sun lost by 4 - at home

life is tough at the top

way toooo many turn overs to sun - number 1 point playing with injury, back ups turning it over

Hey GTF,

That's all fine, but according to this article no-one really cares. Or does this guy have it wrong?

Pretty rude article. I rarely follow netball or read the articles in the paper or go to games, but I don't snipe from afar and make disparaging remarks about those that choose to go to the game.

Giving shit to a couple of women in flannel shirts and motorcycle boots just because they're not his style might be funny to a few guys but it makes Jay look pretty narrow minded and pathetic.

I'm sure that the WNBA isn't as exciting and popular as the NBA (same with WNBL and NBL), but it still has its fans, it's still worth supporting for those that like it, and I'd rather have WNBL/Netball on TV than home shopping or pretty much everything else that gets shown.

Seems he's not the only one. 93% of voters answered "you're kidding, right?" to the poll question "how much of the WNBA playoffs will you watch?"

Here's an article by Bill Simmons on the topic of the WNBA.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/050901

Absolutely fantastic article from Bill Simmons (as usual). He approaches it from the case of the NBA supporting the WNBA like a charity, and the promotions to fans, rather than belittling those who do like the league

Sad thing is, those WNBA games are kicking the NBL in average game attendances. The NBL would love an average game night attendance of 8,000-odd. NBL has given up on that aim to the exten that the capacity of some of the stadiums is only 3,000.

Compared to the decrease in Sixers memberships, WNBA is going strong...

Well, if you're going to get tricky, try comparing the average NBA game to the average AFL game.

Population base alone does not work.

Basketball is one of the national sports in the US. Ours are Cricket, Football (AFL) and Rugby.

But for interest sake:

Population of Aus & NZ: 26,000,000
Total attendances 04/05: 644,976
Ave game night attendance: 3,665
% of population at games: %0.025
Per game: 0.00014
% watching on TV: negligible

Population of US: 260,000,000
Total attendances 04/05: 21,296,497
Average attendace per game: 17,314
% of population at games: 0.08%
Per game: 0.000067
% watching on TV: Tons

There you go anonymous - some stats for you.

Now what exactly was your point again?

well, here's the number i've come up with ...

Canada population = 32,805,041
USA population = 295,734,134
Australia Population = 20,090,437
New Zealand Population = 4,035,461

USA Aggregate population = 328,539,175
Australia Aggregate Population = 24,125,898

Teams in the NBA  30
Teams in the NBL - 11

Total NBA Attendance 82 games = 20,283,156
Avg Weekly NBA Attendance = 17,059

Total NBL attendance 32 games = 644,976
Avg Weekly NBL Attendance = 3,665


But what do all these numbers mean? Let's put them together

NBA first - Total attendance (20,283,156) divided by the number of teams (30) divided by the number of games (82) divided by the population (328,539,175) gives you the avg attendance of basketball in America per person, which equals 0.000025

NBL now - Total attendance (644,976) divided by the number of teams (11) divided by the number of games (32) divided by the population (24125898) gives you the avg attendance of basketball in Australia per person, which equals 0.000076

So it turns out, per capita, more Aussie's are attending basketball (Mens) than the US. And unless the WNBA is getting more crowds than the NBA I think you are incorrect in saying "&WNBA games are kicking the NBL in average game attendances&" if your going to make comparisons, at least compare apples with apples.

In pure numbers yes, but putting it into perspective... i think not XY.

It is still useless information, because you have not taken into account the availability of tickets in the US (their stadiums are not 10 times the size of Australian stadiums), relative cost of tickets, proximity of population to game venues, availability and viewing audience of games on TV etc etc. Total average viewing audiences would not even be comparable.

If you look at my original post I said:

'Sad thing is, those WNBA games are kicking the NBL in average game attendances'. TRUE (8,000 to 4,633)

'The NBL would love an average game night attendance of 8,000-odd.' TRUE

'the capacity of some of the stadiums is only 3,000'. CLOSE ENOUGH

'Compared to the decrease in Sixers memberships, WNBA is going strong...'. ARGUABLE (see below)

I did not say that more people were attending WNBA games per head of capita.

Now if the WNBA is struggling to the point of near collapse (as suggested by the referenced articles) but are still able to draw 8000 ticket paying viewers per game plus TV audience it must be because the overheads of the league are exponentially higher than the NBL. 8,000 tickets per game would be a damn good wicket for the NBL.

As an aside, I note that the WNBA game night audiences of 8,000 are almost half of the NBA. That is not all that bad.

The only comparison I in fact made in my first post was between the decrease in Sixers memberships and the decrease in interest in the WNBA (not against the number of people attending games).

The WNBA reached an all time high attendance per game in 1998 of 10,864 and has dropped in all but one year since. That was in only the leagues second year. Last year it was 8,173. That is an average 3.5% drop off each year. Over the past 5 years attendances have dropped only 2% each year.

I don't have the stats, but Sixers must have been averaging at least 6,500 in 1998. Last game was 4,300? If that continues this season, that will represent a drop in attendences of almost 5% each year not coming back to games.

So, it might be fair to say that Sixers attendances are doing worse than the WNBA.

Remember #50310, statistics can be deceptive and can be manipulated to say just about anything.

Statistics can be used to prove anything......40% of all people know that

Forfty! He says forfty!

I recently read an interview with Stern (can't remember where). Asked about the WNBA troubles he stated "People ask me about the WNBA losing money, and I say yeah it does lose money, but not as much as the NBA does."

Percentage of WNBA crowd that are women with hairy armpits: 73%