WNBA showcases game as it turns 10

The WNBA called "next" 10 years ago. And the rules are the same as on the playground: Play good basketball, or get off the court.

Coaches, players and team executives around the league say they're ready to do just that because the game is better than ever.

"The basketball is much better than it was when we started 10 years ago," says Seth Sulka, general manager of the Phoenix Mercury. "We have more athletic, versatile, multiskilled players than when we started. It's better because the individual players are better."

The season begins Saturday. As part of its 10th anniversary, the league instituted rules to showcase players and distinguish the professional game from the college game.

There will be four quarters instead of two halves, and there will be a 24-second shot clock. In its first 10 years, the NBA also changed from halves to quarters and introduced the 24-second shot clock.

One player who sees the improvement in play is All-Star Katie Smith of the Detroit Shock. "The individual talent is the best in the world," says Smith, who also played in the short-lived American Basketball League. "There's one league here in the States. You have the best foreigners and top Americans.

"And more and more girls are playing at an early age, dreaming and knowing that this is a possibility. They are coming into the league bigger with more skills."

Teams did take better care of the ball last year, committing 14.6 turnovers a game compared with 18.5 in 1997; players also shot the ball better (42.5% in 2005; 41.4% in 1997).

But attendance has declined from about 11,000 a game in 1998 to roughly 8,000 last year.

Donna Orender, entering her second season as WNBA president, says that is not a true indicator of where the league is headed.

"Don't tell me our numbers are down," a passionate Orender says. "When you look at the way people are living their lives and being a fan, how you define a fan is changing. And if you look at the aggregate of how people are taking in the WNBA, the numbers are growing significantly."

The league's television ratings were up last season, Orender says, including 33% for the championship series. The league has new national business partners and local sponsorship is up, she says. She also notes traffic on the league website was up 25% last month.

"People will come to a game or watch on TV a couple of times, but if the quality of the product isn't there, they really won't come back," says David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute. "When you're thinking about new leagues, very few get the chance to put 10 candles on the cake and position themselves to go forward."

Vickie Graham, a San Antonio Silver Stars season ticketholder, says one issue is a lack of exposure.

"Local media does not cover our games the way we would like them to," says Graham, who has been a season ticketholder for four years. Before San Antonio got a team, Graham says she drove nearly 200 miles to Houston to watch the Comets. "Our newspaper coverage is pretty good. But as far as any TV coverage, forget it."

Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes says anyone who has watched in the last decade can see change. "Most people can understand evolution," he says. "If you look at the evolution of the NBA a decade in, there was probably a pretty good jump in how the game was played."

The team scoring average in the NBA rose from 67.7 points to 99.0 in its first 10 years. And the league also began marketing its biggest stars, such as George Mikan, Bob Cousy and Bob Pettit.

Winning brings fans

Orender, who came to the WNBA after 17 years as a PGA Tour executive, has said she doesn't have to create stars, she has them from coast to coast.

The league features the most recognizable names in women's hoops, from three-time Olympians Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Dawn Staley to Seimone Augustus, two-time college player of the year from LSU.

The WNBA also has the player touted by her peers as the most exciting to watch: Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever. In a poll of the 2005 All-Stars, Catchings was voted the league's best all-around player. In her four-year WNBA career, the 6-1 forward has averaged 17.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.41 steals.

It is a stylized photo of Catchings that appears in the 10th anniversary national advertising campaign.

But it's not enough to have a great player, Sulka says.

The Mercury drafted one of the brightest stars in Diana Taurasi, the only woman currently with her own signature shoe, but the level of her popularity at the University of Connecticut hasn't transferred to the WNBA. One reason may be that Phoenix hasn't reached the playoffs during Taurasi's brief pro career.

"The key is getting people exposed to (the game)," Sulka says. "You can't just say, 'Come watch me because I'm great.' Winning will always work; it will always bring casual fans into any sport."

Seattle coach Anne Donovan says winning in 2004 helped the Storm.

"For sure, winning the championship helped our cause," Donovan says. "We got to the final round against Connecticut and we had 18,000 people in Key Arena the last two games of that series. The energy in the city about bringing a championship to Seattle after 25 years was huge, and gender didn't matter."

Marketing game is key

But only one team can win a title each year. For the rest, selling the game looms large.

Orender signed off on national television spots to air this year. Unlike the "This is who I am" that mainly focused on players' personalities and the league's image, the 2006 "Have you seen her?" ads feature basketball highlights.

"For those of us who are about basketball, it's front and center," Orender says. "For those of us who want more than that, to deepen the emotional connection, it's also in front of us."

Carter says the campaign is taking the league in the right direction.

"What they have done well is they have taken as full advantage of the NBA brand as they possibly can. ... They have to really begin to market that they are a viable stand-alone sport, not linked to cause-related marketing ... not something that you just invest in because the cause warrants it or it's the right thing to do."

Hughes says that message is best delivered in arenas. "The game is enhanced when you experience it in person," he says. "For people who have just sampled the television end of it, I don't think they really appreciate it the way they would had they come to a game."

Orender refuses to buy into any premise from those who would still cast dispersions about the league's business model -- which includes non-NBA owners -- or the quality of play.

"I don't know that the naysayer is my problem; I don't think it is," Orender says. "Any product you put on the marketplace is never going to appeal to 100% of the people. The core of our fan base is significant. The percentage of people who are interested is enough to drive a business; we have just got to get them."

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