n both their current ticket holders as well as their potential target market. Last year, they surveyed 8,000 fans at games, then followed up with 1,000 via telephone to determine who their consumers are, how they felt about the sponsors and what their preferences are in terms of ticket sales. This information will be used to determine how they will continue to market the league in the future. The WNBA also has a relationship with Sports Illustrated wherein they utilize the current subscription holders of the magazine to attempt to gain valuable information about groups they should target and Sports Illustrated is granted access to the players for feature articles and stories. At present, the WNBA has been unable to do any type of direct mailing to this population, as they do not have the financial resources to accomplish this. The women's league is also!
             currently advertised during the NBA (men's league) games. To ensure the growth of the league, they are spending a lot of time and energy focusing on the physical fitness tour. This is consistent with their fan friendly attitude. The women's league intends to keep the players accessible to the public and fans as to promote interest in both the players and the games. All of these are good, strong marketing strategies.
             It is estimated that as many as fourteen attempts have been made at establishing a women's professional basketball league. The difference between those and the women's National Basketball League is in their strengths. They have strategically organized the season of the women's games to fit right in to a time of the year when there are not a lot of other sport distractions. The seasons begin during the summer months and in at least two of the cities where they have teams, there are no major league baseball teams to compete against. That alone gives them a better chance of getting airtime for the games. It is v
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