Mystics enter new world

The Washington Mystics’ offseason of mayhem is almost over.

The franchise lost its coach, superstar and another of its most popular players. The revolving door that saw coach Michael Adams, cornerstone Chamique Holdsclaw and guard Stacey Dales-Schuman exit also let in coach Richie Adubato, DeLisha Milton-Jones and a first-round draft pick in point guard Temeka Johnson.

The renovated Mystics open their eighth season Saturday in Charlotte.

“Times change and you have to move on,” said guard Alana Beard, now the face of the franchise in her second season. “What would this world be without change?”

Stability is something the Mystics have never known.

Washington begins the 2005 season with its eighth coach, and it should come as little surprise that some publications have picked the Mystics to finish last in the six-team Eastern Division. The gloomy outlook comes though the team won seven of 11 games without Holdsclaw at the end of last season and made the playoffs with a 17-17 record.

In the offseason the Mystics signed sharpshooting free agent Charlotte Smith-Taylor from the Charlotte Sting and traded a first-round pick — which came from the Los Angeles Sparks with Milton-Jones in exchange for the disgruntled Holdsclaw — to the Detroit Shock for 6-foot-5 center Iciss Tillis.

“We have a lot of good pieces,” said Adubato, a former NBA coach who spent the past five seasons coaching the New York Liberty. “We just have to see how fast we can put it together.”

Adubato replaced Adams, who left on the eve of the WNBA Draft and a week before camp opened to become an assistant on Maryland’s men’s team. Dales-Schuman retired at age 25 to become a television commentator for ESPN.

This preseason several key players have missed significant time while playing overseas or because of injuries. Beard missed both preseason games (two losses) with hamstring problems. Milton-Jones is expected to arrive today after finishing the playoffs with her Spanish team.

In addition to all the offseason changes, the organization will have to adapt to the arrival of Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, who are averaging more than 30,000 a game at RFK Stadium in their first season. Teams such as the Mystics and soccer’s D.C. United hope to keep their places in the District’s sports landscape.

“It is one more entity going after sponsorships,” said Lisa Delpy Neirotti, a professor of sports management and marketing at George Washington. “In terms of tickets sales, the Mystics have been kind of stable and they have a loyal fan base. I don’t see that fan base defecting. I see it as a challenge to increase the fan base. I don’t see them being hurt too much [because] they are a pre-established entity.”

And the Mystics have not seen a dip yet.

“We haven’t had an effect as far as our individual tickets and season plans,” said Ann Nicholaides, vice president of marketing for Washington Sports & Entertainment. “I will be curious to see what will happen on those evenings when there are two games going on at the same time”

Neirotti believes future sponsorship deals could be more difficult to make once the Nationals’ new stadium opens in 2008, but she doesn’t think Holdsclaw’s departure will harm attendance because women’s sports fans aren’t as “star-struck” as men’s are.

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