Probably because the NCAA Women’s Final Four will be in Tampa/St. Petersburg Florida in early April this year, the St Petersburg Times has focused coverage on women’s college basketball. And In line with the “inconvenient truth” related to women’s sports in America that I wrote about in late January this year, the economics of women’s college basketball just is not working out all that well.
The latest figures for a full season that seem to be available are those from the 05/06 season. According to the figures filed by the Division 1 member schools with the US Department of Education, the net loss for women’s basketball as a whole was $169M. One item in the coverage by the St. Petersburg Times tells me that the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt because according to 80 schools, the revenues for women’s basketball matched the costs of women’s basketball to the dollar. The chances of that actually happening at two schools are minuscule; for me to believe that this was the case at 80 schools, you would have to convince me that the Enron accountants were keeping the books at those schools.
Nevertheless, the economics are staggeringly bad and it is not a matter of the haves making lots of money while the have-nots lose even more money. In the larger conferences, schools lose an average of $1M on women’s college basketball and some lose in excess of $2M. Moreover, the comparison with men’s basketball is stark and unmistakable. In the same “accounting period”, the men’s game made a net profit of $240M.
Now I need not be told that one of the major reasons for that profit is the lucrative local and national TV deals for men’s college basketball and that women’s college basketball has no national deal that begins to rival the local sum of the local deals available to schools in the ACC for example. So, if anyone is predisposed to tell me about how all of this will change once that happens, I agree it will. The problem I see is that men’s college basketball has had a fanatical following that manifested itself in large attendance figures for the last 50 years and those attendance figures engendered some small TV exposure that begat the huge deals. For women’s college basketball in most places, the arenas are far closer to 15% full than they are to 100% full on most nights.
The only meaningful portion of the NBA regular season is about to happen, as teams with playoff aspirations – and championship aspirations – jockey for inclusion and seeding position in the upcoming playoffs. Everything up to now was just Kabuki Theater; now things get serious. And the teams in the Western Conference went through a shakeup at the trading deadline. Here is my abbreviated assessment of how the NBA West will shake out:
The Lakers made the greatest improvement obtaining Pau Gasol and giving up nothing more than a bag of toenail clippings. They could be the overall #1 seed; they will certainly be in the top 3.
The Suns got Shaq and a mountain of question marks. I said when they made this trade that I did not understand it and I did not see how it would work. I remain unconvinced it was a good deal for Phoenix.
The Mavs obtained Jason Kidd in a deal I said ought to embarrass the NBA because to make it happen they had to trade a guy who has been sitting home mowing the lawn for about two years. Kidd is a good player but I do not think he is enough to make the Mavs into anything more in terms of a fearsome playoff team than they have been for the past 2 years.
When the Rockets lost Yao Ming to a foot injury, they lost any chance of getting deep into the playoffs. In fact, I think much of their long winning streak at the moment is a mirage. I think they should be in “wait-till-next-year” mode already.
The Cinderella team – the New Orleans Hornets – will get a lot of coverage but as Cinderella, they are entering the playoffs with the clock at 11:00 PM. It will be a fun ride, but not a long one.
The Jazz made no trade deadline moves and they are still right in the middle of things. I do not expect them to win it all, but if they get a couple of players on a roll, they can make life difficult for any opponent.
The Warriors were last year’s Cinderella but the more minutes they give to Chris Webber the less chance I give them to make it through the first round this year. They may not even make the playoffs.
The Blazers were hot and bright back in December/January and have now faded. I doubt they will be involved in the playoffs.
The Denver Nuggets are all sizzle and no steak.
And you’ll notice that I have not yet even mentioned the defending champions – the San Antonio Spurs whose weakness seems to be that they win championships only every other year.
The Bottom Line: The West is where the interesting race is shaping up and by “race”, I mean the positioning of the eight playoff teams from #1 all the way through #8 and the one or two good teams who will sit home and watch. In the East, there are a couple of interesting teams in Boston and Detroit – and if you are a LeBron acolyte, in Cleveland too – but the “race” to see who gets into the playoffs in the last two or three spots in the East is irrelevant. In the East, pay attention to the top of the standings and ignore all teams whether in or out of the playoffs who did not win at least 45 games in the regular season.
As teams tried to make themselves better at the trading deadline, Ron Artest did not move from the Sacramento Kings. That is interesting in and of itself because Artest is a top-flight player on the court. It says something that no contender or aspirant team pulled the trigger and added him to their roster when he would clearly make almost any team within sight of the playoffs a better team. As long as he does not meltdown… and that is the “problem” with Ron Artest. He’s got so much baggage, his nickname ought to be “American Tourister”…
Consider that Artest was the Defensive Player of the Year four seasons ago and has been on the All-Defensive Team three times. Add to that the fact that it is not unreasonable to expect him to get 18 points per game plus 8 rebounds per game plus 2 steals per game. Artest can opt out of his contract and become a free agent this summer – - as can Gilbert Arenas, Elton Brand and Jermaine O’Neal. I am sure a PR person for any contending NBA team will say that is the reason their team did not make a push to get Ron Artest because they did not want to “mortgage the future”. I guess I’m just not buying that one…
Finally, here is syndicated columnist Norman Chad on the imbalance of power between the NBA West and the NBA East:
“The Western Conference is stocked with versatile rosters boasting quality big men and great point guards. The Eastern Conference has pretty much three teams — the Celtics, the Pistons and LeBron.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…