Great, in-depth story on Brittney Griner's life, coming out, and what it means to her new employer, the WNBA.
The most interesting part to me is this:
Over the past 16 years, the WNBA has tried, ever so gently, to create space for itself in the saturated sports world. Marketing campaigns have cherry-picked players who best seem to represent traditional feminine ideals, but in trying to court mainstream fans, the league has struggled to become culturally relevant in its own niche.
Griner happily embraces what the WNBA has long shied away from: controversy. "It's always been, 'Oh, it's just so nice the girls can play,'" says Mercury president Amber Cox. "We want role models, but we need lightning rods to balance things out. In that sense, Brittney has taken us to the next level. If someone is invoking emotion in people, they care. And apathy has been our biggest enemy."
Griner's arrival coincides with intriguing new research about WNBA fans. League executives admit that their marketing efforts have been schizophrenic at times as they've searched for a common thread among their eclectic audience. Now the research shows a theme: People who support the WNBA have progressive views on gender. "They share the ultimate goal of living in a world where gender equality exists in all its forms," says league president Laurel Richie.
The WNBA has been building toward the emergence of a player who can embody this philosophy, and now here she is with her size 17 sneakers and 88-inch wingspan. "This feels like a magical moment," Richie says. "I think years from now, we'll look back on 2013 as the pivotal year for this league."
I completely agree with the "needing to embrace controversy" part.
Fans of the league have puzzled for years over the ways the WNBA has tried to market themselves. Maybe they finally have a game plan.
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Well, Richie, Fagan, The W and ESPN are certainly "embracing the controversy" in full force now. Having read your linked piece and viewed the parallel Fagan / Griner interview on ESPN it's pretty clear they are "all in" on Richie's previously stated strategy and Richie has leveraged her considerable marketing expertise to align media resources to support that goal. Good for her. At least she has shown she can put a campaign together and based upon your piece is already congratulating herself on her effort.
Richie's statements are clear. Her marketing focus is now on a progressive social agenda, contextualized in WBB and she thinks pitching Griner will take the W to the promised land. In this context that is code for formally embracing the well known but not formally acknowledged lesbian majority that makes up both the fan base as well as the player population in the W. I assume the basis for this approach is that Richie sees society in general at some sort of "tipping point" relative to the acceptance and embrace of the LGBT population and further believes that this will somehow drive paying fans into the WNBA arenas.
A few observations are in order. I would think the lesbian community is thrilled with this approach. They have been outspoken over the years about the lack of acknowledgement of their support of the W. Well it's now been formally acknowledged. So good for all of the lesbian fans, bloggers, sportswriters, and coaches that have been waiting for it. You've arrived.
Given that the W had it's worst attendance year in the history of the league last year they've got no where to go but up. The economy is getting stronger, ESPN is spending tons of money on the W and the "3 to see" campaign seems to have been successful on some level. So it seems reasonable to believe that attendance will be better this year than last which will drive more self-congratulatory missives from Richie. Further, Richie doesn't need everyone to agree with her. She just needs enough new fans to bump paying attendance by say 1000 to 2000 per game to push the league over the top. Doesn't sound like too tall an order.
I don't want feel like being accused of being anti-lesbian or negative here so I won't go into the potential downsides of this approach, but they are considerable.
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