Comments on: Traditional vs. new media – Will women’s sports ever get equal coverage?

By: Title IX and the media « The ins and outs of journalism class

Title IX and the media « The ins and outs of journalism class — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:40:01 +0000

[...] run by Amanda Vanderfort, made a great point on women’s sports media coverage in her post Traditional vs. new media – Will women’s sports ever get equal coverage?. 1999 Women's World Cup [...]

By: John

John — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:10:45 +0000

I don’t think it’s an “insulting rationalization” to say that the sports audience prefers men’s sports. Actually, it’s not a rationalization at all, it’s just a fact.

Let’s say you’re given a choice: watch women’s college soccer or women’s high school soccer. You will choose to watch college soccer because the players are faster, stronger, and generally better than the high school players. The same is true for men’s soccer vs. women’s soccer. The worst player in the English Premier League is better than the best player in Women’s Professional Soccer. So why would people watch women’s sports?

By: Props to the Cultural Politics of the Football Blogosphere « Mabel, Mabel Set the Table

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:32:57 +0000

[...] add a shoutout to Amanda Vandervort’s blog “Soccer Science” and her recent post: “Traditional vs. new media: will women’s sports ever get equal coverage?” I’m particulalry interested in this post because it is in part a response to the recent [...]

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:13:29 +0000

Hi Bob! Thanks for your thoughts. Money is definitely an important part of the advertising revenue, but the demographic WPS currently attracts (teenage girls, the family unit, 20/30-somethings, women…) are definitely high-value propositions for the right company –> Think of companies like multi-million dollar food chains, appliances, department stores, etc. Personally, I don’t think WPS will ever really attract the beer-guzzling, pick-up truck crowd – MLS hasn’t even been able to crack that nut – but who knows, maybe you’re right? A note: Television does absolutely care about the viewers, because without actual eyeballs on the product, advertisers won’t buy the airtime for commercials. People need to TUNE IN if we want more air time.

By: Bob McElfresh

Bob McElfresh — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:44:38 +0000

Womens sports and Soccer in the US – a double whammy!

I agree that those reasons are the same old stereotypes, and were trotted out when Title 9 was being argued.

What womens sports REALLY needs to do is go after the money. If you can show that WPS attracts a demographic that drinks beer, drives over-priced pickup trucks and eats fast food – then you go after those big-money advertisers. Then we may get 2-3 WPS games per weekend instead of 1. (Television does not really care about the viewers – it’s all about the money from commercials.)

But July Foudy wearing her gold/silver medals and pushing cheese – this wont attract advertisers/viewers/broadcasters.