Philadelphia 76ers: It’s time to bring a WNBA franchise to Philly

The Philadelphia 76ers have made a point of including women in its organization. The one remaining all-male bastion is on the court. Time for a WNBA team?

The Philadelphia 76ers have built a virtual army of trainers, medical personnel, analytic experts, video people and even a chef to tend to the needs of its players.

They are housed in a state-of-the art practice facility sitting on the Camden waterfront that is not yet two years old.

Even the Sixers G-League team, the Blue Coats, are having a new arena and training facility built for them.

No one can question the commitment to excellence when it comes to infrastructure by managing owner Joshua Harris and CEO Scott O’Neil.

This is all for 15 players — and it sits virtually unused all summer

From the end of the season to the start of training camp, the beautiful place in Camden is used to run some draft workouts and the occasional player coming in to work out. Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are off doing other things most of the time.

So you have all these people being paid to improve performances and take care of a player’s overall well-being, with no one to really tend to.

The solution seems simple: It is time for the 76ers to acquire a WNBA franchise.

The case for a Philadelphia WNBA team has been made before, but the viability seems even more reasonable at the present time.

Since Joshua Harris and his group bought the team in 2011, there has been a concerted effort for female inclusion in management. With the hiring of former WNBA star Lindsey Harding as a scout and adding several women to its analytics staff, women are even starting to impact the basketball operations.

But the players who are the centerpiece of the team are all male.

This is not a gender equity issue. There is no law like Title IX for professional sports guaranteeing females the same opportunities. Serena Williams makes a lot more money than many male athletes. This is the world of business and $$$$ is all that really matters.

That is why the 76ers getting a WNBA franchise makes sense. Maybe call them the ‘Betsys’ after Philadelphia’s most famous Revolutionary War female.

Consider, they already have in place a practice facility, all the support staff a player could want and a place to play  of their own when the 76ers Fieldhouse in Delaware is finished (for bigger games there is always college sites like Temple or Villanova and for playoffs you can rent the Center).

Basically everything for a summer-time team is already in place, save for hiring coaches, signing players and game-day operations. From a business vantage-point, there really is not much overhead for the 76ers.

And when it comes to the players salaries, they are actually a bargain in comparison to the men, as they take a smaller percentage of the overall revenue, although some are not happy about it.

Philadelphia has always been a basketball town and supports a pro team and six Division I college programs in the winter. To project 5-10,000 for a WNBA game when there is no other hoops competition is not outrageous.

The WNBA started when Comcast owned the 76ers and they never got excited about having a local team.

With all the millions Harris & Co. have spent to make the 76ers a first-class operation, it would seem to make sense (and dollars in their pockets) to start ‘The Process’ for a WNBA team.