no hype for women's hoops

[niyad]

No Hype for Women’s Hoops


Another year of women’s college hoops is in full swing. Can anybody stop UConn from three-peating as NCAA champions? Will Baylor’s Brittney Griner break out as the game’s most dominant post player? How will the school I teach at, the University of Southern California (USC), do this season?

While pondering these questions, I remember a moment of March Madness last season when I invited a friend to watch a USC game with me. It turned out to be a thriller, with the outcome decided in the final minute of play.
. . . . . . . .
The morning I received my friend’s e-mail I was working on my research report,“Gender in Televised Sports,” analyzing data collected throughout 2009. Starting in 1989 and every five years subsequently, I’ve tracked coverage of women’s and men’s sports on TV news and highlights shows. (The report, co-authored by Cheryl Cooky of Purdue University, was released earlier this year by the USC Center for Feminist Research.)

In past years, the proportion of time devoted to women’s sports during the 3- to 5-minute sports-news segments of Los Angeles’ three TV network affiliates was low: 5 percent in 1989 and 5 percent in 1993. When news coverage of women’s sports climbed to nearly 9 percent in 1999, I thought it might signal a new trend. Slowly, perhaps grudgingly, local TV sports reporters were catching up with the late-20th-century explosion of women’s sports

. . . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/03/14/no-hype-for-womens-hoops/

[FLPanhandle]

1. Coverage comes with fan support

The media are money whores. Whatever the fans want, they'll give it to them.

[niyad]

2. there are clearly a great many fans of women's sports, but not in the front offices of the media

[FLPanhandle]

4. I know, but not as many fans as men's sports.

All I'm saying is that it's not a conspriacy by the media to downplay women's sports. They'll print whatever will make them money.
I've heard the same complaint about soccer. It's not the media's fault soccer isn't covered like it is in Europe, it's that there aren't as many people interested in it as there is football/basketball/baseball.

[GKirk]

3. You can't force me...

...or others to have interest in women's basketball. Sorry.

For that matter you can't force me to have interest in men's soccer either.

[WinkyDink]

5. I COACHED the dang sport a bit, and I have zero interest in the WNCAA's. Sorry!

But then, I'm not interested in the men's NCAA's, either.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. I'm a woman, I played intramural hoops at an ACC school

and I'm a very very fanatical men's college hoops fan, but for the life of me I cannot get into women's hoops. It's not as good nor as exciting. Sorry.... I don't hate women or women athletes. I just don't think women's hoops is that good from a basketball perspective.

[GKirk]

9. That's a reasonable attitude

I'm sure you loved playing the game but don't find it interesting to watch.

Not unlike myself; I love to play slow pitch softball, but I couldn't imagine watching it on TV.

[kctim]

7. It's not a conspiracy

It's not the medias fault.
It's not men's fault.

The majority of men love sports and support them by watching them and buying its products.
Only a minority of women love sports enough to support them by watching and buying its products. And even that minority are more inclined to watch men.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

13. Exactly.

How hard did ESPN try to convince the public that UCONN's recent winning streak was as significant as UCLA's in the early 70's? Viewers weren't buying it.

[tuckessee]

8. No one cares because it's boring.

Try using a real size basketball.

The proof that no one cares is that no one bets on these games in Vegas.

Put your money where your mouth is - lay some jack on the Lady Vols or whoever.

The only time WKU or most other teams get more than a thousand people at games is either when they give away free tickets by the tens of thousands and/or force school children by the busload to attend.

[niyad]

11. your estimation of crowd size appears to be off, given the article.

and how about providing a link for your assertion about how they get attendance at the games?

[seabeyond]

10. hey niyad.... a little good. my oldest son came to me not long ago telling me how kick ass

the women were, after watching one of their games. and my father who is very much into sports, enjoys all sports and appreciate womens sport too. he likes to see any athletic competition

[niyad]

12. thank you for sharing that.