What I learned was that the WNBA was founded in 1996. The WNBA consists of fourteen teams and has an ethnic makeup of approximately sixty percent African-American and forty percent of Caucasian players. In the WNBA, over ninety percent of the women have earned a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution and twenty percent have earned graduate degrees. In its early years, American women’s professional basketball was filled with various short-lived ventures. After generations of men’s professional basketball leagues operating without female counterpart, two women’s professional basketball leagues burst onto the scene in the late 1970s: the Ladies Professional Basketball Association and the Women’s Professional Basketball League. Both leagues were defunct in 1981.
The LPBA and the WBL struggled from the very beginning of the season because of their high salaries, low sponsorships, and team owners without significant investment income. Unlike the NBA neither female professional basketball league had the benefit of a television contract. Without regular television revenues, neither league was able to turn a profit. Unlike the ABL, the WNBA planned to compete during a ten week season in the summer. Also, the WNBA model enjoyed the immediate advantage of being backed by the NBA, a well fortified American business with powerful management. On June 28, 1996 a full year before the first WNBA season started, the WNBA entered into a five year primetime television pacts with ESPN and the Lifetime Network. Meanwhile, ABL television coverage was limited to just twelve Sunday night games on Sports Channel.
In the WNBA model, player salaries were kept below the average ABL salary rate, and the WNBA initially implemented a league-wide salary cap on all players’ contracts at $50,000. Fifty Logos were considered for the official WNBA logo. The image of a woman dribbling a basketball that was red, white, and blue was changed slightly each time. The logo was finally chosen from three different poses from different players. The WNBA companies design everything from dresses and skirts to unitards and jumpers. They designed on a few models of shorts and jerseys designed towards the female body.
The LPBA and the WBL struggled from the very beginning of the season because of their high salaries, low sponsorships, and team owners without significant investment income. Unlike the NBA neither female professional basketball league had the benefit of a television contract. Without regular television revenues, neither league was able to turn a profit. Unlike the ABL, the WNBA planned to compete during a ten week season in the summer. Also, the WNBA model enjoyed the immediate advantage of being backed by the NBA, a well fortified American business with powerful management. On June 28, 1996 a full year before the first WNBA season started, the WNBA entered into a five year primetime television pacts with ESPN and the Lifetime Network. Meanwhile, ABL television coverage was limited to just twelve Sunday night games on Sports Channel.
In the WNBA model, player salaries were kept below the average ABL salary rate, and the WNBA initially implemented a league-wide salary cap on all players’ contracts at $50,000. Fifty Logos were considered for the official WNBA logo. The image of a woman dribbling a basketball that was red, white, and blue was changed slightly each time. The logo was finally chosen from three different poses from different players. The WNBA companies design everything from dresses and skirts to unitards and jumpers. They designed on a few models of shorts and jerseys designed towards the female body.
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