WNBA President Says Time Simply Ran Out on the Monarchs

WNBA president Donna Orender said dispersing the Sacramento Monarchs and aiming for a 2011 debut for a Bay Area team was a function of time.

"We had to get our schedule together, our teams need to sell tickets," Orender said Wednesday, a day after it was announced that the Monarchs players will be dispersed via draft on Monday.

Three weeks of efforts to secure Bay Area ownership for the Monarchs, necessitated when the Maloof brothers relinquished their ownership rights of one of the WNBA's original franchises on Nov. 20, fell short. The goal was to move in time for the start of the 2010 season, a very quick turn. Too quick as it turned out.

"The amount of time it would have taken to close the deal would have handicapped our other teams," Orender said. "There were a lot of variables for this to come together. We had to have everything fit, with no snags on this kind of timeline."

Orender said that she had more than one investment group interested in a Bay Area team and that she is convinced the Bay Area will be a "fantastic market, one that will be enormously successful."

But Orender admits it was a "very ripe opportunity" to move the team, especially with all of its Bay Area connections and the potential connection between the fan bases. She said she heard from many fans disappointed that the Monarchs could not be kept together and moved.

"What we are going to need to see in this market is enthusiastic support backed by real dollars.''
- WNBA President
Donna Orender "So many things about this made sense, but it continues to be a ripe opportunity, we just need more time to make it right," Orender said.

Orender said she has talked to several potential ownership groups in the Bay Area, from all three areas of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, and that "sponsors have stepped up and made themselves and their interest known to us."

The league likely has until the end of the 2010 WNBA season to secure a financially sound ownership deal, as well as a venue.

"It's a matter of putting the package together, that's what has to happen next. There has to be a drive by investors that want to be owners," Orender said. "What we are going to need to see in this market is enthusiastic support backed by real dollars. People are very motivated."

But she added one caveat.

"There are no guarantees here. Until it's done, it's not done," Orender said.

That's no small addendum. The economy is hitting even the most solvent sports leagues very hard. The WNBA has scrambled since the end of a great Finals series between Phoenix and Indiana to hold their league together, moving Detroit to Tulsa, finding new ownership for Atlanta after just two seasons and now disbanding the Monarchs, who were losing a reported $2 million per season for the Maloofs.

At least one other team, the Indiana Fever, is on shaky ownership ground. The Fever's owners have promised to hang on to the team at least through the 2010 season after the team's inspired postseason run.

But cost-cutting is the order of the day.

Orender confirmed that the 12 remaining teams will continue to hold their roster sizes to 11 players, which means the league will have 11 fewer spots available next year.
Also, each team will now have only one head coach and one assistant coach on the bench and traveling to games.

The Monarchs players are headed elsewhere now.

Guard Kara Lawson, who will be a free agent and can sign with any team, told the Sacramento Bee that she thought the immediate move to the Bay Area was a "long shot."

"We all know this is a tough time in sports. Being a new league, not as established, we have a finer line to flirt with," Lawson told the Bee. "Moving forward, I get a chance to choose where I go. But my husband was born and raised here. We formed a lot of great relationships with people in the community, so that's going to be hard."