Recruiting Forum Football Talk IX

#141,403
#141,403
jave36 said:
ESPN has dumped unimaginable amounts of money into promoting the WNBA. They force feed it to anyone and everyone who tries to consume any content from them. If they did the same thing with softball, you'd see much more success than they've had with that same tactic for the WNBA. The ratings are higher because of the investment in marketing, not because the product is good. Softball is a good product, so it would soar with that kind of marketing investment.

You may be right though, it could have been part of the NBA negotiations that ESPN promote the WNBA like their lives depended on it.
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Some quotes from 2 or 3 articles, cobbled together:
The NBA started the WNBA in 1996, and the new league first tipped off in 1997. "By subsidizing the WNBA, the NBA champions gender equality in sports."

At the time, a womens' basketball league, the American Basketball League (ABL), was already operating. But by 1998 the NBA's WNBA had pushed the existing womens league out of business. A monopoly was formed, and for a while all WNBA teams were owned by the NBA itself.

Poor TV ratings and "half-empty" arenas have been the norm. By 2018, it was confirmed that the league had never turned a profit since its debut in 1997.

Now 30 years since it's founding, the financial resources from ticket sales, merchandise, and broadcasting deals are still not sufficient to sustain WNBA operations. Not to worry, "there is no "short-term" business plan to turn the league into a profitable one, but that’s OK,” says NBA Commisioner Adam Silver.

In 2025 the NBA directly subsidized the WNBA with roughly $15 million to help cover critical costs like operations, marketing, player salaries, and facilities. And the NBA also shares facilities, extensively promotes WNBA content through NBA TV, and often steps in to secure major sponsorships for the WNBA. But that is not all.

Last year the NBA signed a massive $75 billion media deal with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon, and the WNBA was given a cut — $2.2 billion over 11 years, or roughly $200 million a year.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert approved the NBA's strategy, explaining, “We need the NBA because we have a smaller footprint with only 40 games.”

Yet others, like Cheryl Miller, who in 1996 became the first female analyst to call a nationally televised NBA game, called the WNBA's assigned portion "a low ball offer," adding that “[$2 billion] is nice, [$8 billion] would be better.”

The NBA and WNBA evolved from NBA ownership to a 50/50 split of ownership of the league. That number has changed since the WNBA got an additional $75 million dollar capital injection in 2022 from the likes of Nike, Michael Dell, and Laurene Powell Jobs. Those investors now own 16% of the league. The other 84% is split evenly: 42% for the WNBA and 42% for the NBA. But because 6 of the 13 WNBA franchises are owned by NBA team owners, NBA ownership is 60%.
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#141,405
#141,405
hooperj75 said:
Guys,
Did you see the POS Arkansas fan’s tweet about Wes Rucker? Vol Nation do your thing and light this guy up. Disgusting.
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He actually reposted it. The first guy that made this was a stupid Mississippi State kid when we waxed their a$$es in the regular season.
 
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#141,406
#141,406
hooperj75 said:
Guys,
Did you see the POS Arkansas fan’s tweet about Wes Rucker? Vol Nation do your thing and light this guy up. Disgusting.
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Arkansas has no respect for the game.

SagginVawls said:
He actually reposted it. The first guy that made this was a stupid Mississippi State kid when we waxed their a$$es in the regular season.
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Arkansas has no respect for the game... and no originality.
 
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