Iowa's Kachine Alexander and Iowa State's Kelsey Bolte were both picked up in the WNBA Draft yesterday- Alexander returns to her hometown of Minneapolis to play with the Minnesota Lynx and Bolte heads south to play with the Atlanta Dream.
While I can't say that I've ever actually watched a WNBA game, I'm glad it's there. There's so much talent in the women's game, it would have seemed a little strange not to have a professional league for them to play in- and both Alexander and Bolte are talented enough that they more than deserved a shot to play at the next level.
(I think I posted on this before, but I'll ask the question again: given the odd popularity of the women's game in-state, could Iowa support a WNBA franchise? Looking at the map of the league, I'd say it might be possible. Professional sports franchises tend find their strength depending on the relative size of their media market- but that hasn't stopped teams like Clevland or San Antonio from having relative amounts of success in the NBA- and a WNBA team based in Iowa would have the advantage of not being hip-deep in other franchises. Minnesota and Chicago have WNBA teams but St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee- all of them do not. Reading a little about the history of the franchise, it seems that expansion or even maintenance of a lot of teams does become an issue, long term- at least three WNBA teams have folded during the league's existence and dispersal drafts have had to be held. But if Des Moines' continued growth attracts money and media heft, it's entirely possible that the discussion could come up- and maybe a WNBA franchise would work. Maybe it wouldn't...)
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