I read the Sports, Media & Society blog and focused on the post about the UCONN women's team, because of how historic of an accomplishment it was in all sports — not just in women's sports. Nowadays all ESPN cares about is the Miami Heat and Brett Favre. They never give any credit to woman's sports, the only time they mention them is when something major happens. Well a 90 game winning streak was major, in fact it was the longest winning streak in men's or women's basketball history.
The fact is there are a few reasons, at least in my opinion, why women's basketball isn't as popular. The first major reason is that there is no advertising or marketing set up for it AT ALL. This is why several WNBA teams have folded, and how the WNBA generates no revenue. WNBA players make an average of $35,000 a year while the average salary in the NBA is over $3 million. The women's professional players often play the WNBA season in the summer, then go overseas to play in a foreign league.
The only time someone hears about women's basketball will be in the summer, when the playoffs are shown a little bit on ESPN2 or during March Madness. Even then I can only name a handful of WNBA players and even less college players.
The perception of women's basketball is that they are unathletic, tiny and not exciting to watch. True it is much different from men's basketball where violent dunking is the norm, but women's basketball is executed by precision passing and shooting.
I went to my first woman's basketball game tonight as Iowa took on the No. 10 ranked Michigan State Spartans and it was great. Carver Hawkeye Arena was filled with purely senior citizens, there was no one in the student section, but the game was still excellent.
The reading by Birrell and Theberge addresses the popularity of men's and women's basketball, but until major media networks such as ESPN and CBS and FOX give the NCAA tournament serious coverage for the women and not just the men, then women's basketball will always be second fiddle.
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