Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders says the city’s gay and lesbian residents are ‘absolutely’ taking part in the effort to land a WNBA expansion team. (Photo by Matt Hennie)
Atlanta continues full-court press for WNBA team Bid hopes to land expansion team for ’08 season
ATLANTA’S PATH to a WNBA franchise went through Washington, D.C., last weekend as movers and shakers involved with the ongoing effort to land the league’s 14th team took to the road to bolster their bid.
The attraction was the eighth annual WNBA All-Star Game at the Verizon Center. And Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, who just a few weeks earlier was busy working crowds during Atlanta Pride, was again pressing the flesh at the July 15 game. Borders sits on the nine-member committee trying to lure a WNBA franchise to the region for the 2008 season.
“Atlanta is definitely in the hunt for a franchise for our city,” Borders said. “Our hope and expectation is that we will have a team for 2008.”
Atlanta has been without a professional women’s basketball team since 1998 when the Atlanta Gory, a member of the American Basketball League, folded. The local bid appears to be competing with efforts in Kansas City, Colorado and Bentonville, Ark., though the WNBA is mum on its expansion process. A league spokesperson could not be reached for comment this week.
THE PROSPECT OF ADDING a women’s bas-ketball team to Atlanta’s already rich — and male — roster of pro-sports teams has lesbian fans enthused.
Beth Schapiro, a strategic consultant and founder of the Schapiro Group, attended the All-Star Game with her partner and has already pledged to purchase season tickets for an Atlanta WNBA team. During a 90-day campaign by local organizers earlier this year, she encouraged friends to sign on, too.
“We took the plunge and made the pledge,” Schapiro said. “It is a passion. We’ve become hooked on women’s basketball in the last 12 to 14 years and it is a lot of fun.”
The drive to secure season ticket pledges has received 1,200 commitments. It’s less than the 8,000 pledges organizers sought when they launched the effort in February, but it’s nearly half the number of season tickets a typical WNBA team sees purchased each season.
“To have 1,200 pledges at the premium level without a team being in the city, we are very proud of that,” said Ada Barber, a volunteer coordinator for the Atlanta bid.
THE LOCAL BID for a WNBA team has reached out to Atlanta’s sizable gay population. Beyond talk of the league and the local effort being inclusive from WNBA President Donna Orender, Borders and others, gay fans have held their own pep rallies, pledged to buy season tickets and signed an online petition.
Atlanta’s gay residents are “absolutely” taking part in the bid process, Borders said. Earlier this year, she attended an event in Midtown that centered around gay fans watching a WNBA game and hearing about the city’s bid for a team. Bid organizers have also worked with the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and local members of the Human Rights Campaign.
“People are very excited about women’s basketball. There are events going on all over town. We absolutely want a team in Atlanta,” Borders said.
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