Whilst wnbl is good for women's, is a development league. Brings in no money etc.

"Brings in no money"
I guess the NBL is a cash cow?

The WNBL is a poor cousin to the NBL. Unfortunately, it is women's sport in general that gets bad media coverage so that is a societal issue that must be overcome.

The are some sports that are better to watch in Women's over Men's. I think Volleyball is one such sport. Women's has longer volleys whereas the Men's is dig and spike.

Women's sport also suffers from bad perceptions as well. It's OK for women to watch men play sport, whereas men watching women suffer from being painted as perverts. The AFL crowd is pretty much 50:50, but a netball crowd is pretty much 85% females.

Women's basketball is not as good to watch as men's, that is why less people go to watch it, that is why it gets media coverage and that is why the WNBL doesnt get the same amount of backing as the NBL.

It's not sexist, its a fact. May aswell complain that hand tennis doesnt get as many news stories on TV as AFL.

If Jess and the Capitals actually focused on playing better it might give me reason to watch. Being 30 points down half way through games is going to lead to me turning the channel over.

Maybe pass the ball more Jess and you might get a win?

Anon 437, how much of BA's revenue was generated by the NBL and WNBL respectively?

Let's go a bit further:

- The NBL is sponsored by Virgin, the WNBL is not
- The NBL has a naming rights sponsor, the WNBL does not
- The NBL has a commercial TV deal, the WNBL does not
- The NBL had over 50,000 people at their playoffs each paying a surcharge to BA, the WNBL had a fraction of that amount

Are people seriously expecting BA to spend revenue generated by the NBL on the WNBL?

Jack, this isn't a societal issue. Painting it as such is being overly politically correct and treading on "sexism" eggshells.

A societal issue would be a hypothetical league full of "black" players being neglected for a "whites only" league of the same sex (ie. equal product gaining inequal coverage).

Alexkrad, while blunt, is on the money. Men's basketball will always be more popular for the on-court product.

If it were a societal issue, you wouldn't see sports like volleyball, tennis, athletics, swimming etc where women have a large media platform and viewership.

WNBL is funded by the participating clubs - they all pay BA to play in the competition.

The biggest issue for the WNBL is the lack of strategy from BA for the competition (in my view) - they have just let it meander along for the last decade or more. This has resulted in a mish mash of ownership structures and it is not level playing field.

Melbourne is the biggest problem - the two WNBL teams are embedded in local associations so very few people outside those associations are interested - the tribal elements of junior basketball kick in.

Interesting that probably the most successful women's sport in netball (and yes I know it is primarily a female sport) has a highly hands on peak body that actively manages the structure of their elite competition.

Both the NBL and WNBL have the same issue in that they dont have someone actually running them. There is just one CEO who looks after all of BA and then staff looking after certain areas of the competitions.

From the NBL point of view they desperately need an independent commission to make decisions on the best interests of the league, not allowing good ideas to be vetoed because one or two clubs dont like them.

There was a classic example of this recently where the lack of leadership has potentially cost the NBL a very exciting player and excellent marketing tool.

Jess may well be in a bit of a glasshouse, in that BA has already contributed significantly to LJ's current contract with the capitals. Moneys that are neither avaiable nor given to other WNBL clubs.

Doubt that she put these views through Graf either, given Graf's BA salary.

Anon ... re NBL clubs paying as well ... yes, understood.

At least for many years the NBL had an active board dedicated to (trying) to look after it's interests and attract corporate sponsorship ... although that had it's moments.

A couple of WNBL teams are still playing out of the basketball equivalent of a shoebox ... how do you attract more interest from sponsors and fans to grow the sport with that ?

Will be interesting to see if recent key appointments at BA are able to be more proactive in progressing both the NBL and WNBL to new levels of professionalism and fan interest.

Anon, it is you who doesnt understand.

BA arent pulling out a magic pile of dollars and deciding to spend more on the men, the NBL generates a massive amount more revenue for BA than the WNBL deos and therefore has more money spent on it.

Some absolute rubbish here.

Dillon - the WNBL is not a development league. Ridiculous statement.

AlexKrad - preface your comments as IMO or something - otherwise you are probably being sexist, plenty of people think women's basketball is better than mens, same as some people prefer College and Euroball to NBA - you can't just make a blanket statement saying womens basketball is not as good. There is a strong argument in this country that the media is so biased towards mens sport that women's sport in this country has very little chance of ever getting the coverage it needs to be commercially successful.

#398435 - nonsense, your statement has no foundation. BA can spend what they like on the NBL and WNBL as those programs are not benefeciaries of that government funding. And, as others have said, the NBL does generate more revenue. Most of that expenditure is in/out btw. If you want to make an intelligent argument about government funding then make the argument that BA's ASC funding is largely derived by the excellent international showing from our women's program, as opposed to our men. Its pretty well accepted that BA has retained the high performance funding that it has on the basis of the overall strength of the women's program over the last ten or so years.

#398467 - I think you'll find that the mens enterprise agreement provides for lounge access. The women need to get unionised I reckon!

#398476 - I am guessing (not thinking) that a significant part of that fee is equalisation, not operations. For most of its life the NBL has totally funded its operating expenses. The WNBL definitely funds BA for operating costs.

Very Old - has that ever been proven? I am asking because I genuinely don't know.

Yes HO, public knowledge:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/basketball/rivals-back-jackson-payment-20121025-288r7.html

How do you know there isnt equal support for both genders?

Hmmm, 1 million bucks and not even going to hit the court in the first year ...

Not suggesting anything untoward ... but that's a lot of money down the WNBL gurgler for no return other than a bit of PR.

Thanks Paul - but nothing happening on that link..

Oh, it's working for me? Odd.

"Basketball Australia boss Kristina Keneally insists Canberra's WNBL rivals have no issue with it paying part of Lauren Jackson's lucrative deal to play with the Capitals.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/basketball/rivals-back-jackson-payment-20121025-288r7.html#ixzz2Hp0io7s9"

I guarantee you the Lightning aren't supportive as they spoke to Lauren's agent about her playing in Adelaide but did not have access to BA funding like Canberra do.

The sad thing is that one brand can help the other as the SEABL model does.

With some combined funding and promotion the sport will see substantial benefits.

Take the heat out of Bibby's remarks and she seems to be seeking parity. You may not get that but drawing it closer would help.

These amateur architects trying to build from the penthouse without a foundation is exactly why this great sport in collapsing!

Actually,

BA uses people who are paid for by junior player afiliation levy to work these positions and therefore it should be more even.

I think NBL revenue would pay for their staff hours.

It is good that these issues are raised and am hopeful that the WNBL can gain a more equitable standing from BA. It is the second best league in the world but who would know. Women's basketball can't even get scores in daily media let alone an article . No wonder attendances are down as the public don't know games are on.

lol. I think enough people have pointed out that the revenue the NBL generates is proportionate to the revenue they spend.

There are lots of sources of revenue for Basketball Australia. To put your comments in perspective, BA get less than 1 million per year from "junior levy's", and of that, a significant proportion is not juniors.

From what I understand, not a cent of that money goes to staff work or working on NBL/WNBL. I believe both of these are fully funded through those leagues revenue streams.

And, even if it was the case that some of those "levy's" were being used to pay these staff, then that is still not an argument that sustains the two leagues receiving equal resources and attention.

So youre saying the "levy's" are dry?

They were when I took my chevy there.

Before I make comment here I will point out I love women basketball and I watch ever avaliable womens game on TV be it WNBL WNBA or Womens NCAA Basketball
I also go to as many SEABL and Big V womens games as I can so a big fan and yes I am male and have coached womens basketball

But Jess you are so far off track crying about what you are not getting you should be crying about your teams and coaches performance. Canberra should be the show case to womens basketball but your coach and your players are a joke. You should be paying to play the way your performaces have been this year.

Instead of whining show some spirit get your heads out of your bums and stop crying yes Jackson is out injured but 1 player does not make a team.

If Graf cant win with her hand picked team with Jackson out injured then should she be National Coach