Princeton University Athletics
Portland's Trailblazer
January 07, 2000 | General
Sandi Bittler '90 went from setting scoring records at Princeton to the NBA. Now she's turning her attention back to the women's game.
Since that festive October day in the middle of Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, when she helped dole out thousands of pieces of birthday cake to the masses, Sandi Bittler '90 turned her thoughts to more pressing matters at home.
"I'm getting a hot tub installed in my house soon to relieve some stress," she says.
Bittler, the recently appointed vice president of business operations for Portland's WNBA expansion franchise, helped usher in a new era of professional women's basketball at this birthday bash. The celebration culminated after Portland, one of four cities selected by the WNBA Operating Committee in early June to join the growing three-year-old league for the summer 2000 season, secured its promise of 5,500 season-ticket pledges in time for the league's mandated Oct. 15 deadline.
For Bittler, who joined the club in early August after three years as the director of women's sports marketing at Nike in nearby Beaverton, the two-month time crunch for community outreach was nothing short of stressful. Bittler, whose front office position entails managing all of the franchiseis business operations from budgeting to corporate sponsorship, found herself amid the organized chaos of any grass roots organization.
"I was writing letters, cold calling, getting involved in whatever it took to get the word out and generate interest in our team," says the 31-year-old Bittler, a four-year letterwinner and two-time captain at Princeton.
"It's exciting to be a part of this on both a professional and personal level. Professionally, it's challenging to be in such an important decision-making role with the team. Personally, it's great to see how women's basketball has grown over the years, especially since I played in college."
Just "playing" may be a bit of an understatement when describing Bittler, whose name is sprinkled throughout Princeton's record books. A 5i 8i guard, Bittler was one of the Ivy Leagueis dominant players a decade ago, with a penchant for shooting at any time from anywhere on the court.
"I was a ball hog because that's where the glory was," she jokes.
Remarkably, she still remains Princeton's all-time leading scorer (1,683 points) and owner of 11 school records. And while Bittler doesn't find herself on the court as much these days, she still makes time to chuck up a few ill-advised jumpers in her self-proclaimed, "old ladies league for the has-been players" at the local recreation center.
Plucked from near obscurity in the small Western Pennsylvania town of Mercer (population: 4,000), Bittler parlayed her successful college career into a job with the NBA in New York after a two-month playing stint overseas.
"The NBA is one of the biggest marketing machines in the world," says Bittler. "It's exciting to have the opportunity to work with the best minds in the business."
She spent the next six years in the public relations, marketing and special events sectors of the NBA, while laying the groundwork for the WNBAis original business plan. In addition to traveling to Barcelona as travel coordinator for the gold-medal-winning "Dream Team," which proved to be nothing short of nightmarish for the rest of the world during the 1992 Olympics, Bittler made a smooth transition into pioneering the efforts for professional women's basketball.
Bittler, however, made a conscious decision to leave the electricity and energy of New York three years ago to pursue an exciting new opportunity in, of all places, Oregon. Upon arriving in her new home thousands of miles away from the familiar East Coast, Bittler took care of three of the basic necessities of life.
"I bought a house, car and a dog in my first weekend," she says. "Portland wasnit exactly on my must-live-in cities list, but It's been a great fit for me."
So while Maggie, her three-year-old Sheltie, has been with her since her days at Nike, there's little doubt that Bittler's success has been self-made. She made great strides in heightening awareness for women's sports at Nike by signing high profile female athletes to sponsorship deals and investing in opportunities to support women's collegiate athletics. In fact, she brokered a deal between Nike and her alma mater to provide athletic apparel to the women's basketball teamoan agreement that still exists today even after Bittler's departure to the WNBA.
After three accomplished years at Nike, Bittler decided to return to the NBA to take part in the birth of something special in her adopted home. The overwhelming rise in popularity of professional women's basketball has been eye-catching.
"When I played at Princeton we would have a couple of family members and boyfriends show up and be happy," says Bittler. "Now you look at the WNBA and we're getting nearly 10,000 fans a game."
Indeed, the Portland franchise, which will unveil its name and logo in the next few weeks, will play its home games in 12,500-seat Rose Garden Arenaoa capacity that could easily fit three generations of Bittler's hometown Mercerites.
Although Bittler has hurdled one big challenge, there's little doubt that the upcoming months will prove to be even more hectic with the expansion draft (Dec. 15) and opening day (May 31) on the horizon.
"I'm looking forward to opening day when we have an actual team on the floor and a huge crowd to play in front of," says Bittler. "It will signify a great day for women's basketball in Portland. But there are a lot of things that need to be done in a short amount of time before that can happen."
Enough things to warrant holding off on a well-deserved soak in her new hot tub.
by Manish Mehta