As this Wednesday, February 4th, was National Girls and Women in Sports Day, our friend Nancy Goldstein has a post up on Broadsheet about how the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) has taken a big hit from the recession; teams are being mandated to cut their rosters from 13 to 11 players. Here's a snippet:
It's terrible news whenever any organization eliminates 20 percent of its workforce and people suddenly find themselves unemployed in a weak economy. But as the WNBA struggles, and if it folds, it's taking along something else with it: the hopes of the first generation of Title IX-era female athletes who went through high school and college thinking they might someday actually be able to make a living playing a professional team sport.The WNBA currently represents the only significant women's professional team sports franchise in the U.S. (The Women's United Soccer Association failed after only three seasons, in 2003, and women's football and softball have never taken off, despite several attempts.) And its inception in 1996 changed the scene for aspiring women athletes.
"For me personally, knowing that the WNBA was there as a possibility made a difference in my goal setting as a high school student, my work ethic as a college athlete and my fulfillment as a professional athlete," says Kara Lawson, 26, who chose to pursue basketball over soccer after the WNBA's inception during her sophomore year of high school. Lawson was one of coach Pat Summit's stars at the University of Tennessee prior to being picked fifth in the 2003 WNBA draft, and is now a point guard for the 2005 WNBA championship Sacramento Monarchs, as well as an analyst for ESPN.
Lawson's comment really resonated with me. It reminded me of when I was the coordinator for a girl's basketball league in Brooklyn - after their season ended, our organization (GGE) brought the girls to see New York Liberty team play, and I've honestly never seen a group of girls look more excited and inspired. So these cutbacks are not only a threat to the very existence to the WNBA, but possibly an even bigger threat to the girls out there that aspire to achieve their best in life by watching their favorite ball players on that court.
On a more positive note for the sports fans - what female athletes inspired you growing up? (Or inspire you now?)
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: WNBA take cutbacks just in time for National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/11832
You know, this also illustrates perfectly why the tired old idea that "America is a meritocracy" which conservatives promote as an explanation as to why women and "minorities" get little to no representation in government and leadership/executive positions [i.e. "see Condi Rice did it, you just need to work harder, only the "best and brightest" get the job"]...is total BS. America is not a meritocracy. If it were, these female athletes, who work just as hard as male athletes and who are just as talented, would be earning just as much right now and wouldn't be having to make drastic cuts from their rosters. Imagine the NBA, MLB, or NFL talking about cutting it's roster in order to stay afloat! This is such a crying shame. And I remember thinking in highschool/college..."It's not like I can become a professional athlete or anything" and so I stopped playing. For the sake of millions of girls' hopes and dreams I hope the WNBA makes it through this economic crisis.
An athletes merit in pro sports is not measured by its ability, but by the audience it can attract, just like male tabletennis players do not make the kind of money basketballplayers make, despite working just as hard, because they are not as marketable.
I want to raise an issue here, not to be controversial but to see where you all fall in this argument.
I remember speaking to female friends of mine a while back about college women's basketball (of which I am a great fan). At the time I was attending a major college with an excellent (top 10) team. I attended games, studied up on players, and would get excited when I saw them on campus.
I was talking to my female friends about women's basketball, and they were both incensed about the fact that WNBA players got paid less, and that women's games were poorly attended (despite how good they were), etc. Nonetheless, my friends were part of the problem. They weren't into sports, so didn't actively stand behind the team.
I'm wondering: how we go about promoting women's sports more if there is a culture that women don't care about sports and men don't care about women's sports. Should the argument be that we should get men (who are predominantly the sports-watching demography) to watch more women's sports? Should we teach men to watch sports irrespective of gender? Or should we try to get women more into playing and becoming consumers of sports?
As an aside, I was interested to see that a majority of people at these women's games were older women, and young girls. Maybe the trend is already changing.
See what I'm getting at?
Flo-Jo was a huge inspiration for me in my high school track days. And Marion Jones. I was truly hurt and felt betrayed when her drug use came out. I didn't know I'd seen as a role model until that point, and didn't know I could actually be hurt by some famous person's choices (esp at the age of 28). I loved Lilia Podkopayeva (Russian gymnast) and Dominque Dawes. I'm definitely more skeptical these days, and not sure I could name someone who inspires my running any more.
Flo-Jo was also a huge inspiration for me as a hurdler/sprinter. Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Marion Jones also inspired me.
I always loved Kristi Yamaguchi as well.
For modern athletes, definitely Tani Ryoko: a kick-ass judoka and she was born in Fukuoka, a city I love after living there for a number of years.
Manon Rhéaume!!! One of my first hockey cards!
Me too!
Her and Haley Wickenheiser have been my heroes ever since I was a Timbits player.
I really wish I lived in Ontario/Quebec, so that I could do more to support the Canadian Womens Hockey League.
The league needs to get out from under the wing of the NBA, stop taking their subsidy money, re-tool itself by playing arenas they can fill (getting 5000 people to sell out a college arena sounds a lot better than getting 5000 to one-third fill an NBA arena), and work independently on getting endorsements and such to have a healthier business model.
Ultimately, though, money talks, and lorenc's idea of getting non-sports fans involved for the sake of a little market gender equity is the only long-term solution.
I'll make a confession. I am female, and a sports fan ... and I don't really follow the WNBA. I follow Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA some, and NCAA Men's basketball and football a bit -- but I can't really get into the WNBA.
Partially, I suppose, it is because basketball is not among my favorite sports. I'll take baseball and football over basketball any day. But, honestly, even when I watch basketball -- its the NBA or NCAA Men's. The WNBA just has a feel of watching a minor league sporting event. Its fun to go to the games ... but there are other sports to follow. These are truly the best female basketball players in the world, but they wouldn't come close to making an NBA squad, and it isn't just because of their gender.
I personally think the WNBA would be better served to sell stadiums they can fill, and make a profit in the niche market they represent. They'll never be as big as the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, Nascar or MLS ... but they could do well if they restructured.
They also need to go to cities with no major professional sports teams (or at least no NBA team) and capture those markets. I live in Houston -- and, honestly, the Comets are (were) an afterthought in Houston sports. The Texans, Cowboys, Astros, Rockets, Dynamo, Aggies, Longhorns, Cougars, Owls and Aeros get far more play on sports radio and television. Even when the Comets announced the cancellation of the 2009 season, there wasn't much of a whimper.
The WNBA just can't compete in a market that has 10 professional and college sports teams -- but, in a smaller market where high school football is the biggest ticket in town, they might have a shot.
kbz
Pat Summitt, coach of the Lady Vols, who just this week earned her 1,000th career win (a record, male or female). I grew up near Knoxville, and my dad used to take me to Lady Vols games growing up.
I believe there are >10 of Summitt's former team members in the WNBA at present.
I love sports, my dad's passion and growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium helped. I'm agreeing with the comments on the WNBA about smaller venues. But here is what gets me, the low attendance of college women's games with some acceptions (Tennesee, U Conn, UNC). It's a great game I wish more people especially women supported it. Glad to see sports fans here btw.
Sad as it is the WNBA's been on course to collapse financially for a while, and this economic crisis might be the impetus for that.
The issue isn't meritocratic, though, meeneecat. Professional sports are about entertainment, not just pure skill and merit. Soccer requires a lot of skill but you don't see it on American television. The issue here is about marketing sports in a way that gets someone to attend a WNBA game, and unfortunately that's difficult to do because there are at least two leagues that offer a superior level of competition at a higher playing level (Men's D1 Hoops and the NBA).
Sports viewership is dominated by men, but even the big female sports fans I know are more fans of the NBA and men's college hoops than the WNBA. I think the issue is that some sports tend to be dominated by women (gymnastics for one, figure skating, and a few others), but the biggest sports in American are ones where men have a distinct advantage. KBZ is right in stating that the women on WNBA squads may be the best in the world, but would have zero chance at an NBA roster or even a men's college roster at a particularly good basketball college.
It's going to take more than one post Title IX generation for there to be any semblance of equality of representation in sports, and the other problem is tradition. Sporting tradition is a huge part of the appeal. As a Philly sports fan my teams are an ingrained part of the city. The Phils have been playing baseball in the city for nearly a century and a half. How could an expansion basketball league compete with that for market share?
The WNBA has to find a way to be more than just a women's league if they want to break into the serious revenue streams of modern pro sports. Unfortunately I think it's just too late. The WNBA was already on the ropes, and this cut looks like the beginning of the end.
I wasn't trying to make a comment about how sports teams are a meritocracy, because, as I stated, I reject the idea that it's about merit...which is why I said it's BS when people say "just work hard and you can make it"...Because obviously if that were true than the WNBA wouldn't need to be trimming players from their rosters.
I wouldn't take the news that WNBA having to cut roster spots as the beginning of the end due to lower attendance. The NBA is also having lower attendance this year because of the recession and the NBA is hurting significantly too.
This year is another step forward in women sports as a professional woman's soccer league starts up again in the United States (http://www.womensprosoccer.com). The league probably has more marketable players then the WUSA ever did. In reply to DavenJ's comment about the WNBA going separate routes. One of the cited reasons the WUSA failed was because they did not ally themselves with the MLS as the new league is. I don't know what the fan base of the WNBA is, but Woman's soccer seems to get mostly girls age 10-15 or so. If the league can stick around long enough, they can develop a good size base of die hard fans who have a tradition of going to games like the MLB, or NBA, etc.