When the wnba’s newest team opens its season next May in Philips Arena, you can bet the crowd will include a strong showing by lesbian fans, eager to have a professional franchise to call their own.

The public effort earlier this year to land the expansion team in Atlanta included gay and lesbian volunteers, scores of lesbians who pledged to buy season tickets, and events designed to rally the area’s gay market.
With the official announcement Oct. 17 that Atlanta will add another team to its roster of professional sports offerings, lesbian fans are now anxiously awaiting the opening tip next season.

“Some people have a summer home at a lake,” said Jill Barry-Kessler, a Decatur resident who owned season tickets to the Mystics when she lived in Washington, D.C. “The arena is our summer home. Two years in Atlanta without a WNBA team to call my own has been rough.”

After an effort spearheaded by Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, a gay-friendly politician considered a leading contender in the 2009 mayoral race, and local business groups, some 1,200 season ticket pledges were secured. Atlanta competed with efforts in Kansas City, Colorado and Bentonville, Ark., and the league finally inked the deal with Atlanta real estate executive Ron Terwilliger.

BUT THE UNNAMED team may face an uphill
battle. The last women’s basketball team in the city, the Atlanta Glory of the American Basketball League, folded in 1998 after two years.

Since then, though, the 11-year-old WNBA has matured, women’s college basketball has exploded in popularity and the Atlanta team will be the league’s only franchise in the South. The Charlotte team disbanded after the 2006 season; a Miami team has also folded.

Beth Schapiro, a strategic consultant and basketball fan, said the new team must design inclusive marketing campaigns to convince lesbian fans to attend games.
“There are lots of other things for lesbians of all ages to do,” said Schapiro, who has already pledged to purchase season tickets. “They will have to market the product to us and I expect them to do that.”

In order to fill the seats at Philips Arena, team officials should follow the approach of other WNBA franchises that court gay and lesbian fans, according to Mike Horton, a WNBA fan and chair of the Atlanta Gay Sports Alliance.

“We are loyal to those who are loyal back to us,” Horton said. “Terwilliger has a great group of fans from which to draw. He is a savvy enough businessman to realize that.”