No one was looking to The Bill Simmons Podcast for good takes on the WNBA.
After a conversation from the latest episode about what the league should do to cater to wider audiences, it’s unlikely to draw much of an audience in the future.
Sports business and media writer Ethan Strauss was a guest on Simmons’ pod this week and the two men launched into a discussion around the WNBA. As interest in the league is sky-high thanks to the influx of exciting rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the league has a prime opportunity to market itself to new fans.
While many experts would say those opportunities lie in the form of expanded reach for game broadcasts and improvements to the existing viewing tools, Strauss stressed another way forward: Changing the names of the teams to be lady versions of the NBA franchises in the same city.
Ethan Strauss thinks WNBA teams should be called like the “W Pacers” bc it’s too hard to learn the name Fever and Bill agrees pic.twitter.com/gIg8OdI6MO
— Paternity Riley (@lesterfreamon) May 8, 2024
“The one thing they should have done, and maybe there’s still time to do, that they didn’t do from the outset, is just use the same team names,” said Strauss. “Like why force people to learn about the Fever? Why not just have the W Pacers? I think that makes it so much easier to just resonate and cut across.”
Simmons mentioned the old tradition of referring to women’s teams as the “Lady” version of the standard mascot name, implying that perhaps they could have been the Indiana Lady Pacers.
Obviously, there are a lot of problems here. The most glaring is that not every WNBA franchise shares a city with an NBA franchise. The Seattle Lady SuperSonics doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense right now. And what would the Las Vegas Aces be called in this instance? If the NBA later added a franchise in Las Vegas, would they be known as the M Aces?
Second, not every WNBA franchise is also owned by the same people who own the corresponding NBA franchise.
Third, is it really so hard to learn the names of 12 WNBA teams?
Fourth, and most importantly, the notion that the most prominent women’s basketball league needs to brand itself as “the women’s version of the NBA in order to make itself more appealing to male fans” is as problematic as it sounds. And the sports world had some thoughts on that.
I’m all for welcoming new fans to women’s sports but the guys who wanna change names, lower rims & relate everything to men’s sports can kick rocks.
Women’s sports are their own awesome thing (with their own team names!). Get on board or don’t, just don’t get in the way. https://t.co/HQ9mmmvSJV
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) May 8, 2024
fever, sky, aces – all very difficult words to learn https://t.co/frhUCgSFmE
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) May 8, 2024
it’s honestly incredible that two men who have spent their entire careers overwriting about basketball by many thousands of words can claim to not have the ability to remember 12 additional nouns https://t.co/2UubXJ9jGv
— Emma Carmichael (@emmacargo) May 8, 2024
Why stop there? Maybe all the W players should wear the jerseys of their NBA comps. If women’s sports are about anything, it’s about providing easy points of access for men who can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum, right?? 🙄 https://t.co/nSORhD8rA3
— Myles 🫠 (@MylesEhrlich) May 8, 2024
My favorite part is how he says it like it’s such an obvious point. https://t.co/Kfb0Pwmoxc
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) May 8, 2024
how hard is it to learn 12 names? https://t.co/I5hYDFVIkZ
— Mark K (@mkhoops) May 8, 2024
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.