History
Plans for this new women's professional league were announced in September of 1995. Hoping to capitalize on the interest in women's basketball stirred by the appearance of the female "Dream Team" in the 1996 Olympics, the ABL was planned as a 12-team professional league to begin play in October of 1996.
Some of the wind was taken out of the ABL's sails when the National Basketball Association announced, in April of 1996, that it would start its own women's league in the summer of 1997.
Because of that announcement, the ABL lost some potential sponsors, including Nike, and it also made it difficult for the league to get national television coverage.
When the ABL began play, there were only eight teams in the league: The Atlanta Glory, Columbus Quest, New England Blizzard (based in Hartford, Connecticut), and Richmond Rage in the Eastern Division; the Colorado Xplosion (Denver), Portland Power, San Jose Lasers, and Seattle Reign in the Western Division.
Columbus was easily the best team in the league, with a 31-9 record, and only two other teams finished above .500. The lack of balance seriously hurt attendance as the season went on.
League officials had projected average attendance of about 5,000, but only New England did that well. Overall, the average was only 3,536 per game.
For the ABL's second season, the Richmond franchise moved to Philadelphia and the Long Beach Sting Ray was added as a ninth team. The playoffs were expanded to include two wildcard teams rather than just the division champions, in an effort to increase fan interest.
It seemed to help. Average attendance increased to 4,333, but there was a tremendous disparity among teams. New England led with an average of 8,857 per home game, but six of the franchises averaged less than 4,000 and Long Beach had an average of only 2,117 per game.
After the season ended with Columbus winning its second championship, the Atlanta franchise was disbanded and its players were distributed to two new teams, the Chicago Condors and the Nashville Noise. Shortly before the ABL's third season began, the Long Beach franchise was also shut down.
The league did get some bits of good news, though. The NBA locked out its players in a contract dispute, raising the hope that more fans might turn out for ABL games, and CBS agreed to televise two of the league's championship games.
However, there was no third championship series for the ABL. On December 22, 1999, league officials announced that operations would be suspended. Nine days later, the ABL filed for bankruptcy protection with $25 million in debt.