RIP WNBA?

Game one of the WNBA championship finals was played Wednesday night. I do know it was played in Detroit, but don't ask me what Detroit's team name is and don't even ask me who they were playing. I don't know, and I don't care.

Apparently I'm not the only one though. In an arena that seats over 20,000 people, the official attendance for the game was exactly 10,513. I believe it was reported somewhere on TV today (wish I could be more specific but my memory is gone right now) that the actual attendance by the end of the game was around 5,000, and the figures included at least a couple thousand free tickets that were given out. The report also mentioned that many free tickets went unused.

This is supposed to be the pinnacle of this sport, which every team strives to make, and at BEST, the arena was half-full. It was half-full in the middle of the week, when there was NO football on for competition, no other major sporting event on, and only a few baseball games here and there to capture America's sporting attention.

I think it's time to put this experiment out of its misery. Like Major League Soccer, there only seem to be a small percentage of "cult" fans following this league, and for the most part, America just doesn't care. Unlike soccer though, I'm sure the rest of the world could care less as well. The comparison to the MLS may be a little unfair I admit as the MLS does seem to have some place in the American sporting world, albeit on an infinitely smaller scale when compared to the major American sports. The WNBA just seems like the little league that couldn't.

It would seem to me that the main draw to a league like this is that it's something a whole family can attend without costing mom and dad a fortune in tickets, parking, food, etc. etc. But from what I saw during the Arena Football playoffs, the AFL has that market cornered at the moment. Sellouts aplenty over there! Factor in minor league sports like baseball and hockey, and local college and high school sports, and it would appear that the puzzle is complete without much use for the WNBA.