Despite COVID-19, the WNBA’s season gives a potential economic boon to Bradenton
When television broadcasts for the WNBA’s 2020 season begin Saturday, Bradenton will be front and center to a national audience.
Games are taking place at Feld Entertainment with lodging and training at IMG Academy for a WNBA season that took a twist, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA was the first major sports league in North America to suspend operations back in March, with the NHL, MLB, MLS and other leagues following suit.
The WNBA’s season, which was set for a May 24 start date, was altered, too.
Originally, IMG tried to land the NBA, which settled on Walt Disney World and the Orlando area to finish its season, and those conversations led to securing a home for the 12-team WNBA, IMG senior vice president Chris Ciaccio said.
“The WNBA just seemed like a great fit, both with their leadership, with their core values and their objectives and what they’re trying to achieve,” Ciaccio said. “It really was a good fit from day one.”
As the world came to grips with COVID-19, sports leagues shut down before resuming operations with health guidelines in place. A health and safety manual exceeding 100 pages detailed the guidelines for the NBA’s Disney bubble, for example, and WNBA players, coaches and staff are living in a bubble in Bradenton at IMG.
But the road to Saturday’s opening games has also had some bumps.
WNBA star Elena Delle Donne, of the Washington Mystics, penned a letter on The Players’ Tribune that detailed her history with Lyme disease and how she was not medically exempt from receiving her full salary if she chose not to play in the 2020 season.
The WNBA’s medical panel reviewed any health issues players had in assessing their risks with COVID-19, which would determine their exempt status in gaining a full salary regardless of playing this season.
And when national protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, reverberated throughout the country, various athletes and sports leagues spoke out about racial injustice.
In the WNBA, players are planning to wear warm-up shirts that say, “Black Lives Matter,” on the front and, “Say Her Name,” on the back, according to ESPN. It’s part of how they’re honoring Breonna Taylor, Vanessa Guillen and other women who died violently.
Taylor was killed by police in her Louisville, Kentucky, home. Guillen, a soldier at Fort Hood, disappeared April 22 and her remains allegedly were discovered, according to NBC News.
The courts will feature, “Black Lives Matter,” prominently as well.
However, Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, asked the WNBA to drop its BLM support earlier this month, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“As commissioner, I’m committed to making sure that this season is dedicated to the players’ platform that vigorously advocates for social justice, to make sure Black Lives Matter,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a teleconference this week. “We’re proud of our players for speaking out on these issues. They have always led and will continue to do so. There’s nothing political about that. It’s a statement of their values.”
“I think they’re bringing awareness to issues that have long been ignored, particularly as they advocate for #sayhername, for female victims of racial injustice and police brutality. I think that’s an important voice to be heard. They’re uniquely positioned as a league of huge diversity, 80 percent black women, and more even diverse than that.”
“I’ve been counseling the players to make sure that that is what they’re focused and energized by, not to get caught up in a lot of the other elements of the divisive society we live in. They can be the voice, especially in this season of cultivating community conversations, roundtables, player-produced podcasts, other activations that address this country’s long history of inequality and implicit bias that has targeted their communities.”
“There’s no better time to do that than to be tipping off our season this weekend. Their uniforms will display Breonna Taylor’s name, the Louisville victim of police injustice. That’s going to be a huge statement by these women. A variety of other forgotten victims that they’re going to continue to carry.”
Still, the WNBA presses forward with this weekend’s slate, which sees all 12 teams in action. And while the economic impact from their visit to Bradenton isn’t known yet, the visibility of the league on TV can generate exposure for the Friendly City to a national audience.
“We will get a lot of visibility from the fact the entire league is here,” said Shell Dailey, who has been IMG Academy’s director of women’s basketball for 14 years. “So they thought enough of Bradenton being able to hold an event like this, for sure I think that’s really going to help the economy here in Bradenton.”
The 22-game season starts Saturday, without any fans, a decision the WNBA made back in June, the Washington Post reported.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Despite COVID-19, the WNBA’s season gives a potential economic boon to Bradenton."
