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 A "DREAM" come true The WNBA Tips off in Atlanta this Spring For every little boy who’s dreamed of playing in the NBA, there’s a little girl who’d like to take her shot at shooting hoops in front of a cheering crowd — and getting paid to do it. But while boys could spend their childhoods imagining their future careers playing for the Atlanta Hawks, girls didn’t have a professional venue to shoot for in the Atlanta area. Until now, that is. On Friday, May 23, the WNBA’s newest expansion team and its only team in the Southeast, the Atlanta Dream, will make their debut as they take on the defending Eastern Conference Champions, the Detroit Shock. Atlanta’s diverse population and wide array of professional sports offerings and tourist attractions make the city a natural fit for an expansion team, and organizers expect a packed house from Day One. After all, women’s basketball in the ACC and SEC has a loyal and growing following throughout the region, and a WNBA team will offer that active fan base a way to continue tracking the careers of their favorite local players from the stands. “With women’s sports, the time is now,” said Ron Terwilliger, owner of the Atlanta Dream. The Birth of a League Though women took up hoops less than a year after the sport was invented in 1892, it took more than 100 years for them to gain equal footing to men on the court. But it wasn’t for lack of effort. The women’s All American Red Heads Team toured the United States in 1936, competing against men’s teams and playing by men’s rules. Forty years later, women’s basketball debuted at the Olympics, and the U.S. team picked up its first Olympic gold medal eight years later, in 1984. In 1985, the first woman joined the Harlem Globetrotters, and the following year, the first woman took to the court as part of a men’s professional basketball team. Over the years, several people took a shot at establishing a professional women’s basketball league in the States, but most early attempts bounced off the rim. The eight-team Women’s Professional Basketball League tipped off in 1978, but it disbanded after a mere three seasons. In the early 1990s, two more attempts to form a league folded shortly after they began. But by the late ’90s, the time seemed right to give it another go, and this time, the women’s league formed with the backing of the NBA. Fresh off capturing another gold medal in the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, scores of professional basketball players took to the court for the inaugural season of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997, and the rest is history. The WNBA’s 12th season gets underway in May 2008, and the league shows no signs of slowing down. “Right now, there seems to be really strong interest around the country in adding more teams,” said Donna Orender, president of the WNBA. “Our web traffic is up, and we’ve added a new television deal that kicks in 2009. We are seeing a lot of good upward trends.” Across the Eastern and Western conferences, regular season attendance was up and post-season attendance set a new record in 2007, and the number of viewers who watched the Finals on ESPN2 grew by 12 percent.
With so much talent on the court, it’s no surprise that the WNBA is on the rise. The Seattle Storm’s Lauren Jackson tied a league record for points in a game and also became the youngest player ever to reach 4,000 career points, while the Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi scored 30-or-more points per game 10 times, setting a league record. Led by 2007 all-stars Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter and Penny Taylor, the Mercury capped the season by defeating the Detroit Shock, defending champions, in five games in the finals. While the level of talent rivals that of their NBA counterparts, longtime fans know that their game-day experience will be much different when they come out to watch the women in the WNBA play. “We have players who can play above the rim as well as under the rim, and that in itself is so enticing,” said Carla McGhee, retired WNBA player and ambassador for the Atlanta Dream team. “But our players are so approachable. Our players will go in the stands and sign autographs or give a kid a hug. Our games are generated for family fun, and we have great entertainment — we have dance teams, concerts, trivia giveaways and contests. It is a total experience.” Although the WNBA continues to draw large numbers of families and single women to its arenas, once men give the experience a shot, they come back time and again, often bringing a friend or two with them so that they can check out the level of talent for themselves. “Guys are always so in awe of a girl with skills,” McGhee said. “Even today, I still get guys talking about ‘You think you can beat me?’ Once they see how good we play, they are hooked.” Off the court, the women of the WNBA demonstrate the same level of professionalism. They take their jobs as role models seriously, and you’ll find them making a positive difference in all parts of the communities that they call home, from working with kids in the local schools to raising awareness about breast cancer. Bringing the Dream to Atlanta Though there have been rumblings of adding an Atlanta-based team to the mix for years, it took the dedication and the financial backing of Terwilliger, CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, to make the WNBA expansion a reality. The investment makes sense for Terwilliger, an avid sports fan and former college basketball player, who has two daughters and two granddaughters. “I have been in Atlanta a long time, and I love the city,” Terwilliger said. “I took a hard look at it, and I think this is something that will succeed in this very diverse city of five million people. It will be a lot of fun, and it’s something I can do for women and for Atlanta.” When the Atlanta Dream tips off its inaugural game in May, the WNBA will officially re-establish its presence in the Southeast. While previous southeastern teams, like the recently disbanded Charlotte team, have not survived over the long term, Terwilliger and the WNBA don’t expect Atlanta to suffer the same fate. For starters, the NBA franchise ran the Charlotte team, and while the NBA supported the endeavor, their interests are split between the two franchises, and they can’t put the same passion into promoting a WNBA team as a private owner can. Plus, the Southeast has a thriving fan base for ACC and SEC women’s hoops, and the Atlanta Dream team will give these fans a chance to continue cheering on their favorite players from the stands. As an added bonus, WNBA tickets are affordable, and since the team only plays 17 games at home, even season tickets remain in reach for most people. And with numerous attractions nearby, the Dream’s organizers anticipate a substantial number of tourists snapping up tickets to take in a game after spending the day at the Georgia Aquarium or the New World of Coke. Building a Dream Team Although the Atlanta Dream team started 2008 without a single player, longtime head coach and general manager Marynell Meadors has no doubt that she can pull together a team that’s ready to compete for this season. After all, once the date for the expansion draft is set, Meadors can snag a few of the league’s experienced pros, and the team has the No. 4 draft pick for the players coming out of college. “I want to win a championship,” Meadors said. “We are an expansion team, and it usually takes a couple of years to build and to get really good, but I think with the structure of the WNBA right now and the expansion draft, we can be successful. This year, we want to put a team that is very, very competitive on the floor, and we want to win as many games as we can. We are going for the playoffs. We are going to play hard. It is going to be an exciting team to watch.” Like Meadors, Terwilliger hopes the Atlanta Dream will make the playoffs in its first season, and he knows that the players will have a lot of support from the community. Season tickets are selling at a faster rate than projected, and the city is buzzing with excitement about its newest sports team. But, whether they win or lose the game, players and fans alike will leave Philips Arena saying, “I had a great time.” “With the WNBA, the quality of the basketball, the value of the entertainment experience and the charisma of the athletes exceed people’s expectations,” Orender said. “You’ve just got to give it a try. You owe it to yourself to take the time to go see the new team play because once you do, you’re absolutely sold on it.” PN For More Information The team will take on the Detroit Shock, the defending Eastern Conference Champions, in their first regular season home game at Philips Arena on Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. For more information or to purchase season tickets for Atlanta’s 2008 season, call 404-604-2626 or visit www.AtlantaDream.net.
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She’s Got Game