Lynx: Barely a pulse

During the summer of 1999, there was a new game in town and fans seemed to love it. More than 10,000 people filled Target Center for each Lynx game as the team made its debut in the two-year-old WNBA.

Eight years later, the crowds have thinned as the team has struggled to a league-worst 5-19 record and virtually disappeared from public radar.

What happened? Let us count the ways (in no particular order): The Lynx play a winter sport in the summer, when most Minnesotans prefer to be outdoors. They have had almost no success on the court, with six losing seasons in eight years. And perhaps most importantly, they have struggled to put a face on the franchise, first missing out on a chance to draft Gophers star guard Lindsay Whalen, then passing when they had the chance to acquire Whalen's sidekick at the U, center Janel McCarville.

As a result, Lynx attendance has tumbled even more dramatically than the league's, falling from a reported 10,494 per game during that euphoric inaugural season to 6,442 last year. The league averages went from 10,207 to 7,433 in that span.

"There's that initial rush of getting a new team," said Roger Griffith, the Lynx's chief operating officer. "If you [look at] our first two years, our attendance has been lower since then, but that's a pattern that every team in this league has followed."

No-shows, giveaways

But according to reports provided by the Minneapolis Community Development office to the Minneapolis City Council, the Lynx are attracting fewer paying customers than ever. The reports indicated the Lynx gave away 47 percent of their total tickets in 2006, up from 21 percent in 2005 and 13 percent in 2004.

These percentages are based on the totals reported to the city, which are lower than the ticket totals reported by the team to the league.

The team's vice president of business development, Angela Taylor, said the team stands by the higher totals and that the totals reported to the league are "the most accurate."

The city council figures also indicate 46 percent of Lynx ticketholders in 2006 were no-shows, and a glance around Target Center on game nights would seem to verify that the announced crowd doesn't reflect the number of patrons in the stands.

Now in their ninth season, the Lynx have historically struggled, making the playoffs twice while coming in either second to last or last in the Western Conference three times.

Mary Jo Kane, a professor at the University of Minnesota and director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport in the College of Education and Human Development, said the losing culture surrounding the team hurts its reputation.

"You can never underestimate 'Just win, baby!' " she said. "If you don't win and don't put a consistently winning program on the court, it makes it next to impossible to build a solid fan base, let alone make that fan base grow."

The Detroit Shock has two WNBA titles since 2003 and used its on-court success as a way to build fan interest in the team. They lead the league in attendance this year, averaging an announced 9,471 per game. The Lynx rank 12th in attendance in the 13-team league with an announced average at 6,701 through 11 home games.

Former Lynx All-Star Katie Smith, who was traded to the Shock in 2005, sees differences between the two franchises.

"Detroit does a really good job with their game operations and promotions," Smith said. "[The Detroit front office] are just really proactive and have a really great staff who work for us and they've worked really hard to bring together an eclectic group of fans. But winning helps. Winning a championship last year helps put butts in the seats."

Lynx All-Star Seimone Augustus echoed Smith.

"We, as a team, have to focus on winning games because that will be the thing that attracts people to games," Augustus said.

Building around youth

To reverse their losing trend, the Lynx are building around two No. 1 overall draft picks, Augustus (2006) and Lindsey Harding (2007).

"The last team to have two No. 1 [overall] picks was Seattle," Griffith said of the Storm's Lauren Jackson (2001) and Sue Bird ('02). "They won a championship ... in short order after that [2004] and we expect to be able to do the same."

But with the Lynx in last place and Harding out for the rest of the season because of a knee injury, success in 2007 seems out of reach.

"Teams can make big leaps from one year to the next, and with the core that we have in place, we are not that far away from being a serious competitor," Griffith said.

But even if the team wins, will fans give up their summer fun to head indoors?

Not according to Sue Short, a longtime Lynx season ticketholder and creator of the "Lynx Lane Bulletin Board," a fan forum dedicated to the discussion of the WNBA in Minnesota.

"Summertime weather is a factor for a lot of people," Short said. "It's hard to come inside when it is so beautiful outside."

The ex-Gophers factor

The Gophers women's basketball team has drawn well in recent years, but the Lynx haven't been able to draw a large percentage of those fans.

Taylor, who worked for the WNBA before coming to the Lynx, said getting Gophers fans interested in the Lynx is not as easy as it sounds.

"When I was at the league office and you're looking at different markets where you want to take the teams ... you talk about Knoxville [Tenn.], the Bay Area, you talk about these different areas that have, traditionally, drawn great women's basketball crowds, and I think one thing that was really evident is that sometimes fans are fans of the university," she said.

"And here the Gophers happen to be the biggest show in town. So you have a lot of fans who are simply fans of the university."

But the team failed to make moves that could have brought Gophers fans to Target Center. Despite fan interest in obtaining Whalen and McCarville, the team was unwilling or unable to make offseason moves to acquire the hometown stars.

In Whalen's case, the Lynx discussed options to trade up from their seventh pick in the 2004 draft to Connecticut's fourth pick in order to select the Gophers star. Unable to make the deal, the Lynx stayed at No. 7 and took Nicole Ohlde. Connecticut chose Whalen.

"We feel like what they were asking for was way too high a price to pay for any one player," Griffith said.

Added Taylor, "It's been [three] years, hopefully everyone can ... move forward."

In January, the Lynx had the opportunity to add McCarville to their lineup in the dispersal draft, but passed on her and instead chose Tangela Smith -- a player they then used to acquire Harding in the college draft.

"You have to select the best player. And what ended up happening was we got a player who helped us get the best player coming out of the college draft," Taylor said. "We may not have been able to get Lindsey Harding if we had made a different decision [in the 2007 dispersal draft]."

Large numbers of fans seem to show up when Whalen, still with Connecticut, or McCarville, now with the New York Liberty, are at Target Center. The Lynx attendance record of 16,227 came in 2004 for Whalen's first pro game in Minnesota -- a number helped by the busloads of campers in attendance for the daytime game.

But Lynx fan Jeffrey Williams had a stern warning for Gophers fans who don't go to Lynx games unless Whalen or McCarville are playing.

"If you don't support the Lynx and the team ends up folding, then you won't get to see McCarville and Whalen play here in Minnesota," he said.

Griffith said the team is in no danger of folding and owner Glen Taylor remains committed to the Lynx.

"He enjoys [owning the Lynx], he has fun coming to the games," Griffith said.

In the meantime, Angela Taylor continues to try and expand the team's fan base. "I think we have to be realistic and realize it's not going to happen overnight," she said.

Melissa Rosenberg • mrosenberg@startribune.com