By Mel Greenberg
Those who argue against taking the WNBA season further on the back end might have a point based on the ESPN2 ratings for the championship series between the winning Detroit Shock and San Antonio Silver Stars.
The ratings fell significantly from a year ago, but understand the wrapup to the 2007 season was completed much earlier and there was prime interest in the Northeast because of the combination of former Connecticut sensation Diana Taurasi and former Rutgers superstar Cappie Pondexter on the winning Phoenix Mercury.
Hadn't seen any of this elsewhere, although the Guru had been working on other things since returning from Detroit. Here's the report from the home office off of what was provided from the network.
Speaking of ESPN, the Guru will be in New York Tuesday night for the annual Jimmy V preview dinner and auction at Chelsea Piers. Georgia coach Andy Landers and Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer will represent the women's matchup.
If new Rutgers assistant Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil is among the Scarlet Knights; entourage, the room will contain four Women's Basketball Hall of Famers.
Later this week on Thursday, the Guru will visit UConn media day, if he can escape a certain city that could be celebrating a trip to the World Series on Wednesday night.
Here are the ESPN numbers, which also run comparisons to 2004, the other time the WNBA season was extended because of the Olympics.
WNBA Finals on ESPN2
4:44pm: San Antonio @ Detroit (Game 3): 0.22 household rating / 286,000 viewers
The game was down -60% versus Game 3 of the 2007 WNBA Finals (Tuesday 9/11/07) and earned a 0.55 rating. Viewership was down -56% (646,000 viewers).
After three games, the WNBA Finals on ESPN2 averaged a 0.26 rating, down -43% versus last season's Finals (0.46 rtg.). An average of 315,000 viewers tuned in, down -42% versus last season's Finals (543,000 viewers).
This year's Finals faced tougher sports competition than last year's Finals. The 2008 WNBA Finals faced MLB Division Series competition for Games 1 and 2 and NFL Regular Season and MLB Division Series competition for Game 3.
The Finals were down -13% versus the 2004 WNBA Finals (0.30 rtg.) on ESPN2. 2004 was the last year in which the WNBA Finals were played in October . Viewership was down -9% versus 2004 (345,000 viewers).
The game averaged a 1.2 rating in San Antonio on ESPN2. Local ratings for Detroit are unavailable.
The game peaked at a 0.28 rating between 6:30-6:45pm.
Competition on network television included ABC World News Tonight (1.6 rtg.) on ABC, NFL on CBS - Regional Coverage (12.6 rtg.) on CBS and NBC Nightly News (3.3 rtg.) on NBC. Competition on cable included the MLB Division Series (3.2 rtg.) on TBS.
-- Mel
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