(August 9, 2002)                                                                                              Hot News Main Page                                                                                            

Orlando's WNBA Franchise Marketing To Gay Community

ORLANDO FL (August 9, 2002) The Orlando Miracle have been marketing themselves in the gay community since their inception in 1999 despite public comments two years ago that they would target mainly family and youth groups.

During the past three seasons, they have bought three-quarter page ads throughout the season in Watermark, a biweekly publication targeted to gay readers in Central Florida.

The Miracle also have bought full-page ads in the souvenir program for Gay Days.

"We've always had a friendly, cordial relationship with them," said Thomas Dyer, publisher of Watermark, which circulates 18,000 copies in Orlando, Tampa and Daytona Beach. "They want to put people in the seats. They've been pretty consistent with us."

According to Dyer, the Miracle have spent an estimated $5,000 annually advertising in his publication. They also used a contest-entry ad in Watermark to help compile a mailing list that they use.

RDV Sports, the parent company of the Miracle and the NBA's Orlando Magic, came under fire recently when Senior Vice President Pat Williams signed a letter opposing a proposal that would add sexual orientation to the City of Orlando's anti-discrimination ordinance. There is expected to be a protest tonight against Williams' stance before the Miracle game at the TD Waterhouse Centre.

"I'm surprised he would do something like that. I thought he was more sensitive, more savvy," Dyer said. "He had to be aware that there is a huge lesbian fan base. Even I was taken aback by it at the first game I attended."

The WNBA estimates that 75 percent of those attending games are women, but there is no data kept on what percentage of those are gay. Every team in the league, though, makes at least some marketing effort with gays.

Although the Miracle have increased their visibility in the Central Florida gay community recently, they have not been as aggressive as many of the WNBA teams on the West Coast and in larger cities such as Miami, New York and Washington.

The Sol, for example, sponsor an annual lesbian festival in South Florida. The team this season posed for a cover story in She Magazine, a lesbian publication in Fort Lauderdale.

The Los Angeles Sparks signed up the popular Girl Bar, a lesbian social club with 12,000 members, as a major corporate sponsor. Sparks players regularly attend rallies at the dance club.

The Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm each held a Gay Pride event this season. That and this report from The Orlando Sentinel's Tim Povtak

The Washington Mystics spend considerable time working with the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay political organization. The Mystics, who regularly lead the WNBA in attendance, use the campaign slogan: "Style. Grace, In Your Face. Girl Power."

The protest at the Miracle game tonight won't be the first in the WNBA. Other teams have held similar events. At a New York Liberty game last week, a group called Lesbians for Liberty said they did not believe the Liberty were doing enough to recognize the gay community and staged a kiss-in at Madison Square Garden.

In the wake of the Williams controversy, the Miracle declined Wednesday to talk about their marketing in the gay community. They have not held any specific functions for gay fans.

John Weisbrod, chief operating officer of RDV Sports, declined to discuss the Miracle's marketing involvement in the gay community Wednesday. An internal memo at RDV Sports earlier in the week requested that no one else in the organization comment publically on the topic. RDV Sports owner Rich DeVos did not return a phone message left at home requesting his comments.

Williams declined to comment Wednesday, standing by a statement he released that explained his logic in signing the letter that was sent to city hall and that has offended the gay community.

It was just two seasons ago that Williams told the Sentinel specifically that the Miracle would not market directly to the lesbian community.

"We've elected not to," Williams said during the 2000 season. "The color of their cash is all the same. We are just selling the sport to everybody. We don't discriminate."

It's a similar stance taken by the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League.

"We believe we're totally inclusive of any group that is interested," said Dan Pearson, a spokesman for the Predators. "If we find a group that is interested in purchasing tickets, a group sales manager will go out and contact that group."

[Source: Tim Povtak, The Orlando Sentinel]