The start of a WNBA season typically coincides with the NBA’s postseason reaching its apex. Of course, 2020 was different because of the parameters of the pandemic and both WNBA and NBA bubbles, but normally the NBA reaching its crescendo is usually the point where the W begins performing its opening number.
On many an occasion, the WNBA has Major League Baseball and NASCAR to deal with – but, of course those are sports leagues with massive problems. While it has tried mightily to broaden its appeal outside the southeast – and its recent hit of an event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum may have helped a bit with that, NASCAR still has plenty of problems with appealing to a diverse fanbase. The racist overtones associated with NASCAR likely have a lot to do with its lack of appeal.
Then – there is MLB. A sport which is undergoing a massive identity crisis and that has not been helped at all by the ongoing lockout where the owners and players are seemingly nowhere near reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.
The differences between MLB and its MLBPA seemingly are greater than the distance between Barclays Center and Crypto.com Arena for the time being. Their most recent meeting only lasted 15 minutes. While both sides are pledging further meetings, it does not appear that the wide gulf between the league and the players is closing anytime soon – and its opening day appears to be in jeopardy.
One league who’s opening day is set in stone? The WNBA.
As everyone knows, the W made sure it would not be trapped in a CBA battle a couple of years ago when it and the WNBPA ironed out a new collective bargaining agreement – and even plugged its newfound pact on ABC’s Good Morning America. It ensured labor peace within the WNBA for the next several years.
We know that the 2022 regular season will tip off on May 6 with four games – Indiana Fever-Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks-Chicago Sky, Las Vegas Aces-Phoenix Mercury, Minnesota Lynx-Seattle Storm. May 7 will feature two games with the four teams not playing that Friday – Connecticut Sun-New York Liberty, Atlanta Dream-Dallas Wings. Fever-Mystics, Aces-Mercury, Lynx-Storm and Sun-Liberty are also Commissioner’s Cup matchups.
The WNBA has never been in a position where it started the season against the backdrop of a baseball season that was not taking place. This may create a unique opportunity for Cathy Engelbert and the league to do a lot to fill the summer sports vacuum that looks increasingly likely to feature a baseball void.
Out of the W’s 12 teams, 10 play in markets that are also home to an MLB team – Indiana and Las Vegas are the exceptions and one might as well include Connecticut since it has locked into the same New England market that MLB’s Boston Red Sox dominate in.
MLB is not doing well among younger fans. After all, its average age for fans is in the 60s while that of the NBA’s is in the 40s. Those younger fans can potentially be converted into WNBA fans especially if they closely follow basketball. Also, many WNBA teams such as the Liberty, Sun, Dream, Wings, Mercury and Lynx have its games carried on the same regional sports channels as MLB teams.
Engelbert … if you’re reading this, consider the following. Remember that $75 million capital gains haul the WNBA recently hyped up? If that money is not going to go player salaries and/or improving the player experience within the WNBA, then a good portion of those greenbacks ought to go to marketing the W’s 26thseason to baseball fans increasingly turned off by the ongoing lockout and CBA stalemate.
One can be rest assured that the country’s two flagship soccer leagues – the NWSL and MLS will be going all in to fill that vacuum that more than likely will have that baseball void. The WNBA needs to be smart and do the same by particularly catering to a set a fans that can potentially become lifetime W fans.
MLB could potentially be on the verge of an all-time bag fumble unless they kiss and make up soon with the MLBPA and the two right now are not that interested in each other it seems. The WNBA has the potential to retrieve and flip that bag into a marketing home run at a time where one of its spring and summer competitors has gone cold from the field.
