What is lost in the amazing pride Irish fans feel about Skylar Dig gins is the fact that no WNBA transition is going to come from one basketball player. As much as there has been, an emphasis on marketing and growing the WNBA, the proof still has to be in the pudding for Skylar Dig gins on the court if those big plans are going to be realized.
WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert, though, is committed to staying the course and building a great league that lasts. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert shares her plans for making the WNBA a more profitable league going forward. This is not news, and the difference for the WNBA right now is WNBA commissioner Katie Engelbert is working on a long-term economic plan that will see it grow its size, adding more teams.
WNBA announced in February it had raised $75 million from new investors as well as from existing WNBA and NBA owners, a step toward the growth strategy of focusing specifically on areas which would be part of the longer-term corporate transition. For the WNBA 25th anniversary, the league added various new uniforms for each team, as well as a revamped ball, available for the first time at national chains such as Walmart. Over this span, the WNBA has made changes that support the WNBA both as a sports league and as a career path for women's basketball players.
This off season has given the WNBA an opportunity to make an impactful change that will last a lasting effect on women's basketball players going forward. With moves in place and a looming deadline on Oct. 31 for WNBA players to opt-out of the current collective bargaining agreement, the WNBA is in the ideal -- and rare -- position to effect change. With support and acknowledgement from leaders within the sports industry and men and women in other industries, the WNBA will continue making strides toward making changes.
WNBA changemakers will work alongside the WNBA to dramatically improve the player experience and drive business change for the league. The Changemakers platform is designed to directly support the WNBA in its ongoing business transformation, in the areas of marketing, branding, and the player and fan experience. The WNBA is excited to announce the first-ever WNBA Changemakers, which includes AT&T;, an official WNBA marquee partner, Deloitte, the league's new title partner and the official professional services provider for the WNBA, and Nike, the WNBA official apparel provider.
In historic times, financial guidance from an NBA Commissioner has helped to keep the WNBA solvent, but with the NBA now having proven it can succeed and turn a profit, the WNBA needs to hire its own Commissioner, with greater authority, and someone who can help elevate the WNBA to the level of a professional, high-level league. While a few stars are household names, and the league has both business partners in the NBA and media partners who give it nationally, consistent exposure, the challenges are deeper.
Commissioners Kathy and Terry Jackson feel that the WNBA seasons are where they should be on the calendar for the foreseeable future, but keeping the WNBA and its players more visible while they are off-season has been a perennial struggle. Now, with Russia and China's leagues off and the WNBA riding new financial heights, the WNBA has an opportunity to prove to players that it can be their only home in basketball. The WNBA this week introduced Fantasy Basketball to ESPN, generating plenty of interest, while the New York Liberty and the WNBA are in new, non-fungible coin deals.
The NBA has better athletes, of course, but with players like Brittney Grainer and Skylar Dig gins, we are seeing a new age of exciting, younger athletes that are feeding a more physical WNBA. In Brittney Grainer, we may see an athlete that changes the league and becomes a model of the marketable, modern woman athlete, continuing to expand what it means to be feminine in the league. But in addition to her influence in the game, Grainer has the potential to also shift the way both more physical WNBA, and women athletes, are perceived both within this country and possibly globally.
Brittney Grainer has already doubled the number of dunks in WNBA history, and in the long run, she may become a Wilt Chamberlain-type of player given her size and scoring prowess. Skylar Dig gins early games in the WNBA were forgettable, but her career will be long enough to have plenty of happy chapters written. When Dig gins made the jump from college play to pro, there was a little question she was going to be an instant superstar - the marketing agency's dream client, the one who could redefine women's professional basketball and inject the sports with a level of popularity it had not seen since the WNBA was founded in 1997.
The endorsements will start rolling in, and as is the case for so many players in the WNBA, Skylar Dig gin are likely to make substantially more money abroad playing in foreign leagues. People are not talking about how good she looked while averaging 24.5 points a game this season and leading the Sky to one of the best records in the WNBA. It is that Becky is being paid $1 million for her first season, far more than the top-paid players in the WNBA earn. Donne, Skylar Dig gins, and Brittney Grainer made up the draft class labelled as the "three best prospects" by ESPN, and WNBA President Laurel Richie believes that could be a seismic shift.
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