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WNBA Team is Coming to Rogers!!!!!


KJW

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While it would be interesting to have I guess I'm skeptical enough to just have to wait and see some more details. I'm somewhat surprised nWA would be thought of over other areas. For that matter I'd think that the Little Rock area would have a better chance. They've already hosted some women's SEC tournaments there. It would seem to me that the WNBA would be more interested in them. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the WNBA but I certainly wouldn't blow them off either. It may not be the most desirable pro sport but it is a pro sport.

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While it would be interesting to have I guess I'm skeptical enough to just have to wait and see some more details. I'm somewhat surprised nWA would be thought of over other areas. For that matter I'd think that the Little Rock area would have a better chance. They've already hosted some women's SEC tournaments there. It would seem to me that the WNBA would be more interested in them. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the WNBA but I certainly wouldn't blow them off either. It may not be the most desirable pro sport but it is a pro sport.

Food for thought, Mith, for those of you who remember what NWA was like merely 5 years ago, August 2001.

How many here (I wasn't here yet) would have laughed at someone saying in that month that we were going to get a Texas League baseball team in a matter of 5 years? After all, 1 year later in August 2002 the newspaper would be publishing a big story whose headline essentially was "Is Northwest Arkansas ready for (any type of including independent) minor league baseball?"

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How many here (I wasn't here yet) would have laughed at someone saying in that month that we were going to get a Texas League baseball team in a matter of 5 years? After all, 1 year later in August 2002 the newspaper would be publishing a big story whose headline essentially was "Is Northwest Arkansas ready for (any type of including independent) minor league baseball?"

I never laughed, in fact I thought it was crazy for us not to have a minor league baseball team at the time. We should have had one 10 years ago.

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Food for thought, Mith, for those of you who remember what NWA was like merely 5 years ago, August 2001.

How many here (I wasn't here yet) would have laughed at someone saying in that month that we were going to get a Texas League baseball team in a matter of 5 years? After all, 1 year later in August 2002 the newspaper would be publishing a big story whose headline essentially was "Is Northwest Arkansas ready for (any type of including independent) minor league baseball?"

You do have a point. I'm not even necessarily saying that NWA couldn't support one. And it's always possible. I guess I would just assume other metros would be more desirable than ours. I suppose being the only pro sport in the area could help it. I also wonder if the WNBA could be considering NWA because wal-mart is here and they think it could help possibly bring in Wal-mart's advertising dollars. I really have no idea if Wal-mart would ever do anything like that. But it is an interesting thought.

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Thanks guys.

Aporkalypse, I forgot to add that those are some interesting links you furnished, and could explain why (if the reporter didn't misstate the facts) there is interest in NWA from the WNBA.

Color me "unsure" about this, but I still applaud the bravado of these arena guys for the moment (if indeed their project goes through) as we may applaud the same aspect of William Dillard's character as we walk through the Promenade for the first time on a cool October night this fall.

And more importantly, if a WNBA team comes in here, we're going to learn a lot more about how big (or not) our metro area really is...

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Here's an article I found about the possible WNBA team from a Canadian webiste.

Northwest Arkansas possible site for WNBA expansion team

Associated Press

Fri, Aug 25, 2006

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- The mayor of Bentonville says the WNBA has expressed an interest in bringing an expansion team to northwest Arkansas. Mayor Terry Coberly spoke Thursday with league president Donna Orender.

"They want to talk with us, and we want to talk with them," Coberly said.

Also, Christopher Talley, one of 13 investors in a planned sports and entertainment arena in Bentonville, said he has been in preliminary discussions with the league. Talley said he plans to take city and civic leaders to the WNBA's championship game to meet with league officials.

"This would be the biggest thing to happen to the state since the (University of Arkansas) Razorbacks` national championship in 1994," he said.

Ron Howard, a spokesman for the WNBA, said the league does not comment on sites being considered for a franchise. Orender has said she was confident the league would be expanding in the next two years.

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Here's an article I found about the possible WNBA team from a Canadian webiste.

Northwest Arkansas possible site for WNBA expansion team

Associated Press

Fri, Aug 25, 2006

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- The mayor of Bentonville says the WNBA has expressed an interest in bringing an expansion team to northwest Arkansas. Mayor Terry Coberly spoke Thursday with league president Donna Orender.

"They want to talk with us, and we want to talk with them," Coberly said.

Also, Christopher Talley, one of 13 investors in a planned sports and entertainment arena in Bentonville, said he has been in preliminary discussions with the league. Talley said he plans to take city and civic leaders to the WNBA's championship game to meet with league officials.

"This would be the biggest thing to happen to the state since the (University of Arkansas) Razorbacks` national championship in 1994," he said.

Ron Howard, a spokesman for the WNBA, said the league does not comment on sites being considered for a franchise. Orender has said she was confident the league would be expanding in the next two years.

Uhh...awsome?

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Uhh...awsome?

That seems to be the attitude that many NBA fans have towards WNBA, but based on profitability and awards WNBA is a pretty big sport. Considering WNBA only started in 1997 and has been the most successful basketball program outside of the NBA I think NWA should feel very proud if we get a team. It may not be NBA, but then which Arkansas city has the NBA? Also, when the WNBA All-Star Games are played in NWA it will do wonders for our recognition being broadcast on major networks and ESPN.

It's a great start that may lead to NWA getting more major sports franchises such as Arena Football and Hockey. Combined with a Texas League baseball team and the Razorbacks it looks like NWA will be the center of sports in Arkansas.

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That seems to be the attitude that many NBA fans have towards WNBA, but based on profitability and awards WNBA is a pretty big sport. Considering WNBA only started in 1997 and has been the most successful basketball program outside of the NBA I think NWA should feel very proud if we get a team. It may not be NBA, but then which Arkansas city has the NBA? Also, when the WNBA All-Star Games are played in NWA it will do wonders for our recognition being broadcast on major networks and ESPN.

It's a great start that may lead to NWA getting more major sports franchises such as Arena Football and Hockey. Combined with a Texas League baseball team and the Razorbacks it looks like NWA will be the center of sports in Arkansas.

I agree, while it wouldn't be near the top of my list of sports I'd like to see come to NWA. I'd still like to emphasize it's pro sport. I think it would be a great achievement if NWA were to somehow pull this off.

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I agree, while it wouldn't be near the top of my list of sports I'd like to see come to NWA. I'd still like to emphasize it's pro sport. I think it would be a great achievement if NWA were to somehow pull this off.

It would. NWA would be one of the smallest, if not the smallest market to have a pro sports franchise.

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Green Bay has a little over 100,000 residents. It's metro area is around 237,000. That put's us in second. Still the WNBA could be playing in a city with 30,000 people.

Yeah I always like to use Green Bay as an example. Granted they have a long history there and they are the exception not the rule. But smaller metros can support pro teams. But getting someone to give it a try is another story.

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Did anyone see that a group of Bentonville city leaders including the mayor and members of the sports arena ownership group are going to meet with WNBA and NBA officials in Detroit on Friday to further talks about bringing a WNBA to the area? The official franchise application was sent to the WNBA on Wednesday.

I've heard that the group has been invited as guests of the league to attend game two of the WNBA Championship between the Detroit Shock and Sacramento Monarchs and an after party with several other team owners and players.

Along with the WNBA, officials from the NBA

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Yeah I've been curious to see just how serious they are taking NWA. It certainly isn't impossible that they could decide to pick us as a future expansion site. But it does seem interesting that we'd get a shot before other larger metros. I can see some metros might not be very appealing because they might already have a pro team. But I'm still really surprised that Little Rock wouldn't be more in line for something like this. They've hosted the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament and brought out very good numbers both times.

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Yeah I've been curious to see just how serious they are taking NWA. It certainly isn't impossible that they could decide to pick us as a future expansion site. But it does seem interesting that we'd get a shot before other larger metros. I can see some metros might not be very appealing because they might already have a pro team. But I'm still really surprised that Little Rock wouldn't be more in line for something like this. They've hosted the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament and brought out very good numbers both times.

It's about owners. I would bet nobody in LR is interested in owning a WNBA team. With no disrespect to NWA intended, I think the WNBA is struggling enough it is considering a paradigm shift to smaller markets. The WNBA owners are apparently disgruntled and losing money, so if they are considering putting a franchise in NWA it would be because it's one of the few places people are interested in owning a team.

I don't think that NWA can support a new minor league baseball team and WNBA team simultaneously. They would be head to head for competition in the summer with some overlap with UA baseball at the beginning. If the WNBA stuff is serious, they are planning on very high attendance to offset gross loss of TV revenue by adding a small market. I don't think they'll get it and I think it will hurt the minor league baseball team some.

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It's about owners. I would bet nobody in LR is interested in owning a WNBA team. With no disrespect to NWA intended, I think the WNBA is struggling enough it is considering a paradigm shift to smaller markets. The WNBA owners are apparently disgruntled and losing money, so if they are considering putting a franchise in NWA it would be because it's one of the few places people are interested in owning a team.

I don't think that NWA can support a new minor league baseball team and WNBA team simultaneously. They would be head to head for competition in the summer with some overlap with UA baseball at the beginning. If the WNBA stuff is serious, they are planning on very high attendance to offset gross loss of TV revenue by adding a small market. I don't think they'll get it and I think it will hurt the minor league baseball team some.

Well although I shouldn't say we should give up but it looks like we may not have a Texas League team to take away attendance.

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It's about owners. I would bet nobody in LR is interested in owning a WNBA team. With no disrespect to NWA intended, I think the WNBA is struggling enough it is considering a paradigm shift to smaller markets. The WNBA owners are apparently disgruntled and losing money, so if they are considering putting a franchise in NWA it would be because it's one of the few places people are interested in owning a team.

I don't think that NWA can support a new minor league baseball team and WNBA team simultaneously. They would be head to head for competition in the summer with some overlap with UA baseball at the beginning. If the WNBA stuff is serious, they are planning on very high attendance to offset gross loss of TV revenue by adding a small market. I don't think they'll get it and I think it will hurt the minor league baseball team some.

Wouldn't it be something if we got a WNBA team and some years later down the road the WNBA became as respectable an organization as the NBA. I figure it'll take around 15 more years for the WNBA to gain the respect the NBA had in it's 25th year. The WNBA organization is shifting towards profitability in 2007 and they're not necessarily shifting to smaller markets like NWA, but to the fastest growing smaller markets like NWA. I think it's a smart decision to start planting WNBA teams in metros that will become major metros in the near future.

Here's some basic information I got about WNBA financing from Wikipedia that shows the huge difference in player salaries between the NBA and the WNBA:

So far the WNBA has not mirrored the monetary success of the NBA, though it is targeting profitability in 2007. The WNBA's efforts to find committed American professional women's basketball fans finally gave at least one pay-off in 2004. With official online ticket sales facilitated through the WNBA website, all three 2004 WNBA Finals games sold out. The average attendance of WNBA games, league-wide, is roughly one half the average attendance of NBA games. As of the agreement signed in 2003, WNBA players who had up to three years of experience were capped at $42,000. By comparison, $385,277 was the minimum salary of an NBA rookie.[1]WNBA rookies earned $30,000 per year. The maximum salary for a WNBA player in 2004 was $90,000. Many WNBA players have to supplement their salaries by playing in European women's basketball leagues during the WNBA off-season.
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While I could possibly see some improvement for the WNBA I just don't see it ever becoming anything like the NBA or any other major sport. That's a bit like me wishing Major League Soccer would catch on and become one of the main sports here in the US. I certainly like the idea but I just don't see it happening. Anyway as I said before, I haven't been that interested in the WNBA. But if we did get a team I'd certainly be a lot more interested and hope that the area would support something like this.

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Wouldn't it be something if we got a WNBA team and some years later down the road the WNBA became as respectable an organization as the NBA. I figure it'll take around 15 more years for the WNBA to gain the respect the NBA had in it's 25th year. The WNBA organization is shifting towards profitability in 2007 and they're not necessarily shifting to smaller markets like NWA, but to the fastest growing smaller markets like NWA. I think it's a smart decision to start planting WNBA teams in metros that will become major metros in the near future.

Here's some basic information I got about WNBA financing from Wikipedia that shows the huge difference in player salaries between the NBA and the WNBA:

The WNBA is hurting badly, make no mistake. Were it not for the NBA proper it would've folded. The reason it has lasted this long is that it makes good use of a relationship between the NBA and WNBA teams in most markets as they are owned by the same owner and play in the same arena. Chicago has apparently been a debacle with awful attendance and uses a 2nd rate facility. Other NBA owners do not want women's teams. Charlotte was forced to get a WNBA team to get an expansion NBA franchise and now wants to shed the women's team. The WNBA franchses save Sacramento are hemorrhaging money. What's saving it is that the teams are mostly in large TV markets and they have been able to work out some TV contracts using Stern and the NBA's leverage, something no previous women's league pulled off.

Keep in mind that as well as NWA is doing, Collin County in the DFW metro is considerably larger AND growing faster. Why no WNBA mention of DFW? No owners are interested. Mark Cuban publicly said so. The same is true of San Francisco-Oakland and Philadelphia.

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The WNBA is hurting badly, make no mistake. Were it not for the NBA proper it would've folded. The reason it has lasted this long is that it makes good use of a relationship between the NBA and WNBA teams in most markets as they are owned by the same owner and play in the same arena. Chicago has apparently been a debacle with awful attendance and uses a 2nd rate facility. Other NBA owners do not want women's teams. Charlotte was forced to get a WNBA team to get an expansion NBA franchise and now wants to shed the women's team. The WNBA franchses save Sacramento are hemorrhaging money. What's saving it is that the teams are mostly in large TV markets and they have been able to work out some TV contracts using Stern and the NBA's leverage, something no previous women's league pulled off.

Keep in mind that as well as NWA is doing, Collin County in the DFW metro is considerably larger AND growing faster. Why no WNBA mention of DFW? No owners are interested. Mark Cuban publicly said so. The same is true of San Francisco-Oakland and Philadelphia.

I'll admit I don't follow WNBA or even the NBA for that matter and what you're saying does make a WNBA in NWA almost a waste of time. I guess it's really going to be some time before our metro attracts anything major since our largest city is still pretty small compared to most metros, if not all, that have minor league or professional sports. The WNBA is probably looking at NWA because NWA can afford to pay for it and because they know NWA is desperate enough to take whatever they can get.

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I'll admit I don't follow WNBA or even the NBA for that matter and what you're saying does make a WNBA in NWA almost a waste of time. I guess it's really going to be some time before our metro attracts anything major since our largest city is still pretty small compared to most metros, if not all, that have minor league or professional sports. The WNBA is probably looking at NWA because NWA can afford to pay for it and because they know NWA is desperate enough to take whatever they can get.

I think you're right but I also think NWA is a very viable market for both AA baseball and ECHL or CHL hockey. Putting resources into making both of these succeed will go a long way to ensuring future opportunities as well. What you don't want is a halfass effort ending with teams folding up and leaving. That will make it very tough to sell new teams on the area. I don't think that will be a problem in NWA and I believe even if the Springdale thing falls through AA baseball is bound to end up in NWA.

True, NWA and LR aren't ready for the majors. Neither are Tulsa and even Memphis and OKC are only borderline markets. It's nothing to be ashamed of, if NWA were big enough for that a lot of the things we like about the area would no longer be true. The biggest "major league" issue the market would face, even if it grew at an even brisker pace, is the lack of size of the TV market. NWA is #104, even counting Ft Smith, and the smallest market with any major pro team (save Green Bay, which is an exception) is Jacksonville at #52. TV markets play a big role in deciding who gets major franchises and apparently this is one of the forces keeping #37 San Antonio from getting an NFL or MLB team in addition to the Spurs.

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I think you're right but I also think NWA is a very viable market for both AA baseball and ECHL or CHL hockey. Putting resources into making both of these succeed will go a long way to ensuring future opportunities as well. What you don't want is a halfass effort ending with teams folding up and leaving. That will make it very tough to sell new teams on the area. I don't think that will be a problem in NWA and I believe even if the Springdale thing falls through AA baseball is bound to end up in NWA.

True, NWA and LR aren't ready for the majors. Neither are Tulsa and even Memphis and OKC are only borderline markets. It's nothing to be ashamed of, if NWA were big enough for that a lot of the things we like about the area would no longer be true. The biggest "major league" issue the market would face, even if it grew at an even brisker pace, is the lack of size of the TV market. NWA is #104, even counting Ft Smith, and the smallest market with any major pro team (save Green Bay, which is an exception) is Jacksonville at #52. TV markets play a big role in deciding who gets major franchises and apparently this is one of the forces keeping #37 San Antonio from getting an NFL or MLB team in addition to the Spurs.

Exactly. There are plenty of other metros that have a bigger population and tv market than we do and don't have a major sport. I'm not trying to say going after a WNBA team is a waste of time. Even if we couldn't hold a team for a very long time I still think there could be some nice advantages. Get our area out there and such.

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