Right out of the "how not to handle things" file comes this story on the WNBA from San Antonio's Express-News. Apparently Donna Orender, The WNBA, and WNBA.com have ordered fans to "spam" their local papers with pre-written letters about covering the WNBA more.

Reporter Natalie England explains....

As a passionate fan of the Sacramento Monarchs, I am writing to urge you to include more coverage of my favorite WNBA team in your paper.The WNBA is an important sport and I would love to read more about the team, players and entire league this season.

Now, asking for more coverage of the Silver Stars in the San Antonio paper is one thing, but the Monarchs? We closed our West Coast bureau a few years ago. So, that’s when the digging started, and, as it turns out, all of this was prompted on the league’s Web site, with an electronically generated letter from WNBA commissioner Donna Orender to fans.

Dear WNBA Teammate,

The WNBA is asking for the continued support of our loyal fans as we tip off our second decade of play. It's come to our attention that local newspaper editors around the country might increase the coverage of the WNBA if fans like you tell them how important we are.

Talk about bush-league. This is the exact reason why EVERY team in every sport has a PR firm. And by EVERY team....I mean EVERY team. I worked in PR for a WUSA team at one point. Think how hard it was to try and get Philly area papers to cover Women's soccer. Practically impossible.

Women's Sports Insider: WNBA desperate for attention (SA.com via SbB)

P.S.- I don't have any energy to do an Alison Stokke post, but if you're into that sort of thing you HAVE to check out this article Brooks just sent me over at SbB. If I told you you could buy a Stokke mousepad....would you be interested?