What’s the purpose of the complaint?
But for Silver, perhaps he should gripe with some of the ownership groups and teams in the WNBA over what is sure to be major attendance dips in the near future. And it all has to do with venue changes.
As David Berri broke down for Forbes in February, the New York Liberty’s move from Madison Square Garden to the 5,000-seat Westchester County Center means they’ll take their 9,899 fans per game average and tell half of them, “So long.” In addition, the Washington Mystics are planning on moving to a 4,200-seat arena in 2019 that they’ll share with the G-League team, which will cut off close to half of their 2017 average crowd 7,771 fans.
It could be a move that works for a solid environment. Silver’s words were about “empty seats in our buildings,” which could be a way to hint at these moves to make the crowds look bigger by playing in smaller environments. To call back to the NWSL, not everyone can be like Portland and fill a 20,000-seat venue.
Still, it feels like a move where the league is disposing of a significant number of fans per game, just for appearances. And, unless they go back to the larger venue for things like summer camp games or other major promotional events, it feels like Silver’s comments are just complaining for the sake of complaining.