The 20th season for the WNBA is also the first season under new president Lisa Borders—and she addressed many of the issues facing the league as she took the podium prior to Game 1 of the WNBA Finals between the Los Angeles Sparks and Minnesota Lynx.
She began her remarks by congratulating the Sparks and Lynx for getting as far as they did to now be competing in the WNBA Finals. After touting many of the high points and accomplishments the WNBA has achieved in season number 20, Borders then moved on to mention some of the changes that has occurred in the league.
Borders presented her view on how she felt changing the shot clock from 24 to 14 seconds has had an impact on the pace of the game as well as on scoring.
“We finished our regular season with the highest per-game scoring average in history at 81.9, the highest per-game number of field goals made at 29.8. In addition, we had the field goal percentage was the highest in history at 44.1, as well as our free throw percentage at 79.8.”
–Lisa Borders
Borders described the level of play in the WNBA as being “stronger than it’s ever been.” She then moved on to credit some of the individual offensive exploits teams have embarked on this season—including the Lynx scoring 113 in a playoff game against the Phoenix Mercury.
She later talked about the change in the playoff format—and said that it created more of a “sense of urgency” given that the first two rounds were single-elimination and the top seeds got double-byes into the semifinals.
“It was different and our fans seemed to like it. Our players are getting used to it. Like all things, it takes some time, but we really appreciated that the players took a real embrace of this innovation.”
–Lisa Borders
The next section of her presser came to address how the WNBA is doing as a business—and how Borders wanted to look at the league moreso from a business perspective given her years in the private sector—most recently working with Coca-Cola at its Atlanta headquarters.
“I am very happy to report that all business metrics are positive, and the league is in the best shape it’s been in in a very long time.”
–Lisa Borders
She mentioned the rise in attendance at nearly five percent as well as how ratings are up for WNBA coverage on the ESPN family of networks. Borders was particularly thrilled at how the WNBA was performing from a social media standpoint.
“Most of those metrics are up more than 100 percent, some of them 200 percent. So we recognize that this is a tool that we have not always had. Social media wasn’t here 10 years ago or 15 years ago.”
Borders concluded her opening remarks by thanking the media for the coverage it has given the league and how social media would continue to work with the press in terms of its coverage.
“We all know that social media basically democratizes everyone’s voice, so everyone can collaborate on that success that we are having and share their perspective on what we’re doing well and what we can improve on.”
Borders first fielded a question about how her public service experience (she is a former president of the Atlanta City Council) could help in her decisions regarding the league as well as business strategies for short and long term goals. Her answer was that fans follow players closer than they do leagues, so the WNBA has put more of an emphasis on trying to market individual players.
She said that the second part of the league’s two-pronged approach involved using social media for marketing purposes and having players engage more with fans. Borders also mentioned how she wants to get more people to attend WNBA games and how it is using the platform of the NBA in hopes of making that happen.
The next question Borders fielded had to do with potential concern that the new playoff format could be eliminating big stars from the playoffs too quickly. She said that this is something that is lessened thanks to players’ social media platforms.
“The collaboration across teams is important and our players understand that. So, they’re willing to support one another even if they are not individually or as one franchise in a particular round of the Playoffs. So even though a Tamika Catchings or Angel McCoughtry is not playing, that does not shut down her voice or her team’s voice.”
Borders was then asked a question about how she has transitioned into her new role as league president, what she sees for the league in the next few years, and how to grow the league from a business perspective.
She said that instead of looking at the league’s demographics that it looks at “psychographics” in terms of how big a fan one is of the WNBA.
“I’m the person who is the committed or core fan. I’m going to be at the game, win lose or draw. There are those who are casual fans that would come at my invitation. They might not even be able to spell basketball, but I’m a credible source because I’m their friend and I bring them.”
Borders later mentioned that in addition to trying to get more casual and core fans to games her wish to expand the number of corporate partners the WNBA has. She stated her case from a business perspective of how clients want to ensure they are representing the entire population—one that women are an extremely important part of numberswise.
She also said organizations will want to work more with the league because of the purchasing power women have.
Borders was then asked to give additional thoughts on the news that Renee Brown would be stepping down as the league’s Vice President and chief of Basketball Operations.
“Her service has been invaluable to the league. She has been here since its inception. Her institutional knowledge is priceless, so Renee has done an extraordinary tour of duty. She has decided she wants to step back and step down, but she’s never leaving the WNBA family.”
The next question pertained to expansion, in which she admitted that the WNBA will eventually expand, but Borders mentioned how that process would occur when “every team is operationally sound and financially stable.”
She said that the league would eventually expand, but that she did not want the WNBA to take on a leap in growth before it would fizzle out.
Borders’ next question had to do with how she views the playoff format, and said it would be something that the Competition Committee would study, but that there would not be any immediate changes.
“What I do not believe in is trying something one time and then never trying it again because if you have one data point, you have just that, one data point.”
She mentioned that she would get feedback from the players and teams on it—including teams that did not make the postseason this year.
Her final question pertained to where she saw the league in the next five years in which she once again mentioned expansion, but said it was hypothetical it could happen in that timeframe. She expressed confidence the WNBA was on the right path and said that more of what was done this year has to be done in the next few years to represent a trend instead of only a “data point.”
(Video courtesy: WNBA)
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
