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May 15, 2001

The WNBA starts to warm to its large lesbian fan base
By Beth Berlo
Bay Windows staff

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is finally beginning to recognize its bulging lesbian fan base -- albeit greedily, some say.

Last week, more than a dozen news outlets, including Time magazine, The New York Times, Newsday and The Los Angeles Times, reported that the Los Angeles Sparks broke ground after the team filed off a bus and rubbed elbows with more than 1,500 patrons inside Girl Bar -- a popular lesbian club in West Hollywood -- in an effort to sell season tickets.

But even though team members mixed with fans at Girl Bar for several hours signing autographs, basketballs and t-shirts, it was not the first time a WNBA team reached out to what many believe to be as the league's core fan base.

Cub team Miami Sol, last year made marketing appearances at two Broward lesbian bars while advertising in She magazine. In addition, they plan to co-sponsor the upcoming Aqua Girl festival in Miami Beach. The Sol goes into its second season next month.

Sol's reaction to the frenzy surrounding the Sparks/Girl Bar team-up? Players didn't seem to mind being slighted as the first WNBA team to boldly reach out to the lesbian community in an effort to sell more tickets. In fact, if anything, they downplayed it. ``For us, it's really about hitting all the markets," Kim Stone, senior director of operations for the Sparks, said. ``The gay and lesbian market is just one of them."

While Stone conceded the bleachers are filled with, ``75 percent women," sexual orientation isn't checked at the door, she said. Maybe not, but the team is certainly making some pretty savvy marketing moves, critics say, by soliciting in a host of lesbian venues.

Still, ``It's about time they acknowledged reality," said Pat Griffin, a professor at the University of Massachusetts who has researched and written extensively on homophobia in women's sports. The WNBA, Griffin says, is too concerned with how other fans will react. ``They've intentionally billed the games toward heterosexuals," she added. ``But the fact is, the fans are not nearly as concerned about who's sitting in the seat next to them." Griffin authored the best-selling, ``Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport."

Girl Bar, co-founded by Sandy Sachs, who for years has packaged sellout Dinah Shore Golf Tournament Weekends in Palm Springs, put out a press release calling the Sparks/Girl Bar promotional partnering a marketing first for the WNBA. Sachs' publicist Christopher Kingry said that after Sparks General Manager Penny Toler approached Sachs with the idea of proactively reaching out to the lesbian fans at Girl Bar as a way to increase attendance, Sachs was all for it.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Toler said, ``Women's sports have moved beyond the old stereotypes. We don't sell tickets for Section D, Rows 1-4 for black fans, and Section C, Rows 1-4 for white fans, and Section F, Rows 1-4 for lesbian fans. We just want fans."

Kristal Shipp, director of media relations for the Sparks, told Bay Windows: ``I don't think we thought about it one way or another in terms of it being courageous. We pretty much market to basketball fans and certainly the gay and lesbian community is part of the base."

``They always try to underplay it," Griffin said. ``It's been frustrating that the WNBA haven't openly acknowledged" their lesbian fan base.

Going into their fifth season, the Sparks, Shipp said, have just never ``really noticed" their lesbian fans. ``For the Sparks, as far as we're concerned, I think an opportunity such as this had not come to light yet."

While the Sparks outreach to the lesbian community might not be a first for the WNBA, the effort is still one worthy of mention, as the league has been widely observed by gay activists as being homophobic since its inception. Last year, guards rushed the stands at a New York Liberty home game and demanded women put down signs reading ``Another Lesbian for Liberty." In another incident, guards surrounded a group of Lesbian Avengers during a Washington Mystics game in D.C. And when television cameras pan WNBA audiences, critics say, they nearly always zoom in on heterosexual families with kids.

In the future, the WNBA will turn up the volume in its promotional efforts in the lesbian community as well as other segregated communities, Shipps said.

Girl Bar, in conjunction with the L.A. Sparks, is promoting Sparks games throughout the month of June, including a meet-and-greet-the-players cocktail party on opening night, June 5, and a Gay Pride kick-off reception June 14. The WNBA season begins in June.

``Lesbians are paying customers and put a lot of fannies in those seats," Griffin said. ``I have a lot of confidence that [the WNBA] will find out that it will not make other fans flee the arena."