Val Ackerman, WNBA President

Ackerman opening statement: Welcome, everybody, and I am glad that you could join us today. I would like to say a couple of things from the top and then answer a couple of questions you have.

Ackerman

Let me start off with a comment that goes to perspective. As I am sure many of you know, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX. The exact date is June 21st and I think there will be quite a bit of attention that will be focused on that birthday in the month ahead. It sort of struck me that that anniversary represents an opportunity to reflect on how far women�s sports have come over the last 30 years. I feel like I and many men and women in our league can attest to how much the world has changed over the course of the last 30 years, or 25, certainly since I was growing up. I have, as I think some of you have, daughters who are beginning to play sports. Whenever I go out to watch them play basketball or soccer they are still pretty young, and playing on all-girls teams it always comes back to me that the first chance that I got to play on an organized sports team was when I was a freshman in high school. Now young girls have the opportunity to play soccer or basketball or softball, on all-girls divisions of leagues beginning as early as six or seven. There is clearly a new norm that has been evolving in terms of the relationship between sports and girls in this country. That is a very important development.

When I played basketball in college, I got half of the only scholarship that was available to play basketball on my collegiate team at the University of Virginia. Now full allotments of scholarships for women�s basketball players around the country are a matter of course, not to mention television coverage, marketing departments covering women�s sports at the collegiate level, solid fan following, etc. So women�s collegiate athletics, in large part due to Title IX, have never looked back and have continued to grow in their popularity. In general, girls� and women�s sports have truly changed profoundly since Title IX, because it�s still moving under our feet in many ways, and that is very good news, we think, for a company like the WNBA. We think that we are benefiting, and will continue to do so, from the changes in mind set, changes in attitude and changes in culture. Ultimately we think that it will affect fan behavior. That will be very positive for our business. Women�s team�s sports are still in a nascent stage. A lot of the developments that have taken place have been very recent, with the Atlanta Olympics setting in motion many of the current developments in women�s basketball and women�s soccer and the like. And by many standards, the WNBA is a very young league. I can tell you that we think that we have taken many important steps that we launched in 1997. We are proud of what we have been able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time, and it�s my belief that the league is in a position to be able to continue to grow in the seasons ahead.

Women�s basketball in general appears to be coming of age. Few women�s sports seem to be as successful on so many levels as the sport of basketball. I mentioned that the top girls are playing the sport; I am witnessing it first hand as a basketball mom. Girls are playing sports in growing numbers starting at earlier and earlier ages. Basketball continues to be the most popular sport for girls at the high school level. The women�s college game, as you all know, has a very solid and growing following. We know from data that basketball is played widely throughout the world. Current estimates are that 80 million females around the world are playing basketball, on every continent, and in just about every country. The WNBA in many ways represents the pinnacle of this growing pyramid.

On the court, we feel very optimistic as we like what we have as a league in terms of the game itself. We expect to have a very competitive season again this year, maybe even more so than any other year. We have many exciting matchups that are looming in both of the conferences. Actually making a team is no small feat. We have a shrinking number of college players that are expected to make rosters this year because it�s very competitive among the veteran players, and even among them, there are only 26 of our original 110 players that are on active rosters. The rosters themselves continue to shift.

We notice now that we have an old guard and a new guard with in the WNBA at the age of six. The new players are bringing in increasing athleticism. They are very strong fundamentally. Many high school and collegiate coaches have told me that they really can see a trickle-down effect in terms of the impact of the WNBA on the levels below us, as well as the aspiration impact it�s having on young players around the country. And that said, I think a number of the rookies this year will make an immediate impact, including the Connecticut four, Stacey Dales-Schuman and others.

We think that the game is continuing to evolve in a very important way, and in many ways is selling itself, which is obviously very important for our business. We also remain encouraged because we know now that we have a fan base that is very diverse, that is attracting men and women alike. The core fan is highly avid and a big supporter of the league, and we feel confident that we can grow both the male and the female component of the fan base. A very high percentage of tickets are being sold to women and to families, and the majority of the TV audience is female. So there is an emerging fan that is a very different one that would be coming out to see the NBA or baseball or the traditional sports. Because of that, we have greatly expanded the outreach that we extend, in particular to young females. We have, this year, a number of what we call community partnerships with a variety of national youth organizations, including the Girls Scouts, Girls Inc, 4H, AAU, JCC and others. The reason we put so much emphasis in that is that we recognize that our fan development challenge is to build a fan base not only for today but also for tomorrow. And we believe that bringing a girl to a game with her mom or dad or grandparents is going to create a lifelong affinity to the league or to a team, which replicates in many ways what happens in men�s sports.

On the business side, our national television support, which in many ways is the underpinning of the league and the primary reason why we decided to operate in the summer, will operate in full force this year. Our games will be airing weekly on NBC, ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN will be televising our All-Star Game in Washington on July 15, which we anticipate will be a very important and exciting night for the WNBA, and hopefully for women�s sports in general. Lifetime will air, for the second year, a weekly magazine show. That show will be hosted by Holly Hunter, who is a tremendous advocate of women�s sports. All in all, counting our playoffs we expect that more than 50 games will be televised nationally, our teams will be televised upwards of 100 games, and the programming will be distributed globally to about 170 countries. This is the last year of the original television agreement that we struck with NBC and Lifetime and ESPN. I can tell you that we are now putting the finishing touches to the new agreement that would take effect in �03. I can tell you that we expect to be making an announcement in the next couple of weeks on the new agreements. The good news is that our continued presence on national television is going to be assured.

Finally, the area that I think that we have made a mark is in the area of our relationships with our fans, and the establishment that we have made over a period of years � a very real connection between our players and the fans who come out and support them. That feature continues to be a major point of emphasis for our league. I am very happy that our players recognize that they must remain accessible to their fans. All the mechanisms that we have in place to facilitate those interactions will continue this year. That includes the pricing structure, where the average price of a ticket remains in the $15 range. The teams will continue to have autograph sessions at the end of the games. There will be open practices. Our community appearances will continue to be very important. We�ve done an excess of 2500 appearances since last season. We are going to be using the internet more forcefully to be able to interact with our fans through chats. The national initiative that we have is Breast Cancer Awareness, with the help from Sears � our literacy initiative, sponsored by American Express, with which we partnership with the NBA and use Basketball Operations � all of these will continue this year. All in all we will expect another strong season within the WNBA.

Q: Are there any plans to expand the schedule?
Ackerman: Well, we are beginning to look at the prospect of growing the season while maintaining the summer time frame. We are beginning to analyze the schedule to see what would work best for us in terms of an early start and a late finish, how the television would work if we moved the season a bit into September. That�s all with an eye to not only adding games, but also to be stretching the season a bit so that we can reduce the concentration of games in a way that will be a bit easier on our teams in terms of ticket sales and our players. So the answer is that we are exploring continued growth of the schedule. We have grown since the beginning of the league, where we started with 28 games and now we have 32. We do have an extended playoffs, we have added a few preseason games. Our intent is to gradually add games, but not beyond 40. It is a long-term goal to grow the schedule. I will say that we do have some operating challenges in terms of the beginning of the season, because of how quickly we have to move in April following the conclusion of the NCAA season. There is also have a small overlap with the NBA and NHL season. It does create some work on our part to get buildings available. Overall, the time frame has worked well for us.

Q: Could you talk about how the Charlotte Hornets� situation is going to impact the WNBA�s plans regarding the Sting?
Ackerman: Well, it�s become a reality, and as I promised, we are dealing with it. We have had some difficult circumstances in Charlotte because of the uncertainty regarding the future of the Hornets. That, as I�m sure everyone knows, has been resolved in favor of the Hornets moving to New Orleans. And as we indicated a few months ago, when we needed to make a decision, we will be operating the Sting in Charlotte this year, and are committed to staying in the market, depending on the kind of fan support we receive and the kind of support we can garner from the local business community. The Hornets are in the process now of really dismantling their Hornets operation.

There are staff on the ground there that will continue to work on the Sting. Yet, because of the focus of the organization in general on the move to New Orleans, for this summer the WNBA will, in effect, be taking over the operation of the team. We will have a combination of staff on the ground who have been with the Sting, together with league personnel, that will be devoting their efforts this year to getting us as best a showing as we can. We�re hopeful, actually, that the kind of support we had in the latter part of last season will continue. The team, as you know, did very well at the back half of the season, made a very exciting run to the playoffs, and that really was recognized in the city. The crowds, near the end of the season, were very strong. There was a great deal of enthusiasm, and it�s really our hope that the team can pick up where it left off in terms of the support that it received from the community. So that�s our plan for the summer, and as this unfolds, it will be our intent, as I said, to figure out a structure and whatever entity may be involved, or need to be involved, to support that structure so that we can maintain the team in Charlotte beyond this year.

Q: Is it a goal to be in cities where you stand on your own two feet and not necessarily in NBA cities?
Ackerman: Well, to your point, in many ways that are unintentional, Charlotte does represent a test case for a new model. Independently of Charlotte, I can tell you that we were, anyway, in the process of revisiting our operating model with an eye to making changes that would in fact allow for the operation of WNBA teams in non-NBA cities, and potentially, the infusion of non-NBA ownership into teams in NBA cities. Both of those scenarios would be possible under some of the changes that we�re contemplating. You know, we would not have started the league under any other model than the one we used. We think it�s been a great advantage for us to be able to capitalize on the NBA infrastructure and the ability to go into a city and have, already in place, a staff and a building and building relationship and relationships within the community that we can leverage. But we�re recognizing now that there may be some cities that don�t necessarily have an NBA team, but might nonetheless be excellent candidates for WNBA team operation.

And so, that process is in fact underway. There�s quite a lot of work that has to be done in order to get us to that point and there�s nothing imminent. But it�s my hope that probably by sometime in the early fall, we will have taken the internal steps necessary with the NBA owners and the like in order to make these kinds of operating changes. We will be able to be, I think, more forthcoming at that time with exactly how this is going to work and what cities might be implicated.

Q: What is happening in regard to your contract with the players? Is there negotiating going on?
Ackerman: No. No. Nothing is in the works. We do have a full season left under the existing agreement, and so at this point, there�s really nothing happening on the labor front.

Q: When do you foresee something happening?
Ackerman: Well, we would be ready to go anytime our players are. I think realistically that negotiations probably won�t begin in earnest until sometime in the fall. The actual expiration date of the agreement is September 15, and really, beyond, that, I would just say that we have what we think is a very good relationship with the players, and we�re committed to making bargaining an open and constructive process.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about how the league is doing financially and how fiscally sound it is?
Ackerman: Well, I would say in answer to that, most sports leagues lose money, and most new sports leagues lose a lot of money. And at this stage, the WNBA still represents an investment for the NBA owners. Our intention is for the league to become a profitable enterprise in the future. There is no timetable for that. I think everyone involved recognized that in the early years, the WNBA would require a great deal of expense and would not be profitable, but certainly the intent long-term is for that to turn around and for the numbers to read differently. And so that�s where we are. The good news is that the NBA remains very committed to the WNBA. The intention for the enterprise was to grow the sport of basketball. I think everyone involved believes that�s happened, and our hope is that as time passes, we will continue to expand our audience, expand our viewership � all the things that are necessary, ultimately, in order to increase our revenue base. We think we�re off to a very good start right now in terms of how the league is positioned, the foundation that we have, and we�re optimistic that the business prospects will be there for us.

Q: Is there any way to make the quality of the product better from the beginning of the season, rather that having it improve in the second half of the season?
Ackerman: Well, we do have the prospects now of late arrivals to camp every year, because a full half of our players, with our encouragement and as contractually allowed, are playing in overseas leagues. The players have commitments which we would expect them to honor, so even until they drop out of their overseas leagues through playoff elimination and the like, will they make their way back to the States. The good news is, that in very few cases do these players miss any games. I think we have one real late arrival looming, and that�s Ann Wauters, who came late last year as well. But for the most part, the players arrive late at camp. Frankly, it�s not just the international players who come late, but we�ve tried to give some allowances to the college players who have finals to tend to and graduations to be a part of. And so, to some degree, they�re not always on time, either.

So that is, I guess, something of a fact of life for the WNBA right now. We have had some dialogue with FIBA, and we�re pretty confident that the events that FIBA controls directly � that�s the International Basketball Federation � those events will be concluded so as not to conflict with our training camps. In fact, FIBA has moved the World Championship of Basketball, which is a major international tournament held every four years, to the September timeframe so that it doesn�t conflict with the WNBA. That event, historically, has been held in May and June � it�s actually happening this year � and FIBA made the decision after consultation with us to move it to September. That event will be played in mid-September of this year in China. And that, in many ways, represented a significant concession to the WNBA.

So, some late arrivals will, I think, continue to be a fact of life for us. If there is anything that can be done on a league-to-league basis, we�ll try to do that, but it is a difficult process. The good news, I think, is that our players now coming in know what to expect. Now that we�ve been around for a few years, I think players understand that they have to come to training camp in shape, that they have to take care of themselves in the offseason, that it�s to their betterment to play in the offseason. For that reason, many do play overseas, even if it�s just for a couple of months, as a way to maintain their basketball conditioning and to develop their games, because we do have a long offseason.

The fact that the players now know what�s expected of them, I think has, by definition, created a more of a hit-the-ground-running mentality. Certainly our coaches have that mentality, and they�re all business when players get into camp. So I think we can make and we have made some inroads there in terms of accelerating the re-gelling process for our teams. But I think anytime teams come together for the first time following a break, there is an adjustment process. To your point, I think the best news is that the teams really do come together in a significant way. Our back half of our season, and our playoffs especially, are very, very competitive, and represent the competition at its best. There�s lots of factors that go into it, and if there�s anything about that that we can control of, we will endeavor to do that.

Q: How open is the league to increasing base salaries when the contract expires, and also, are there any plans to add teams next year and beyond?
Ackerman: I will answer the second one first by saying that we do have underway already a ticket sales drive in San Antonio. We announced in March that if the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA team in San Antonio, met a season ticket pledge requirement of 6,000 pledges, a $50 deposit on season tickets by November 15, then they would be guaranteed a WNBA team for the 2003 season. And that effort is very much on track. As of today, the team is about halfway there. There has been a very strong fan response in San Antonio, accelerated in part because of the existing interest in the region in women�s basketball because of their proximity to the University of Texas. We�re very confident that we will have a team in San Antonio. That seems all but assured in 2003, and I think that�s going to be an ideal market for the WNBA.

So San Antonio, having a team there, is a near-term prospect. While a similar sales effort isn�t yet underway, I feel pretty confident that we�ll have a team in Oakland as early as 2004 that would be operated by the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. They have expressed a very strong interest in having a team, in part because of the great market that they think they have access to for women�s basketball, but they�re not quite where San Antonio was with the timing. Those are, I think, the primary markets where we would expect to be in the near term.

In terms of the first question, I really can�t answer it yet. Obviously, I think salaries will obviously be one of the subjects that�s taken up in bargaining. We will listen closely to any discussion that the players have on that or any other subject. Frankly, it�s our hope that the second agreement, on that and any other subject, represents what I think the first agreement represented, which was an agreement that fairly addressed both the needs of the league and the players on the subjects that were contained in it. Hopefully the second agreement will do the same thing, and will fairly address both the needs of the players, their interests and the needs and concerns of a six-year-old league.

Q: Has the league given any thought to the 2004 Summer Games?
Ackerman: We�ve started giving it quite a bit of thought because, obviously, with the Olympics scheduled to start on August 14, there will be a major impact on the WNBA schedule. That is something that we are beginning to study very closely. Part of the way we�ll handle it will depend on our network arrangement. As I mentioned at the top we are in the process of finalizing our television agreement, so to some degree how we schedule around the Olympics will depend on how our television coverage would work throughout the summer. That is something we are exploring now with all of our networks that we expect to be us in 2004.

While I don�t have anything to report to you on exactly how this will work, I can tell you that it�s very much top of mind for us. Hopefully we�ll be able to come up with some form of schedule that will minimize the impact on the WNBA and our season and our playoffs and the timing of our games, but would also afford the players � as best we can do that � the opportunity to be part of such an important international basketball competition. That�s because we know how important that is to them, and we also believe that the Olympics have been an important platform for women�s basketball in general. We had a marvelous showing in Sydney. We had three dozen players representing eight countries. The gold, silver and bronze medals team were filled with current and former WNBA players and probably future WNBA players. It�s an event that we take very seriously, and our goal would be to try and find a way to make that opportunity available to the players and indirectly the WNBA, but to also preserve our season the way we want it preserved. Those are things that we are working on now.

Q: Do you see any possibility for a form of free agency coming out of the next CBA? If there isn�t any team relocation as far as San Antonio is concerned, how would you handle having uneven divisions? And how do you assess the league�s impact in non-league cities?
Ackerman: On free agency, to be honest, it�s just too early for me to comment on any subject having to do with bargaining or what might be discussed in bargaining. It�s just premature for me to talk about that.

Secondly, on San Antonio, our intent is for it to be an expansion team, a 17th team. And it would play in the West presumably under that scenario, as Houston is. Although it looks uneven in terms of eight in one conference and nine in the other, the scheduling issues are very manageable in terms of the number of times that the teams would play with each other, both in and out of conference, as well as how the tie-breaks would work and so forth. So that�s manageable. There is certainly precedence for that in other sports. The NBA has 29 teams, an uneven number. There is clearly precedence for being able to manage an uneven number.

The third question, again without being able to talk about specifics, we do see some encouraging prospects in cities that don�t have NBA teams, but nonetheless, seem to have great potential for fan support for women�s professional basketball. As it turns out, a number of best-rated television markets for the WNBA are non-NBA cities. In fact, Memphis, which up until last year was a non-NBA city, rates very highly for the WNBA, but it doesn�t have a team. Part of that is because of the great interest for women�s basketball in the state of Tennessee in general. I believe Memphis is our No. 2 television market or No. 3 for the WNBA. San Antonio is another place that doesn�t have a WNBA team, but has rated well for us on national television over the course of the last couple of years. Frankly, that was one of the factors that we looked at in making the decision to award a team to San Antonio.

We weren�t really primed to expand again, but the Spurs made such a compelling case for expansion, and we knew that the television viewership was very high there, even though they didn�t have a team. That factored into our decision. So that is important and there are a host of other cities that range from Kansas City to Nashville to New Orleans to Hartford that have shown support on television for the WNBA. Those are just the kinds of things that we�re going to address as we look for prospective new markets going forward.

Q: Are you satisfied with the level of play in the league as far as roughness is concerned?
Ackerman: I think there is no doubt that the play in the WNBA is very physical. That�s in large part because the players are very athletic, they are very strong, and they are very competitive, just like the players are in the NBA. So, we as a sport work very hard to manage that. It is a point of emphasis for our referees to try and manage rough play. We work very hard on our officiating program. We have a number of referees who have now been with the league since the very beginning. We have all of the top referees from women�s college basketball working in the WNBA � as well as a number of referees that come to us from minor league basketball � who are accustomed to the pro game. On balance, we are very satisfied with the job they do. I have a lot of confidence in our supervisor of officials, Don Rutledge, who comes out of college basketball but has been with us now for four seasons. He works very hard at identifying qualified people and training them. It�s something that is obviously very important to our sport to make sure that we have the best people and the best-trained people on the floor refereeing our games. It�s a very difficult job, just like it is in the NBA, but it�s something that we care about greatly. I�m very confident that our referees will do another good job for us this season.

Q: Can you contrast what your biggest challenges were when the league started to what they are now?
Ackerman: Getting the WNBA off the ground was an enormous challenge. It was never a question of �if� in David Stern�s mind, but it was very much a question of �when.� It really took many years for the timing to be right, right enough for the WNBA to launch. Hence, the effort in �97 when we had the benefit of tremendous growth in women�s college basketball, a couple of stellar Final Fours � most notably the UConn season of �94-95. We had the benefit of the Olympics in our backyard, the Atlanta Olympics where the U.S. women win the gold medal. And we had NBA, being in a position from a business standpoint, to allocate resources to the women�s NBA. So that process really was one that took years to play out.

I remember in 1996 when all of this was unfolding, sitting down and putting down a to-do list that had items on it that included: find cities, identify team markets; sign player; design basketball; national television contract; decide how many games we want to play. Looking back now, it�s almost unimaginable that it was so basic and straightforward.

Now, I think the challenges are bit more complex. We know a lot more than we knew early on. Clearly, I think we are much more knowledgeable about our strengths and what our challenges are as a league. I think the landscape has clearly changed, as I mentioned at the top, in a way that�s very favorable for all of women�s sports. Now, I�m not as worried about the color of the basketball, or where the players might be coming from, but how to expand our fan base becomes top of mind, how to manage our growth. To some of the earlier questions: how to deal with expansion or scheduled growth or how to schedule around an important event like the Olympics. These are the kinds of challenges that are ahead of us. I think the good news is we have the unqualified support of the NBA continuing. We have some very knowledgeable people here in New York and around the league, and a committed group of players who understand how important they are in this process.

Q: To what do you attribute all the coaching turnover within the league, and does that hurt the growth of the league?
Ackerman: To be specific, we have one remaining coach from the first year, in Van Chancellor. We�ve had turnover in every other case. I think that�s a reflection, to a large degree, of how seriously our teams take the whole idea of winning. The league is very competitive. Our teams know they have the finest players in the world on their rosters and they�re intent on making sure the teams are led by the most qualified people they can find. And so, our teams have made changes.

I look at our coaching ranks as a very interesting mix. We truly have a melting pot of backgrounds in the WNBA. We�re accessing the best of all levels, not just women�s basketball, but all levels of basketball. We have coaches that have straight and pure NBA backgrounds. We now have four of them, with Dee Brown now leading the Orlando Miracle and joining Michael Cooper as our second former NBA player to lead a team. We have veteran NBA coaches in Ron (Rothstein) and Richie (Adubato). We have a former player in Cynthia Cooper. We have people who�ve been in women�s basketball for longer than I have in Greg Williams and Van Chancellor and Lin Dunn. We have Dan Hughes, who�s been at it a long time in the women�s game; Anne Donovan, a former Olympian; Marianne Stanley � gosh, I had to play against her. She coached at Old Dominion when I was playing at Virginia, so I can attest to how far back Marianne goes and what a great job she�s done in her career.

So I think it�s very interesting to see this blend of coaches that we have. What we learned over the last few years is that coaching women�s professional basketball is a very difficult job. It requires a varied skill set. Our coaches, whether they be men or women, whether they have NBA or women�s basketball backgrounds, they have to have the same skills, they have to know the game, they have to be able to communicate with the players. They have to be good a lot of different things and in the end, the coaches that do the best job at those things are going to be the ones who stay with us.

Q: Does the WNBA utilize the same negotiating team that the NBA uses in terms of player contracts, the CBA and things of that nature?
Ackerman: We have a different staff that�s involved in the WNBA negotiations. We do get some consulting help from some of the lawyers that are involved on the NBA side, but by and large it�s a different team that is involved in the WNBA. Our current collective bargaining agreement, which was signed in 1999 covering four seasons, does provide for a matching 401K plan for the players. That�s been part of the agreement, as well as a very comprehensive year-round benefits package, as well as a host of other benefits. The average player salary this year will probably be around $60,000 and the minimum salaries for rookies and veterans are contractually set in the CBA and have escalated each year. The current rookie minimum is $30,000 and the current veteran minimum is $40,000.

The only thing I would add to that is, on top of the base salaries, we do have a bonus structure for our players. Players have the opportunity to significantly enhance their base salaries through performance bonuses that are provided in the CBA. There are rewards for accomplishments such as MVP, All-WNBA teams, All-Star, Rookie of the Year and the like. On top of all that � that�s just the cash component � our players get housing from our teams. We have fees that we pay them for their appearances. There�s per diems and the like, so there�s a bit more that goes into the equation besides the cash component.

Q: Have you set up a comparable ticket goal for Charlotte the way you did in San Antonio?
Ackerman: There aren�t any set benchmarks in Charlotte. As one of our original teams in 1997, Charlotte was not required, at the outset, to meet a season ticket threshold. That concept we really didn�t introduce until the league�s second year, when teams like Washington and Detroit came on board. In 2000, when we brought four new teams on board, they had more fixed requirements in terms of season ticket goals. Charlotte has not had the same sort of benchmark set for them, but our goals are to build on what we had last year and in the seasons before that. We�re going to be working very closely with our teams on their season ticket sales. We�re hopeful that group sales will be better in Charlotte and some other places. The single- game sales are still important in the WNBA, which has a smaller season ticket base than you see in the NBA or some of the other bigger leagues. We will have people that we will designate to be in Charlotte this summer to make sure we�re maximizing, particularly in group sales and single sales, our prospects there. We�d love to see the team do at least as well as it did last year, where we had some really strong crowds over the back half of the season.

Q: Following up on an earlier question about the 2002 Olympics, would it be possible to play through the regular season, then stop before the Olympics and then play in the Olympics and then pick up with the playoffs afterward?
Ackerman: If there�s a scenario, we�ve probably thought of it and that�s certainly one of them. And the good news is, there is some precedent out there for a variety of different models. The NHL has had to schedule around the Olympics. The MLS will be managing around it this summer with the World Cup. So I think there are a number of different models out there in terms of how we can address it. The challenge will be coming up with the model that�s going to work best for our business but will nevertheless allow our players to have the opportunity to play and ideally have some lead time so that they can tune up with their respective national teams before they have to head over to Athens. We�re looking at a variety of scenarios, hopefully within the next few months, once we�re able to get a better sense from our network partners on how they�d like to address it. Our goal is to maximize our television exposure through all of this.