Thursday, March 12, 2009

NBA Losing More Money than WNBA



David Stern, head of NBA, patron of the WNBA, and Lord High Wizard of All in Basketball just stated something that might turn conventional wisdom on its ear - if anyone listens to it.

With the NBA quivering under the winds of our recession/depression, Stern was asked about the health of the WNBA:

"The NBA is far less profitable than the WNBA," he said. We're losing a lot of money amongst a large number of teams. We're budgeting the WNBA to break even this year."

Now that's a stunner. Although it's not hard to believe. NBA tickets are more expensive than WNBA tickets, and NBA depends a lot more on corporate sponsorships whereas the WNBA depends more on gate receipts.

Next time some jock commenter says that the WNBA is losing money...tell 'em David Stern sent ya. (/smile)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Testify!

Although, and admittedly I haven't checked lately, the WNBA could be taking advantage of the quiet offseason and, you know, sell some updated team stuff at the WNBA store.

Can't hurt.

Anonymous said...

Ethan, I know that they sell WNBA stuff at the NBA store in New York City. I wonder what the total percentage is of WNBA stuff sold....

Rebecca said...

Ethan- they've been working on updating the inventory, putting outdated stuff on clearance, that kind of thing. I talked to one of the managers a couple of weeks ago- really nice guy, really animated, knew his stuff. Better'n the last time I tried to advise them that "um, you do know that Taurasi mannequin's wearing Monarchs shorts, right?"

Anonymous said...

I was referring specifically to the online store. I'm way out of market over here in the Dallas metro area. :-|