L.A. Needs Showcase Event
Women’s college basketball is making gains at the box office.
Perennial powers Connecticut and Tennessee are blessed with loyal followings; witness the NCAA-record 24,611 fans attending their midseason clash in Tennessee last month. But, according to NCAA figures, women’s attendance has been increasing slowly but steadily in other areas.
For the 2000-01 season, 6,519,667 fans (an average of 1,524) attended women’s college basketball games, including NCAA tournament games. Both are NCAA records and represent a 2.5% increase from the 1999-2000 season.
Fans have been turning up in large numbers this season at such places as Iowa State, New Mexico, Texas Tech, South Carolina and Kansas State.
Everywhere but here.
How depressing it must be for UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Long Beach, Loyola Marymount and other Southland teams to wonder if there are more people watching YWCA pickup games.
And when it comes to recruiting, how do you tell an impressionable 17-year-old how great it will be at your place when all she has to do is turn on the TV and see 15,000 screaming fans at Vanderbilt or Louisiana Tech.
Not even a winning team will guarantee support. But something needs to change.
It’s time to consider a tournament for the area teams.
Like the Wooden Classic, it would be a one-day, one-game-a-piece format. It would need UCLA or USC--and preferably both--to anchor the event. Just make sure they don’t play each other.
For example, pit UCLA against Pepperdine and USC against Long Beach State in a one-day doubleheader. Schedule the event at a neutral site such as the Forum. If it becomes an annual event, the Bruin and Trojan opponents would rotate.
The event would need a corporate sponsor to help defray costs, and an outside organization to put on the event, so it isn’t the participants’ responsibility.
It would have to be played in late November or early December to avoid bumping into conference play. And it wouldn’t hurt to tie it to a holiday weekend, like Thanksgiving or Veterans Day, to make it available to families and high school players. It would be important to attract television coverage, but not necessarily in the first year.
By keeping it local, teams cut down on hotels, meals and other costs they would otherwise face on the road.
The main reason for the tournament is to spark more interest in the local teams, to make basketball fans aware that women can play the game and play it well.
UCLA and USC, of course, would be the reluctant dragons. They would argue they have little to gain and everything to lose, especially in the RPI rankings that are influential toward getting NCAA tournament berths. Or that they already have one or two of the other teams on their schedules.
To that, I say the Bruins and Trojans are already losing a lot, in keeping area talent at home and building a respective fan base. Those empty seats speak louder than your protests.
Local women’s college basketball needs an event that celebrates the sport. A one-day event would create more attention than any regular-season game.
The cost of running a tournament varies. But after speaking with several athletic directors who have run holiday tournaments, $20,000 was a legitimate figure for expenses. That is tip money in a corporate budget, even during a recession.
Unlike football, basketball schedules are not locked up years in advance. It would not take long to hammer out an agreeable date. Someone has to take the first step.