knit, kind of, almost like a family atmosphere. You see the same people at the games, you’re close together - not many people are sitting up top, everyone’s kind of in the lower bowl area. It’s like a party."
Then came the finals. Any other year, if the two best teams came from the same conference, they’d have to face off in the semifinals. The new playoff format gave fans the opportunity to see the two best teams in the league, the Lynx and the Sparks, go head-to-head for five games. It didn’t disappoint.
"That was bananas," Wilson said "That was probably like 13,000-14,000 people. … That was probably one of the best basketball atmospheres I’ve ever been around, NBA or college. It was just that every play was tightly contested and they really gave it their all."
Not everyone was fully pleased with the new format, but overall the experiment worked. Clarendon said that the willingness to experiment is one of the WNBA’s strengths.
"Our league is different," Clarendon said. "It’s really unique. It’s different than college or the NBA, so our schedule could be different and that could be okay. … I think the NBA should move towards it, as well, and it should be the top eight teams. "
What’s Next?
When she was hired, Borders said her primary goal was connecting players to their fans. The 2016 season saw the WNBA post its highest average attendance in five seasons, 7655, and a jump in TV viewership as well.
Regular season games that aired on ESPN and ESPN2 saw a 17 percent rating increase from 2015. Outside of the season opener, 13 of 14 regular season games aired on ESPN2, pulling a 20 percent increase in ratings. Across both platforms, the league averaged a 0.07 US Nielsen rating. ESPN2 had a 0.06 rating for viewers aged 25-54, according to an ESPN spokesperson.
Last season went well, but 2017 will be about sustaining the gains. The "Watch Me Work" campaign was a success, and "Watch Me Work 2.0" premiered the day of the WNBA Draft and is getting airtime during the NBA Playoffs. The league has also started a public awareness campaign with LeanIn.Org, the NBA and the NBA Player’s Association to show the role that men also play in gender equality.
"A lot of the complaints I heard around the league, were people were like they just got tired of hearing [Watch Me Work] because we only filmed one commercial," Clarendon said. "So I hope this season we can film two or three and have a rotation. ... I think it’s more getting the support of each team in their market and making sure each team is having a positive marketing experience."
The WNBA has started to figure out how to market its product, and signs are good for that to continue. The league should have no problem advertising its newest Star. In April, Kelsey Plum was drafted No. 1 by the San Antonio Stars. Her left-handed style has drawn comparisons to James Harden, and the former Washington standout finished her college career the second leading scorer in NCAA basketball, with only "Pistol" Pete Maravich ahead of her. Plum already has NBA admirers, and is set to be the next college star to carry her fanbase to the professional level.
After 20 years of feeling like an afterthought, the WNBA is making sure it will no longer be ignored. New leadership, new stars, and a new marketing strategy have combined to push the league further into the public eye. 2016 was about defying expectations; 2017 will be about transcending them.