Target was the cautionary tale, the warning shot, but it seems corporations will need to keep learning the lesson that you cannot abandon your core customer base, especially if those customers are women.
Next up will be the WNBA.
When Target chose to abandon its DEI efforts in favor of preemptively bending the knee to this widely unpopular administration, it undercut years of customer loyalty and brand value, resulting in billions of lost revenue that have crippled the company. Instead of taking heed to the writing on the wall, executives across multiple professional sports leagues are moving in the same ways to maximize profits for themselves and their stakeholders, despite having largely similar customer bases. The WNBA’s core has always been women with strong values, just like the players on the court, but now that the league and its ownership have seen the type of money that’s on the table, it’s decided that the best way to capitalize is to make the fan experience frustrating.
Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by out-of-market local games or WNBA LeaguePass.
Through this round of talks to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, the league has forced its player’s union into a game of chicken where whoever flinches first, loses. With a full slate of activities that must be completed before the season is set to begin in May, including an expansion draft and the regular draft, there’s even less time to waste on theatrics. The union and several Congresspeople have implored the league to negotiate in good faith, but that’s not the league’s preferred tactic. The last union proposal sat for six weeks unanswered and the league refuses to budge, spouting a sob story about hundreds of millions of dollars in losses while refusing to open their books to anyone. Not the union, not the media, and not the fans. And despite the league trying to convince fans that the players are the problem, we aren’t buying it.
What’s clearer is that the owners, who mostly double dip between the W and the MNBA team ownership, would rather sink the league entirely than agree to pay the players anything close to their asking price. What they don’t seem to understand is that fan loyalty has always been to the players and not the league.
With the W at a standstill, there’s a non-zero chance that two things may happen: first, that the players will strike. It’s clear that the union has been avoiding that drastic measure from the beginning, but it’s their biggest piece of leverage. Second, the league will run its new season without its free agents but instead use scab players. (Scabs, if you’re unfamiliar, are people who cross picket lines and interfere with strikes, usually by covering the lost labor and working in place of those striking.) I personally don’t believe a scab season will work because most incoming players won’t want to be the reason the union doesn’t get what it’s demanding. My jury is out on whether the league would be successful in recruiting European players to fill out their rosters.
I’m also skeptical because if the league pushes a scab season, it’ll alienate a consumer base that is already more hype about other women’s basketball leagues that are surging right now. Unrivaled is setting the standard for marketing and fan experience in its own arena, and Athletes Unlimited is turning underdogs into superstars. Fans fed up with a league that’s increasingly out of touch with its players and its own history are choosing to travel to Miami and Nashville, of all places, to support these women and watch the best in the sport.
In fact, fans have been the ones loudly calling for the players to strike as early as December when the union voted to authorize a strike if necessary. We are itching to show the owners (and the bias media, if I’m honest) that their bottom line is not bigger than the program, which is and has always been high quality women’s basketball.
The last two seasons have been rough enough for fans trying to lock in for their home team. To ask us to endure another season of ridiculous overscheduling and lackluster infrastructure with underpaid players is to play with fire, and I’m not talking about Portland. We would be more than happy to show the powers that be that matter most to us is players being paid their worth. If they can’t get with that, then there are plenty of other places to take our views and our dollars.
