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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > May > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWishing the Dream well
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wish them luck. They’ll need it.
The women of the Atlanta Dream will embark Saturday on an inaugural season in a 12-year-old league that has seen four teams fold and two others move. They’re based in a city that has only occasionally embraced pro basketball and has never really warmed to women’s sports. The last Atlanta women’s pro team — the soccer-playing Beat — put a good product on the pitch but its league didn’t make it to Season 4.
But there’s also this: The Dream play a sport more to Americans’ liking, and their league has a better television package than the women’s soccer league ever had. (Remember how WUSA games were on something called Pax TV?) The WNBA gets splashed on ESPN, which everybody recognizes, and eight Dream games will be carried on CSS, which most of us can find.
And there’s also this: hope, a concept closely (and conveniently) allied with Dream.
Ask Ivory Latta, the point guard and centerpiece of the Dream’s marketing campaign, if Atlanta is primed for women’s hoops, and her eyes dance and she flashes a beacon of a smile and she says: “Everywhere we go, whether it’s the mall or out to eat or to the park, people will say, ‘We’re ready! We’ll be there May 23 [for the home opener].’ It’s overwhelming. It’s great.”
A cynic might say the Dream is attempting to fill a niche that doesn’t exist. The women of the Dream aren’t cynics. These players don’t care how many teams have failed or that, after 11 seasons of operation, the WNBA’s average attendance last season was but 7,742.
Says Marynell Meadors, the Dream’s coach: “They don’t know basketball existed except in this moment. The only way they know Cheryl Miller is because she’s on TV doing the NBA playoffs.”
Meadors has a wider frame of reference. She has worked for half of the WNBA teams — the Charlotte Sting and the Miami Sol — that folded.
Of the Dream, she says: “This franchise can definitely make it. There’s a lot of buzz … but we can’t make it if we don’t get support.”
Here’s her pitch: “The city has been wanting to get women’s basketball back since the ‘96 Olympics … We’re very different from the NBA — we’re fan-friendly. If a kid walks up to one of us, she’s going to get an autograph. The NBA has actually learned some things from us. People are taking note, but we need men to take note: This is not like the [women’s] games they saw in high school. This is a good product. We’re fun to watch.”
In an ideal world, a female athlete could work as hard as a male counterpart with the expectation that her labors would someday be similarly compensated. Alas, reality is rather different: The average WNBA salary is around $50,000, or roughly 100 times less than the average NBA salary. Says Latta: “The money is not where it’s supposed to be, but this is about entertaining the fans and winning and having fun.”
And there’s worth in that. Like the Beat before them, the women of the Dream are playing not because they’re making a fortune but because they’re earning a living doing the thing they do best. Like the Beat before them, they present themselves not as limo-driven prima donnas but as real people, and good for them.
Sometimes, though, the Dream would welcome a little pampering. After Thursday’s workout at the Philips Arena practice court — the team will play games at Philips but keeps having to scrounge for rehearsal space — Meadors informed her team there’d be no hot water for showers.
The players groaned. Said Katy Steding, Meadors’ assistant: “Think warm thoughts.”
So should we all. Think warm thoughts for the Dream.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
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By here we go again...
May 15, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this
why is there even the slightest expectation that women athletes would make anything close to what male athletes do? i love this boo-hoo line: “The average WNBA salary is around $50,000, or roughly 100 times less than the average NBA salary. Says Latta: “The money is not where it’s supposed to be, but this is about entertaining the fans and winning and having fun.” obviously the money isn’t there because you don’t make the money that the NBA does, whether you think its “supposed” to be there or not. MB, have you forgotten about capitalism? have you researched the numbers to see how much money the WNBA makes compared to the NBA? i give this franchise 4, 5 years tops…
By Dream Fan
May 15, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this
I agree with this article. I can’t wait for the Dream to kick off the season. They’re a great addition to our sports world. We should show a lot of support for them. Both men’s and women’s sports deserve equal attention and support. GO DREAM!!!! ESTABLISH A NEW TRADITION HERE IN ATLANTA!!!!!!!!
By First Dream Fan
May 15, 2008 8:11 PM | Link to this
I agree with this article. I can’t wait for the Dream to kick off the season. They’re a great addition to our sports world. We should show a lot of support for them. Both men’s and women’s sports deserve equal attention and support. GO DREAM!!!! ESTABLISH A NEW TRADITION HERE IN ATLANTA!!!!!!!!
By JC
May 15, 2008 9:18 PM | Link to this
Latta played at UNC, guess I can’t root for the Dream.
By Gray Mule
May 15, 2008 10:25 PM | Link to this
Publicity will be the key.
will we have coverage from local TV sports, radio and newspaper?
Or, will they be ignored and hope they go away?
Atlanta should be excited to add a WNBA team - This should be great!!
By Bravo
May 16, 2008 12:05 AM | Link to this
I agree with Latta…the average salary should be at least $100, 000. The WNBA says this is the best league in the world, but a lot of these players could make more money in Europe…
By MARTA Train SOULJA GIRL
May 16, 2008 12:14 AM | Link to this
I’M PRESSIN’ CHARGES !!
I’M PRESSIN’ CHARGES !!
I’M PRESSIN’ CHARGES !!
I’M PRESSIN’ CHARGES !!
By Furman Bisher
May 16, 2008 1:14 AM | Link to this
Mark Bradley is especially qualified for this, having actually played women’s basketball before. The girls said he was a little soft.
By Ted Turner
May 16, 2008 3:32 AM | Link to this
Just get a hot chick to strip down to her sports bra after a buzzer beater.
What, no hot chicks? I’m outta here.
By Slim
May 16, 2008 4:58 AM | Link to this
Ted: Check out Ann Strother! Yowza…
By Martin Keys
May 16, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this
One thing that the Dream team does have is an outstanding volunteer sales force. I have been contacted by 6 people who are on the volunteer group. I think that is very unique that they are “coaching up” volunteers who have the passion of the game to make it a success.
I think that the city and people of Atlanta should give this team a chance to proof what they are made of and what they stand for. It is very obvious that they have been marketing and promoting to the right people, look at how many showed up for the exihbition game.
By Martin Keys
May 16, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
One thing that the Dream team does have is an outstanding volunteer sales force. I have been contacted by 6 people who are on the volunteer group. I think that is very unique that they are “coaching up” volunteers who have the passion of the game to make it a success.
I think that the city and people of Atlanta should give this team a chance to proof what they are made of and what they stand for. It is very obvious that they have been marketing and promoting to the right people, look at how many showed up for the exihbition game.
By Martin Keys
May 16, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
One thing that the Dream team does have is an outstanding volunteer sales force. I have been contacted by 6 people who are on the volunteer group. I think that is very unique that they are “coaching up” volunteers who have the passion of the game to make it a success.
I think that the city and people of Atlanta should give this team a chance to proof what they are made of and what they stand for. It is very obvious that they have been marketing and promoting to the right people, look at how many showed up for the exihbition game.
By J
May 16, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this
I can’t wait for opening night!! GO DREAM!
By Maniac is accurate
May 16, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this
I would watch the Dream play … if they were wearing thongs and only thongs. Heck, I’d pay triple the ticket price and tip them and the end of each quarter if they’d do that.
By Robert
May 16, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this
““The city has been wanting to get women’s basketball back since the ‘96 Olympics”
Umm… The city did have women’s basketball after 1996. It was called the Atlanta Glory and after 2 years the team moved to Nashville….