Two women buy
L.A. Sparks for $10 million

A schoolteacher and a former Miss North Dakota turned lawyer have purchased the WNBA team the Los Angeles Sparks after holding season tickets for the past decade. Kathy Goodman and Carla Christofferson, who are both unmarried, are the first women to own a professional basketball team without the help of a spouse, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The new owners, who held a press conference Thursday, said they will work to bring more bodies to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles to root for the team. A column by Bill Plaschke in the Times cited still-present feelings of homophobia among sports fans as one of the reasons for low attendance at Sparks games.

"As unsettling as it may seem," he wrote, "there are apparently still people in this town who are uncomfortable around those they perceive to be homosexuals. Every season, this newspaper receives complaints from fans who refuse to attend Sparks games because the stands are filled with women whom they perceive to be lesbians."

Goodman and Christofferson said they are interested in marketing the team more effectively and that they aim to make every night "a special night."

At the tail end of the press conference, the team's MVP, Lisa Leslie, announced that she is expecting a child and will have to sit out the upcoming season. "It's just weird, because as a woman playing sports that's the only downside that people probably see: the fact that we have children," Leslie said. "For me, it's just a blessing." (The Advocate)