With the way that the Washington, D.C. area has been racking up sports championships over the previous year and a half, those in the DMV (shoutout to Princess Streeter!) have had sports on their brains just as much as they do national politics.
Last year, the NHL’s Washington Capitals got the District’s Titletown streak going after defeating the Las Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup. Most recently, in one of the craziest World Series in history, the Washington Nationals prevailed over the Houston Astros in seven games in a title round where every game was won by the team on the road.
Oh…and then there was this…
DISTRICT OF CHAMPIONS pic.twitter.com/N9s4adUEeT
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) October 11, 2019
Yep, that was the conclusion of Game 5 of the WNBA Finals at the DC Entertainment and Sports Arena when the Washington Mystics triumphed in a scintillating 5-game tilt for the franchise’s first-ever W title.
More than likely throughout D.C., it is probably easier to find championship merchandise for both the Capitals and Nationals than it is to figure out the oh-so-challenging math problem 1+1.
As for finding Mystics merch…
Hey @Target – It’s really cool that you support the local sports teams in a community. I was happy to be greeted by Nationals merch. They’re in the World Series! And also I’m just wondering if **winning the championship** might convince you to finally carry @WashMystics gear? pic.twitter.com/EayAo210c5
— Risa Isard (@RisaLovesSports) October 17, 2019
The sports equivalent in D.C. of advanced calculus, apparently.
Yeah sure, one may find Mystics title merchandise at the team store at Capital One Arena and at the DC ESA and it can be ordered online, but even that appears to be more of a hassle than what it should be.
Fun fact: I ordered my @WashMystics championship hat Oct 14, just a few days after their title win.
I’ve since received two emails (the last one 9 days ago) from the @WNBA store telling me they still don’t have a shipping date for me.
A hat. The @WNBA can’t deliver a hat. https://t.co/3akgywUONG
— Chad Reese (@ChadMReese) November 4, 2019
The great Lindsay Gibbs did a story about this for her new newsletter Power Plays. She went to various stores and shops in D.C., Maryland and Virginia to see if any – and we mean ANY – were carrying gear for the Mystics 2019 championship.
Gibbs had no luck.
Washington, D.C. proper needs to end its practice of Celebration Without Representation and put some respect on the Mystics’ name.
Maryland – carrying Mystics gear in your shops and sports stores would unarguably be more cool than your state’s flag (which is probably the best in the country).
Virginia – Be the state for women’s basketball lovers and show some love to your region’s women’s basketball team that did that area proud.
This reminds this WNBA fan and scribe of when I had the opportunity to attend the 2018 All-Star Game in Minneapolis. When I landed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, I checked the various stores there and saw merch for the other area teams – the Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild, University of Minnesota and Minnesota FC.
Store by store I searched … I couldn’t find any Lynx merch or any jerseys of Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, Rebekkah Brunson, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus or any other Lynx players.
They were selling…wait for it…wait for it…
Green Bay Packers merchandise.
Green Bay Packers gear at Minnesota’s largest airport.
Reagan National? Dulles? BWI? We’re looking at you.
The main point is this – we’re checking these D.C. establishments to ensure they celebrate its District of Champions run the right way by including all of Washington’s athletic victors – not just the male ones.
Mystics championship merchandise should be just as accessible as that of the Capitals and the Nationals. Meaning at the stores, at the malls, at the airports, at Union Station, you name it. One should be able to even window shop through D.C. and see Mystics 2019 championship merchandise. That Gibbs piece is another manifestation of why that should change and fast.
The biggest detail that I got out of reading that Gibbs piece is she wrote that people have asked about if Mystics championship merchandise was available and they said that it was not.
Those three little words speak volumes. People. Have. Asked. Meaning there is demand. But that demand is not being met by those running these establishments throughout Washington, D.C. and in the other 11 WNBA cities.
As David Berri would probably tell you, it’s as simple as this: Businesses that fail to meet the demand of their consumer base are basically saying that they do not want to make money.
Someone with the vast economics acumen Berri possesses could figure this out. A 3rd grader watching Bloomberg Television every morning before heading to school (i.e. yours truly at nine years old) could figure this out.
Let’s hope the grown adults running these establishments in the nation’s capital (and in the other 11 W metropolises) do so too, because with the WNBA continuing to grow, we may end up making this decision for them.
