The WNBA has been a punchline for years with its near-nonexistent ratings and with its stars clamoring for the same pay as NBA players. With the latest player-led crusade against Kelly Loeffler, it’s hard to pity the league’s situation.
Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, was appointed to her Senate seat last December. Since 2011, she’s been the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, one of the WNBA’s 12 teams. Searching for an edge in a contentious Senate race, Loeffler decided to write to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert opposing the league’s decision to promote Black Lives Matter on warmup jerseys.
Loeffler also called for a compromise that involved putting an American flag on the jerseys. Loeffler wrote, “The truth is, we need less — not more politics in sports. In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever, sports has the power to be a unifying antidote. And now more than ever, we should be united in our goal to remove politics from sports.”
But the WNBA is arguably worse than the NBA when it comes to politics. It partnered with Planned Parenthood in 2018, donating a share of ticket sales to the abortion company. The video that announced their “empowerment program” was centered on the Women’s March protests in Washington, D.C.
And now, to prove their point, WNBA players are calling for Loeffler to be removed from her ownership position.
Led by the WNBA player’s union, league stars Candace Parker and Breanna Stewart called for Loeffler to be thrown out by the league. This is the response Loeffler was looking for, of course. She knew how the letter would be received by the league. And still, the WNBA looks to drive people away from the league when hardly anyone is showing up in the first place.
WNBA fan attendance last season dropped to an average of just over 6,500 people. The viewership of the WNBA playoffs was down 24% to an average of 257,000. The league is in no position be politically exclusive, and yet, it seems content to tighten the circle still further and serve as a political club that occasionally plays basketball. One gets the impression that Loeffler is not the real victim here — the real victim are players who might want to be taken seriously.
