A Matter Of Value Instead Of Profit

The league began as eight teams and grew to 16 before three franchises folded, two relocated and another was added this season. In October 2002, the NBA changed the business model from a centrally operated league to individual franchises owned and operated by NBA owners. Under the new model, WNBA teams could be sold to non-NBA owners and moved to non-NBA cities.

Ganis said having a non-NBA owner might be preferable to keeping the teams in the hands of NBA teams. He said NBA owners may choose to devote fewer resources to the WNBA team if their profits on the NBA team get squeezed, especially if the new collective bargaining agreement between players and owners reduces owner profits.

"If you are losing a couple of million on a WNBA team when you are making 6 or 7 million [on an NBA team], you could live with that," Ganis said. "But if you're right around break-even with your NBA team, you feel the WNBA loss more."

Stern said he is aware that the owner of an NBA team worth $350 million is going to tilt his time and resources toward his NBA franchise rather than the WNBA franchise worth $10 million. The 11 WNBA teams still in the hands of NBA owners may get more attention and have a better shot at prosperity if other businesspeople in those communities step in and buy the teams.

Take the Washington Mystics, a team that offers a microcosm of the challenges WNBA teams face and the solutions that may exist. Sheila Johnson, a co-founder of Washington-based Black Entertainment Television, bought the Mystics last year for $10 million from local sports entrepreneur Abe Pollin, owner of Verizon Center and the NBA Wizards, and folded her interest in the team into Lincoln Holdings.

Johnson holds titles of president, managing partner and governor for the Mystics and is a partner in Lincoln, which is the Ted Leonsis-led holding company for the NHL's Washington Capitals and the Mystics and has a minority interest in Pollin's Washington Sports and Entertainment.

Johnson, who is one of three WNBA team owners who do not also own an NBA franchise, said she thinks the league has a better chance at success with the franchises owned by individuals rather than run by the league. In addition to the Mystics, the other two WNBA teams that are not owned by an NBA team are the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun.

"It is just like running a company," Johnson said. "You've got to put together a business plan to make this work. I really believe the WNBA can grow and get financially stronger if we have that kind of ownership. The NBA owner who takes his business model and moves it to the WNBA model and puts that same energy into it, it can work."

Johnson is moving quickly to erase her team's annual loss of between $300,000 and $400,000 and said she hopes to make the franchise profitable in three years. She has recruited sponsors such as SunTrust Bank and Turner Construction, increasing the team's direct sponsorship revenues from around $15,000 a year to around $750,000.

There's also the prospect of more trickle-down revenue from the WNBA's national sponsors, such as Toyota, T-Mobile and Ocean Spray.

Announced attendance for the team's games, which has dropped from an average of nearly 16,000 per game in 1998 and 10,000 last year to 6,933 heading into this year's All-Star Game, also is a source of concern. Johnson has season ticket holders hosting events in their homes to recruit prospective ticket buyers. She entertains potential ticket buyers at Verizon Center, at restaurants and anywhere else she can sell tickets.

"It's very long term and it can't be done in a season," Johnson said, adding "we have to increase attendance into that arena."

Stern seems tired of answering the WNBA naysayers and said the league's long-term prospects are healthy. He hired Donna Orender, former senior vice president of the PGA Tour, as the new WNBA president last year. Orender did not return calls seeking comment.

"Our mission is to promote and grow the sport of basketball," Stern said. "The WNBA is precisely within the strategic bull's-eye of whatever we do."