Clare asked me
on Wednesday if I cared that the Bandits got swept in the pro fastpitch
softball championship series. Heck, I
didn’t even know they were playing.
I did know a little
about the Sky of the WNBA. For some
reason, women’s basketball in these parts attracts more attention than
softball. The Sky gets what qualifies as
pity-coverage in the papers and on local TV.
The team gets coverage, yes, but don’t blink or turn the page without
checking for the tiniest of stories.
Then you’ll miss it.
As I’ve said all
too often, women’s softball is doomed without a sugar daddy—or mommy—willing to
spend bundles of cash on the sport, and even then I’m not so sure. People who go to baseball games either want
to go to a cathedral (Wrigley or Fenway or certain minor-league parks) or the
mall (Guaranteed Rate Whatever and most other MLB parks). The Bandits play in a glorified park-district
facility. If it doesn’t feel “pro,” it
won’t draw like the pros.
That’s not the
problem for the Sky, who moved into Wintrust Arena on the near South Side this
season. It felt like a pro venue, and
some of the players really played like pros, but a 34-game regular season pales
in comparison to the NBA’s 82 games. How
do you crawl out from under that shadow?
I’m not sure anyone knows.
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