Before a room full of Sacramento businesswomen and civic leaders, Donna Orender worked the crowd. The WNBA president pitched her league and its future before a group that not only represented potential fans, but partners.
Orender brought Dave Knepler and his family to Thursday night's Monarchs-Sparks game. Knepler is a Marin father and "a guy who gets it," said Orender, adding that should be a new category of WNBA fans.
Knepler wrote a guest column for his local newspaper about the benefits for his daughters of watching "former Stanford star Nicole Powell in a fan-friendly, women-empowered Arco Arena."
Said Orender: "I'm winning new fans, one or four or more at a time."
Amid an economic downturn that has hurt attendance for sports across America, the WNBA's push is in overdrive, even if it means the league boss playing one-on-one with potential customers.
In its 12th season, the WNBA's overall attendance is down 4 percent at midseason compared to last year and has been virtually flat since 2006. Since its high-water mark in 1998, attendance is down nearly one-third.
At Arco Arena, the Monarchs' average attendance of 7,696 – skewed by an opening-night announced crowd of 16,225 – is above the league's overall average of 7,403 but down 8.5 percent from last year. With a lack of marquee stars, the Monarchs are the league's worst draw on the road, averaging 6,023.
Things could be worse overall if not for the Candace Parker effect. The Los Angeles Sparks star, who already has dunked twice in her rookie season, has attracted new fans nationwide. The Sparks' average road attendance has jumped about 2,000 a game to 10,235.
Parker's presence spurred traffic on the league's Web site to record highs. More than 93,000 fans clicked the next morning to see video of her first dunk. In May, Parker's Web page had more visitors than those for any NBA player except Kobe Bryant.
In June, WNBA.com had its busiest month ever with nearly 3 million visits, a 35 percent jump from the same time last year.
Good through 2016, the league's new TV contract with ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 represents a big boost from the WNBA's days on the Oxygen network. More than 100 games will be shown this season on the ESPN family of networks. TV ratings are up 20 percent on ABC (0.6 vs. 0.5) and 22 percent on ESPN2 (0.22 vs. 0.18) over a year ago. On ESPN2, that equals about 250,000 households tuning in for the game of the week.
"Our league is actually trending positively," said Orender, a former professional player. "We're pretty pleased with the progress our league is making. The WNBA is still very young. We're compared to leagues that are 60, 80, 100 years old. We're only 12."
By comparison, the 62-year-old NBA averaged 1.2 in ratings on ESPN and 1.1 on TNT last season. The NBA also saw its own attendance dip slightly (about 2 percent) to a little more than 17,300 a game, the first time since 2003-04 that the league's average attendance dropped.
And compared to last June, average WNBA attendance was actually up slightly last month (7,519 vs. 7,340).
Besides the current economic downturn, construction on Interstate 5, oppressive smoky weather and a losing record might play a part in the Monarchs' home attendance drop. "It's hard to speculate how those factors have affected attendance," said Danette Leighton, vice president of Monarchs business operations.
Also, the Monarchs have been playing plenty of midweek games. Tonight is only their fourth Saturday night home game this season. The Monarchs host the defending WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury.
"Obviously, through 10 home games, we're down," Leighton said. "But we're comparing apples to oranges. Our sales are driven by group sales, and those are usually for weekend games. Compared to last season, we've had only half as many major group events as we did by this time last year. We still have four left on the schedule."
Large audiences for upcoming events such as the Monarchs' annual Camp Day, Breast Health Awareness Night and Fan Appreciation Night should buoy overall attendance to be on par with last season, Leighton said. So far, advance sales for those games have been strong.
Yet, there's the Olympic factor. If Monarchs guard Kara Lawson and Team USA bring home gold, her WNBA team could reap interest.
"We do hope that with Kara going to the Olympics we'll see some additional interest," Leighton said. "Our 'Women of Inspiration Night' (on Aug. 30) follows the Olympic break, and we hope to tie that together. (A gold medal) will benefit us and the WNBA."
On the upside, the Monarchs saw double-digit gains in season-ticket holders and sponsorship partners, Leighton said. "Our core ticket holders are coming back," noted Leighton, with renewals also up by double digits. "That's a huge positive."
Among the new Monarchs sponsors this season are Beringer Vineyards (also a new national backer), Chris Webber's Center Court restaurant, Verizon Wireless and Best Buy. The WNBA brought aboard such diverse companies as Pitney Bowes, Callaway Golf, International House of Pancakes and McDonald's.
Orender hoped to sell a few more tickets during her visit to Sacramento. Of the 100 professional women invited to meet her at Thursday's game, 95 had never been to a Monarchs game.
She also is working on converting more guys into fans, not just dads such as Knepler. That was the point of the league's "Expect Great" ad campaign during the NBA playoffs with an 80 percent male audience.
"We got them talking about us," Orender said. "That's a success. The Olympics will get them talking, too."
Call The Bee's Debbie Arrington, (916) 326-5514.
