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Whatever Happened
to the Long Beach Stingrays?
On August 26, 1998, women’s professional basketball ended in Long Beach when the Stingrays folded just months prior to the demise of its parent, the American Basketball League. The league, which had teams in Columbus, New England, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Portland, San Jose, Colorado and Seattle, as well as Long Beach, competed for fans, television programming and advertising dollars with the WNBA, which included the Los Angeles Sparks. Although the ABL boasted of superior players, it found itself unable to compete for commercial endorsements and advertising dollars against the NBA-backed WNBA.
The 1997-98 Season West Conference Leader was the Portland Power with an end of season 27-17 win/loss record. In the 1997-1998 end-of-season ABL First Round Playoffs, the Stingrays defeated the Colorado Quest 2 games to 1. The Stingrays went on to defeat the San Jose Lasers 3 games to 0 in the Playoff Semifinals. The Columbus Quest finally ended the Stingrays' hope to seal the 1997-1998 championship by defeating Long Beach in the Championship series 3 games to 2. Stingray player Yolanda Griffith, who set a 97-98 season individual record for most steals of the season (138) was chosen as Defensive Player of the Year.
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