you argued with a bear ?

I think the OP said, bare, so someone naked and with a narrow point of view from what has been posted, I presume...

We could barely keep the men's league alive and profitable, why would anyone think a womens league could even survive.

There was some talk earlier in the season LK had an interest in buying into the WNBL, haven't heard anything since though.

OP is Russian. He argued with a bear on a unicycle

It is what it is. Just think of how it evolved with a lot less , always teams coming and going

I think if we can get more teams aligning with the NBL team then it will make it a lot easier to sell the product but that leaves Vixtorian teams aligning with United or not at all... Should WNBL get a breakers affiliate ?

Time WNBL were given better support, no TV coverage, crap wages, little to no extended fan base outside of the immediate junior programs associated with the teams is certainly not conductive to making it a better platform for professional level basketball.
Time the Sporting bodies began to recognise women's sports ... Basketball in particular and helped them out. You only have to look at half the comments on here re women's basketball, it always ends up being changed over to the men's and God forbid if it doesn't some wise spark will ask why anyone is discussing women's badketball.


Heads up guys, our australian Opals are far more successful than their male counterparts, on the world stage and have been for a very long time ( yet till now have been treated like the "also rans"),

In all sports, wages are mostly a direct result of the contract the TV rights pay. No TV deal not much money.

Yes, it all starts largely with either (1) the public being interested in consuming the product, or (2) sponsors wanting to be aligned with the product.
When the first thing happens, it encourages the second.
When the second thing happens, it creates a better product and facilitates the first thing.

When the product is virtually invisible, it doesn't help the prospects of either thing happening.

Thankfully a TV deal is imminent!

it's a bit like what comes first the chicken or the egg....... They need to make it so that people want to come to games, but to do that they need to get the game out there, make it seem huge, advertise it, spark people's interest, don't just rely on your players families and star struck juniors to come and fill the seats that any potential sponsor will want to sell their wares to.
And the only way to do that is for the governing bodies to actually step up and get the WNBL exposure, every dam night you can find NBL games on TV, yes it's pay TV, but why can't the women get something even once or twice a week, it's actually Not that hard surely.
Why is the WNBL CEO not fighting to get a TV deal for all teams, the season is nearly finished and the "TV deal is imminent " crap is a standing joke.
All they do is come up with lame excuses

@576649

Interesting comment.

With very few exceptions, the Opals have out-performed the Boomers for decades at both Olympic and WC level. And when I say decades, I mean like 5 of them.... and believe it or not, Jackson has only played for around 15 years of those 50 or so.

Try googling Maher, Sporn, Brogan, Timms, Nykiel, Mickan, Brondello, Fallon, Dalton, Cheesman and their contemporaries.

As for turning... The Opals would be firmly in the frame for silver in Rio, the Boomers would do well to match their Sydney result.

I don't suggest anything other than that about Jackson.

Our most recent major success, bronze in Turkey, came without Jackson or Cambage.

And the 2006 Gold medal had a great deal to do with Taylor and Harrower. Taylor was tournament MVP.

Jackson in her era made us gold medal contenders in every tournament she played, but we would have been in the frame for silver in all of those tournaments without her. And throughout her era she has had truly great international players around her - Timms, Sporn, Harrower, Taylor, Brondello, Snell, Fallon etc

Since 1994 the Opals have been a great international team, with or without Lauren.

But again, five decades of "outshining" the men, not one.

Getting bit lost on a tangent here.

Sure, there's no argument about the success of the Opals vs the success of the Boomers. That is not relevant to whether anybody wants to watch a WNBL game though.

I'm simply pointing out that success of a national team in competition has very little bearing on the popularity of a professional league. That's why getting hung up on the Opals' success is a bit of a tangent IMO, and not all that helpful.

The aussie equestrian team seems to pop up pretty regularly in the medals at the Olympics too, and I'd guess we would rank pretty high in the world in boomerang throwing and backyard cricket, but being good at something doesn't automatically mean that individuals & companies will be lining up to throw money at those sports either.