Abl More Than Holds Its Own Against Wnba

The American Basketball League got off the ground last fall on a shoestring budget and a bit of old-fashioned trust.

It was a grass-roots effort compared with the rival women’s league backed by the NBA, which cranked up its well-oiled marketing machine to line up national TV deals and big-time sponsors even before its debut.

With its obvious edge, many observers labeled the WNBA as the big sister of the dueling leagues, and assumed it would swallow up the ABL, possibly as early as this year.

But that was hardly the case.

In the past few weeks, the league that was expected to be the underdog has signed several top players in its first real bidding war with the WNBA, which begins play June 21.

“There’s a big shiny locomotive trying to run us down, but the Little Engine That Could is trying pretty well right now,” said Gary Cavalli, the ABL’s co-founder and vice president.

The WNBA suffered another setback when Sheryl Swoopes, perhaps its biggest star, announced she would miss most of the inaugural season because she is pregnant. The former Texas Tech star, who will play for the Houston Comets, is due shortly before the season begins.

While the ABL may have pulled off a coup with the recent signings, the WNBA has a plan to create a strong foundation for the future, league president Val Ackerman said.

The WNBA also is trying to go global by signing top foreign players, including Russian center Elena Baranova, second in scoring in the Summer Olympics to Lisa Leslie, captain of the gold-medal-winning U.S. team. The ABL, on the other hand, limits each team to two foreign-born players.

“Our interest is in having a league that truly represents the best in the world,” Ackerman said.

Of course, the fact that there are dueling leagues bodes well for the popularity of women’s pro basketball. And with the WNBA still untested, it remains to be seen whether the leagues can coexist, or whether a merger will be necessary for both of them to survive.

With $4 million in private start-up money and verbal commitments from a handful of Olympians, the ABL began on the heels of the Atlanta Summer Games.

The league lost $5 million last year but expects to make money by 1999, with help from its greatest asset: its talent pool. Nine of the 12 Olympians and many top college stars have signed with the ABL.

“The NBA has a lot more money. They have a better TV contract, but we think they are temporary advantages. If we continue to get the best players in the world like we are, those things will come,” Cavalli said.

The past two weeks have been especially good for the ABL, with the announcement of a new franchise in Long Beach, Calif., and the signings of Connecticut star Kara Wolters, The Associated Press Player of the Year; Kate Starbird, Stanford’s career scoring leader and winner of the 1997 Naismith Award; All-American forward Shalonda Enis from Alabama; and several other top players.

Why the ABL? One big reason is money.

Despite its TV contracts with NBC, ESPN and Lifetime, and a lot more cash, the WNBA offers lower salaries.

The top three picks in the April 28 WNBA draft - Houston got Tina Thompson of Southern Cal, Sacramento took teammate Pam McGee and Los Angeles selected Jamila Wideman of Stanford - will be paid $37,500 a season, with the salaries dropping to $15,000 for fourth-round choices. Only an exclusive group that includes Leslie and fellow Olympian Rebecca Lobo have lucrative WNBA contracts, reportedly as high as $250,000.

“It would be difficult to play on the same team knowing that one player is making $250,000,” said Debbie Black, a guard on the ABL’s Colorado Xplosion. “Our salaries are a lot more fair,”

The ABL pays an average of $80,000, setting top scale at $150,000. Compensation packages can push some players’ pay a lot higher.

But even high-paid ABL players say the pay is secondary.

Some players fear the WNBA’s 10-week season won’t amount to more than a glamorized summer league, and favor the ABL’s longer schedule, played in the fall and winter, the traditional basketball season.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE MATCHUPS WNBA (28-game schedule beginning June 21) New York Liberty, Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, Phoenix Mercury, Utah Starzz, Sacramento Monarchs, Los Angeles Sparks. ABL (40-game schedule in the fall and winter) New England Blizzard, Atlanta Glory, Colorado Xplosion, Columbus Quest, Portland Power, Richmond Rage, San Jose Lasers, Seattle Reign.