lynx/wnba

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.