University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects and Creative Work 4-2008 Growing Pains: An account and analysis of three critical periods in the WNBA's Young history Charles M. Harless University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj Recommended Citation Harless, Charles M., "Growing Pains: An account and analysis of three critical periods in the WNBA's Young history" (2008). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1189 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Growing Pains An account and analysis of three critical periods in the WNBA 's young history Cbarlie Harless April 28, 2008 Senior Honors Project 1 'We Got Next.' This playground slang used to indicate which group of basketball players had claimed the next open court space to play also signified, through television advertisements and newspaper headlines, the arrival of the most historically successful professional women's sports league in the United States. The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) marketing machine put an initial $15 million, as well an investment of management genius, talented players, and corporate resources, behind the 'We Got Next' mantra to usher in a new era in professional sports.