WNBA closing locker rooms

[Azrael]

I fully thought the pandemic would make closed rooms a permanent reality and it's quite possible it still happens sooner than later. But with rare exception, even the teams and players that hate us with the power of a thousand suns hated Zoom even more. It is actually easier just to open the room for a few minutes, let the star(s) of the game mumble some cliches and move on than try and line up the coach/manager and two or three players. There's always some tech issue, the delay between questions is tedious and writers are always griping about how they didn't get called upon. And I've heard that shyer players actually like in-person more...they're more comfortable seeing faces and hearing tone than just staring at a screen. Doesn't mean it can't return to that of course but there was rare unanimity that Zoom sucked and blew.

Agree there's nothing worse than Zoom.

That said, I think we've mostly underutilized the privilege of being in the locker rooms all these years.

Most of the stuff we get, we could get just as well in a mixed zone, or in a brief postgame sitdown or 1-on-1 outside the locker room arranged by the team PR apparatus.

The exception might be baseball.

 

[SixToe]

If I'm a team or players, my question is "Why are they open?" I'd push to close them, bring out players or coaches, and that's it. And as a reporter, I'd probably push back against that but it definitely seems inevitable.

For all the interest in the women's Final Four a few weeks ago, it won't translate to the WNBA. Small numbers of fans, merely a blip amid baseball season, golf and football camps. Women's college hoops has been good and fairly interesting for 25 years. Pros? Meh.

WNBA reporters are passionate advocates for the sport.

Should they be covering the teams, and can they do it objectively, if they're "passionate advocates for the sport" ?

 

[dixiehack]

Isn't the gossip-heavy toxicity of British soccer media attributed to the fact that they have no real player access compared to the US? Might be a case of athletes needing to be careful what they ask for.

 

[SixToe]

Isn't the gossip-heavy toxicity of British soccer media attributed to the fact that they have no real player access compared to the US? Might be a case of athletes needing to be careful what they ask for.

That'll be fun, won't it, as U.S. players-teams continue to put up roadblocks?

"You're writing shirt and spreading gossip and don't know what the fork you're talking about!"

Oh, yet you don't want to talk with us unless it's moderated and not in a locker room?

"THAT'S OUR PRIVATE SAFE SPACE!"

Cake, fork, trying to eat.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

Players don't realize that we're also in there as a form of accountability. Don't like what we write or say? Well, you know where to find us every day.

 

[SixToe]

Players don't realize that we're also in there as a form of accountability. Don't like what we write or say? Well, you know where to find us every day.

This is one reason I think covering high schools for a few years is helpful for young reporters.

If you're honest, at some point some coaches-players-parents aren't going to like it. Yet if you show up, they know where to find you and you learn how to deal with it. There's some accountability. Maybe you also gain more context, develop a better relationship with the coach or others, and it helps you grow as a reporter.

Or, you write from afar and never go back or have closed lockerrooms like the WNBA wants to do (and Premier League, elsewhere), and things turn into a shirtshow sometimes.

 

[HackyMcHack]

The local Triple-A team has cut off all pregame access, both locker room and BP. Really cuts back on the amount of feature work that can be done ... and, in turn, coverage.

 

[WriteThinking]

If I'm a team or players, my question is "Why are they open?" I'd push to close them, bring out players or coaches, and that's it. And as a reporter, I'd probably push back against that but it definitely seems inevitable.

For all the interest in the women's Final Four a few weeks ago, it won't translate to the WNBA. Small numbers of fans, merely a blip amid baseball season, golf and football camps. Women's college hoops has been good and fairly interesting for 25 years. Pros? Meh.




Should they be covering the teams, and can they do it objectively, if they're "passionate advocates for the sport" ?

I think you can cover a sport/team objectively, even if you're a "passionate advocate for the sport." It simply takes the decision to do so. And being a passionate advocate for a sport usually just means you've learned to appreciate it more than the average person, hopefully have learned more about it and become more knowledgeable than average, and that you care about it -- all good things when it comes to regular coverage of something.

That being said, perhaps the better, more true way to express that line is to say that reporters covering the WNBA are among the few people who, even these days, give much of a shirt at all about the sport, the league, or the coverage of it.

 

[Mr. X]

Did the league put out a statement about this? How about teams? If so, please post it here.

 

[cake in the rain]

Why is this "an idea whose time has come?" I can see where it benefits players. Who else does it benefit?

I don't think it's a bad thing to consider players as humans rather than commodities. Standards of privacy have changed dramatically since I was young. Players aren't immune to that.

As for reporters, I spend a lot of my time standing around and waiting, sometimes awkwardly waiting, and if there were a system in which a player came at an appointed time to do an interview, it would make my life easier.

 

[Patchen]

Locker room access, as many point out, isn't always pleasant or efficient use of time or tremendously productive on a daily basis. But giving it up is bad for readers over the long haul and I think the WNBA is making a mistake. Throwing up any kind of roadblock for that league seems silly.

 

[BTExpress]

For the athletes, if you can communicate directly with fans via social media (without risking misinterpretation or misrepresentation by a news outlet), why wouldn't you?

Heh. Because if you do, the fans will recognize how illiterate you are vs. having a reporter clean up your grammar and spell your words correctly.