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GREENSBORO -- Donna George waited until the final day of spring break before sitting her parents down in the kitchen to reveal her secret. "Mom, Dad," she said, "I'm gay."

It's been 11 years since George, a devoted follower of women's basketball, came out. She hopes it's not as long before the ACC women's tournament does the same.

"If you look at it from a strictly business view, it makes perfect sense," said George, who lives in Columbia, S.C., and is attending this year's ACC women's tournament -- her fourth in as many years -- with her partner. "Anyone who thinks (lesbians) aren't a big asset to this (tournament) needs to check out all the bars this week and the restaurants we give our money to. It just makes sense that the league would want to see more of us at the games."

And, in fact, ACC officials want to see much more of basketball fans like George. Just don't expect the league to court them directly -- not any time soon, at least.

Eight years after the WNBA began acknowledging its growing lesbian fan base through advertising and marketing, women's college basketball remains largely indifferent to that demographic despite growing evidence that lesbians are a significant portion of the sport's fan base.

None of the major athletics conferences -- including the ACC -- markets its women's basketball tournament directly toward lesbians, and only a handful of individual colleges have recognized their lesbian fans publicly.

ACC officials last week said it markets its women's tournament to all fans of the sport, but would not discuss the tournament's support among lesbians.

That's not surprising, according to Pat Griffin, a former Maryland basketball player and author of the book, 'Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia.'

"It's still something schools don't want to face," said Griffin, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts. "I think there's going to have to be a conference out there that does it first, and when they succeed others will follow."

It is impossible to know how many of the roughly 70,000 fans expected to take in this week's ACC women's tournament are gay.

Anecdotally, local business owners say the number is high. Greensboro bar owners whose clubs cater to gays and lesbians report a significant increase in business during the tournament's four-day run.

For the past two years, Greensboro promoter Cynthia Kelley has rented out Jabs Ultra Bar on West Lee Street for a huge party following Saturday's semifinal games.

Tickets aren't cheap -- $35 at the door -- but this year's party, sponsored by a lesbian travel company and featuring Suzanne Westenhoefer, billed as the first openly gay comedian, still attracted more than 1,000 women, Kelley said.

Kelley, a former Wake Forest basketball player, said the party was open to "anyone wanting to celebrate women's sports," but acknowledged that the event, like the tournament, has a significant lesbian fan base.

"There's no doubt in my mind (the tournament) is a big event for lesbians in North Carolina, but whether the ACC thinks that way I don't know," Kelley said.

Theories vary as to why women's basketball draws so many lesbians. George believes it's because many players are gay, but there has never been any surveys to support that claim.

Helen Carroll, sports project director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said recently that lesbians share the same passion for basketball as any other fan.

"It's exciting and a lot more accessible ticket-wise for a lot of women," said Carroll, a former head coach at UNC-Asheville.

For years the WNBA ignored its lesbian fan base before teams slowly began to advertise and market to them, albeit with mixed results. That business model never trickled down to the collegiate level, where most schools and conferences treat the topic as taboo out of fear, gay and lesbian advocates say, of driving away the sport's traditional fan base of older adults and families with young children.

When a News & Record reporter requested an interview to discuss the league's support among lesbians with ACC associate commissioner Nora Lynn Finch, who oversees the women's tournament, conference officials asked that the questions be e-mailed in advance.

Finch responded to general questions about the tournament's fan base, but declined to answer specific questions about the tournament's lesbian fan base.

"Our marketing efforts have been consistent for many years and are really driven toward all fans that want to watch what we think is the best college basketball in the country," Finch wrote. "We continue to (target) youth groups, in order to cultivate the young fan."

In many ways, that strategy is working. Now in its 10th year in Greensboro, the tournament has set attendance records for seven consecutive years.

On Friday, 13,599 fans watched UNC's quarterfinal victory over Clemson. The crowd was a mix you'd never see at the more-exclusive ACC men's tournament: children from area schools, dads with their teenaged daughters, entire families, retired couples.

And lesbians. Alone, in couples and in large groups of friends.

"It's nice to just walk around the concession stand and see thousands of other women just like you," said Lisa McGehee, 46, of Greensboro.

As successful as the women's tournament has been in terms of attendance, Griffin and others believe it would do even better if officials would target lesbians in their marketing.

"It seems to me it makes no sense economically not to market to every part of your fan base," Griffin said. "The object is to put fans into seats, isn't it?"

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell @news-record.com