Eric at Off Wing responds to my post yesterday about sexualized marketing of women's hoops.

Eric is right, of course, that the WNBA's promos haven't just been about Sue Bird. But it does seem to me that Sue has been elevated to the top of the marketing pyramid -- she's the one with the AmEx ad, she's the one in Dime Magazine. And her exposure so far is disproportionate to her on-floor performance. Sheryl, Lisa, Tamika, and Chamique are probably the league's best players (and are also all attractive), but they get less media time than Sue. (There is another problem, which we might call the "Sue Wicks problem"... but I'll leave that for another day.)

But my point isn't really about Sue Bird (again, I love her), or even about sex per se. It's just that I don't think the league's marketing strategy is very good. Two different but related things:

1. Seems like the league focuses too much on the top-down model that works for other sports. In major men's sports, most of the money comes from huge national TV contracts. As a result, national marketing is the key -- they make money by getting people all over the country (not just in markets with teams) to watch TV.

With the WNBA, that won't work yet -- at least not for a few years. We need a bottom-up, not a top-down model. The league's success needs to start at a grass roots level -- i.e., it needs to start with local support for the teams. Needs to start by filling seats in the stadiums, not by improving Nielsen ratings.

2. Focus on the competetive advantages (apologies for the Michael Porter speak) that the WNBA has.

One huge advantage is cost -- most pro sports (like the NBA) are just too damn expensive for normal people to go to the game. But with the WNBA, tickets are relatively cheap, and regular people can go and bring their family -- and even get good seats! That's why I love seeing Detroits selling $8 lower deck seats. That's the sort of thing that can really bring people in, and get them hooked.

The WNBA is more family friendly than other sports too. You can go watch players who haven't recently been in jail.

Finally, the women thing does matter. The WNBA gives a chance to give kids (and the rest of us) exposure to women role models. It's not terribly easy to find that.

So, what I'm saying is, I think that the league's marketing efforts should focus on these things. That doesn't necessarily mean that they shouldn't show players in tight clothes or low-cut dresses... but if that's all they do, I think they're missing the point.