Women’s League Is Calling It Quits

The American Basketball League, hemorrhaging money with its $900,000-a-year payrolls for each of its nine teams, announced Tuesday it was closing down.

The league’s board decided late Monday to suspend operations and file a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition “to ensure an orderly liquidation of the league.”

The ABL died after 2 1/3 seasons of top-flight women’s pro basketball, most observers rating the league superior in talent to the rival, richer WNBA. But those observers also wondered how long it could last.

With the exception of the strong-drawing New England Blizzard, attendance was a problem league-wide. But an even greater hurdle was the lack of significant television exposure.

“TV exposure is critical to sponsors, licensees and investors,” league Chief Executive Gary Cavalli said, in a prepared statement.

“This year we offered millions of dollars to the TV networks for air time, but couldn’t obtain adequate coverage. We had no choice but to shut down. We exhausted every option, pursued every lead.”

The league began play in the fall of 1996 with eight teams and finished Tuesday with nine--The Columbus Quest, Philadelphia Rage, Chicago Condors, Nashville Noise, New England Blizzard, Portland Power, San Jose Lasers, Seattle Reign and Colorado Xplosion.

Some teams never made it to the finish line. The league put a team in Long Beach for the 1997-98 season, then shut it down after one season when it finished last in attendance. Also closed was the Atlanta franchise.

After the ABL’s first season, the Richmond Rage was moved to Philadelphia.

Columbus won both league championships and led the league with an 11-3 record when the curtain fell.

The ABL boasted of having the game’s best players, and although that was the case in its first two seasons, the WNBA made major gains in signing college talent last season.

Seven of the 12 players on the U.S. women’s team that won the world championship last summer in Berlin were ABL players, four were WNBA players and one, Chamique Holdsclaw, was a Tennessee junior.

The ABL signed most of the premier talent by paying much higher salaries than did the WNBA. This season, the average ABL salary was up to $90,000, compared to $30,000 for most WNBA players.

Bill McGillis, who was general manager of the Long Beach StingRays last season, called it inevitable.

“With no significant TV income, the math just doesn’t work,” he said.

“If we had sold out every game in Long Beach [the team played in the 4,200-seat Pyramid], we still wouldn’t have broken even.

“Really, it was an amazing job for Cavalli to keep it going as long as he did.”

Another major difference between the leagues was the sports calendar.

The ABL made much of playing its 44-game season in the traditional fall-winter basketball season, but that will be seen by many as a mistake in the post-mortem.

Beaten to the starting line by more than a year, the WNBA decided to play summer basketball, when the arenas of its parent company, the NBA, were available and prospects for television contracts were much better.

It worked. The WNBA wound up three times a week on NBC, ESPN and Lifetime, whereas the ABL languished in the jumble of cable stations, playing one Sunday game of the week on Fox.

WNBA TV ratings were surprisingly high, exceeding those of the NHL and pro soccer. The ABL’s were closer to zero.

The WNBA averaged 10,869 fans last season and its attendance leader, the Washington Mystics, averaged 15,910. The ABL averaged 4,333 last season but was at 3,857 Tuesday. New England, where crowds of 15,000-plus were common last season, was averaging 7,660.

The ABL went to the starting blocks on Sept. 21, 1995, with a news conference in San Jose. At the head table were Cavalli and co-founders Anne Cribbs and Steve Hams . . . and most members of the U.S. women’s 1996 Olympic team.

The ABL signed most of that group--Jennifer Azzi, Teresa Edwards, Katy Steding, Carla McGhee and Venus Lacy. It also signed Olympians Nikki McCray and Dawn Staley, but both later jumped to the WNBA.

For the most part, however, ABL players were a loyal bunch. Despite the WNBA’s greater exposure and prospects of greater marketing dollars, league-jumping was rare. Only McCray, Staley and Cindy Brown moved to the WNBA.

Only one coach has moved over, Columbus’ Brian Agler to the WNBA’s Minnesota expansion team. Former StingRay coach Maura McHugh, however, is a leading candidate to coach the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs.

Bruce Levy of New York, a leading women’s player agent, said he had a sense of foreboding on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia.

“I went down to see Columbus play Philadelphia and I counted 587 people, but they announced 1,600,” he said.

“For the best team in the league?

“It’s so sad. This was really a family kind of league, everyone pulling together. It really was a players’ league, so unlike the WNBA, which by comparison is so cold and corporate, where there is such a sense of profit maximizing.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

About the ABL / THE CHRONOLOGY

* February 1995: Initial meeting of founders Steve Hams, Anne Cribbs and Gary Cavalli.

* February 1996: League announces eight founding cities.

* June 19, 1996: First ABL draft.

* Oct. 18, 1996: First game, Atlanta at San Jose.

* Dec. 1, 1996: Gary Cavalli named ABL’s chief executive officer.

* March 11, 1997: Columbus defeats Richmond in Game 5 for first ABL title.

* April 15, 1997: ABL expands to Long Beach.

* April 22, 1997: Kate Starbird signs three-year deal with ABL.

* April 28, 1997: Kara Wolters signs three-year deal with ABL.

* May 13, 1997: Former NBA coach K.C. Jones hired as New England coach.

* July 21, 1997: Richmond Rage moves to Philadelphia.

* Nov. 21, 1997: Atlanta player-coach Teresa Edwards scores record 46 points vs. Seattle.

* Jan. 23, 1998: New England sets attendance record (15,418) at Hartford Civic Center.

* March 15, 1998: Columbus Quest wins second consecutive ABL title.

* March 19, 1998: Atlanta Glory franchise moves, splitting roster into two expansion teams.

* April 8, 1998: ABL announces Chicago expansion team.

* April 9, 1998: ABL announces Nashville expansion team.

* July 27, 1998: Fox Sports Net and ABL announce 1998-99 TV package.

* Aug. 26, 1998: Long Beach franchise folds.

* Nov. 5, 1998: ABL begins third season.

* Dec. 22, 1998: ABL suspends operations.

IT’S A FACT

* Original teams: Eight.

* Expansion teams: Three.

* Folded franchises (before Tuesday): Two.

* Champion: Columbus Quest, 1996 and 1997.

* Championship MVP: Valerie Still, Columbus, 1996 and 1997.

* Oldest Player: Valerie Still, Columbus, 37.

* Youngest player: Ashley Berggren, Chicago, 22 on Nov. 18.

* Shortest player: Debbie Black, Colorado, 5-3.

* Tallest player: Kara Wolters, New England, 6-7.

* Most points, team: 111, Columbus vs. Long Beach, Feb. 15, 1997.

ABL: What next?: The WNBA was mum about the ABL’s annoucement, leaving players with uncertain futures. Page 6

Chronology: From start to finish in fewer than three seasons. Page 6