Columnist Dean Juipe: WNBA able to stand on its own

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

The National Basketball Association didn't form the Women's National Basketball Association just because it seemed politically correct.

There was no pressure on the NBA to diversify.

Nor did it have Title IX obligations to meet, as is the case even today as the nation's universities struggle to add women's sports programs -- sometimes at the expense of the men's -- in an effort to equalize opportunities.

The WNBA, which opens its fourth season this week, was created for the simplest of reasons: capitalism.

America was ready for women's pro basketball and the NBA branched out and complied.

Last season the league-wide attendance average was 10,000. And, unlike many a fledgling league, this one has added expansion teams without seeing other franchises fail.

The 16-team WNBA is alive and very much healthy, a reflection of women's sports in general and the growing interest in sports on the distaff side.

"The league has really improved every year," Sacramento head coach Sonny Allen said Tuesday on the eve of his second season in the league and the Monarchs' home opener with Seattle. "We have 95 percent of the best players in the world and the caliber of play continues to improve. We also have the networks taking a greater interest and TV sponsorship continuing to grow.

"Any way you look at it, this league is succeeding. It has probably even exceeded what the NBA did in its first four years of existence."

There is no "probably" about it. The WNBA -- which plays a modest 32-game schedule -- has a financial security many leagues can only envy and one the NBA did not realize until some 30 years of sporadic development.

While it required the backing and marketing expertise of the NBA to get off the ground, the WNBA now flies on its own.

"I expect, over the next 10 years, that this league will see tremendous growth," Allen predicted. "For starters, the caliber of play will only continue to get better for the simple reason that girls are now playing sports in the second, third and fourth grades instead of having to wait until high school like they used to.

"There's also a solid fan base that will continue to grow. We get a lot of kids and families, and some retirees, and both the young boys and girls get excited about the league because they can identify with the players better than they can with someone like Shaq."

Allen said only "hardcore, male NBA fans" haven't been drawn to the women's league, and, in all probability, that group never will. Yet, in terms of numbers, that leaves a wide and diverse population for the WNBA to tap.

Look around seemingly any park in Southern Nevada and girls are playing sports. Organized soccer and softball leagues have proliferated and their games attract spirited and lively crowds.

It has become clear to even skeptics that girls enjoy sports and deserve the opportunities that, in some cases, it took Title IX to provide. Those girls will someday play in or support an assortment of women's pro leagues, with the WNBA cast in the pioneer's role.

Accept it, guys.

As time passes, you may even come to enjoy it.