A coalition of city leaders is slowly making progress on its mission to attract a women's professional sports team to Nashville.
The women's professional sports ad hoc committee, led by influential attorney Margaret Behm, met last week to hear an update from the city's consultant.
EAST: Washington, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia CENTRAL: Atlanta, Toronto, Nashville, Indiana NORTH: Seattle, Oakland, Minnesota, Chicago WEST: Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas
There doesn’t need to be more than an Eastern Conference & a Western Conference (or, simply put, two distinct conferences) in any League, let alone one with less than 20 teams. So then I can’t imagine a divisional scheme where a single division has two teams from the Great Lakes and two from west coast all within it.
Even if this Nashville talk were real/moving along substantially, I don't see a WNBA team drawing well in such a city. Just don’t see a tangible fit there, in a cultural sense. Plus, Knoxville/the University of Tennessee is a three-hour drive away from Nashville – not exactly an easy stroll away to get members of the Lady Vol faithful to make with any consistency.
Last Edit: Oct 14, 2021 21:56:58 GMT -5 by Deleted
Central Div with 2 expansion teams, Indy and Atlanta. One could win the Division with 6-8 wins.....I hope they don't end up playing each other most of the time.
EAST: Washington, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia CENTRAL: Atlanta, Toronto, Nashville, Indiana NORTH: Seattle, Oakland, Minnesota, Chicago WEST: Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas
My pipe dream of when they get to 20 teams.
EAST: Washington, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Atlanta CENTRAL: Indiana, Chicago, Nashville, Toronto, Cleveland MIDWEST: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota WEST: Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles
Wouldn't it be nice of a WNBA owner actually wanted to spend the money to build it's own arena?
Makes you wonder how many of those arenas that hold a basketball capacity of 5k-10k are out there in current as well as prospective WNBA cities. Angel of the Winds Arena that the Storm played in this past season holds a perfect 10k. The problem is, its Everett location is just too far from Seattle & most of its suburbs to be a long-term solution (boy, do I wish we had New York-style subway systems here on the west coast). I like the idea of the Storm playing in the newly remodeled Climate Pledge Arena. But since no WNBA team is ever gonna average 20k fans per regular-season game, seeing the upper bowl constantly closed will always be kind of a buzzkill for me, amongst others.
10K arenas apparently don't make economic sense in major metro areas, as there just aren't many of them.
I would like the WNBA to play in 5,000-seat arenas, or maybe 7,500, because a) the usual crowd of 3,000 or so works much better; and b) if you have sellouts occasionally, that can help convince people to buy season tickets and also justify price increases.
10K arenas apparently don't make economic sense in major metro areas, as there just aren't many of them.
I would like the WNBA to play in 5,000-seat arenas, or maybe 7,500, because a) the usual crowd of 3,000 or so works much better; and b) if you have sellouts occasionally, that can help convince people to buy season tickets and also justify price increases.
Staffing at events and games seems to be a pretty significant cost based on some articles I found. The 75k number thrown around for the Oakland project seems fairly credible. I recall times when the Dream played in the Hawks arena that there seemed to be as many staff as fans. I noticed that at Gateway the staffing level was much lower, but it seemed to work out just fine. So a benefit of the smaller places has be much lower operating costs. The one big drawback though is the lack of luxury boxes, etc. (At least I didn't see any at Gateway.)
I don't care for the Mystics and Dream micro-arenas. Wish they were closer to 7,500 capacity. Looks very minor league level.
Seeing as neither team drew very well anyway pre-pandemic, their respective capacities at somewhere around 4,000 seats seem right for right now. They can worry about graduating to bigger arenas if they ever start consistently selling out games. I know we were still in a pandemic this past season, but there was downright nobody at some of those Dream games – it was tough to see. 😕
Last Edit: Oct 27, 2021 12:04:13 GMT -5 by Deleted
*I had to laugh at Jade Smith-Williams referring to herself as a "local legend". (It had to be her because no one else would.) I didn't even remember her at all, and I checked -- she averaged 9.0 ppg as a senior for a team in a weak league that lost in the first round of postseason. It does make me question the whole press release a little, though ...
*The actual content of the press release was pretty minimal. They added a name to the organizational chart but there wasn't anything else about financing or a firm deal. This group is primarily interested in bringing an NFL team to Oakland, but with the Oakland A's getting a key go-head for their new stadium, it makes it less likely that the Oakland Coliseum, where the football team would play, would remain standing. There's always been talk of developing that property.
Of course I would love to see a team here, and I do think it will happen. But this particular group has been heavy on self-promotion, and a little light on concrete proposals.