"Just one Olympic Games does not a cultural movement make..."
Jane Doe, 1996
The real hit of the 1996 Atlanta Games was, undoubtedly, the media attention given to the achievements of female athletes. Great performances in the individual sports of swimming, gymnastics and track, the unanticipated public response to USA gold medal team sport efforts in women's basketball, soccer and softball and NBC decisions "play" to a 65% female audience created huge prime time audiences. Quirk or trend? Manufactured momentary outcome or indicator of major cultural change? Answer: The latter on both counts. Women's sports is here to stay and we are only still only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Don't expect explosive progress but do expect continued steady growth as a result of "critical mass" having been reached.
Remember, major social change is a slow process. It took 25 years of Title IX, a federal law guaranteeing women an equal chance to play in our schools and colleges to create the 30-40% increases in female viewership aged 18 to 34 that fueled the Atlanta women's sports media frenzy. It's taken almost five years for corporate America to look at the 1991 data that showed that women were outpurchasing men in athletic shoes and apparel to realize they should start mining the potential economic benefits of embracing the active woman. If we look around, there are other subtle indicators that society is beginning to embrace women's sports and women in sport. In 1996:
· Robin Roberts became the first woman to anchor a network NFL studio show.
· Tickets for the 1997 NCAA Women's Final Four sold out in less than six hours, one year prior to the event - the earlies sell-out in the history of the event.
· Fox Sports hired Carol Langley as the first female to produce a Major League Baseball game on national television.
· Betty Oakes, executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, was elected president of the national Federation of State High School Assocations, the first woman to hold this elected position in the organization's 77-year history as the national governance organization for high school sports.
· There are 791 girls playing high school football, 1,164 girls high school wrestlers and 1,340 girls playing high school baseball.
· Two women's professional basketball leagues are announced -- the American Basketball League, now in full swing before large and enthusiastic crowds, and the WNBA, the ""good ole boys"" men's pro league about to launch a summer pro league for women.
· Sporting goods manufacturers sold female athlete signature shoes, gloves and bats.
What happened in 1996 is that the media and sports business is waking up to the potential of women's sports. The 1996 Olympics was a glimpse into what the future will bring. But there is still a long way to go.
The rate of the continued growth of women's sports in our capitalist society will be determined by corporate advertising and sponsorships which will ultimately be fueled by product sales success. The female athlete market will be there in numbers, buying power and interest. The question is whether the sporting goods industry will step up to the plate to meet this growing consumer demand. In the sporting goods industry, sales success will require a commitment to (1) producing quality women's products, (2) developing product inventory diversity at the retail level to match that offered male consumers, and (3) ensuring that the now predominantly male sales force becomes more gender diverse and female consumer friendly. Corporations must realize that they will benefit from this huge new market only if they take care of business from the ground up.
With regard to sponsorship of women's athletics events, corporations need to make the same all-out investment as they have in men's sports if they want women's sports to deliver the same results. Low budget dabbling and one-shot deals won't do it. Women's sports needs continuity of investment, an integrated marketing strategy and a major television advertising commitment that emphasizes year round exposure and market saturation. An all out commitment is absolutely essential for early growth and the assurance of long-term returns.
The media will need to realize that the market for women's professional sport is men and women - not just women. These men and women are not the same demographic as the men's football or basketball market. This is much more of a family- oriented audience. This audience will be more concerned with positive human values. This women's sports counterculture will not embrace arrogance, selfishness or unsportmanlike conduct. They will meet the needs of an audience that is rejecting the current professional male athletic model which has become increasing rich, arrogant and more distant from fans and are looking for the role models and exemplary sportsmanship that men's sports has failed to deliver of late.
The women's sports movement will not go backward. That 18-34 women's demographic who have benefitted from having the opportunity to play sports over the past 25 years will continue to get larger as more and more generations of girls participate in athletics. They will create an insistent demand for more and better sports products designed for them, for women's sports on television and will bring their dates, spouses and children to women's events. The question is not whether it will happen, it's how fast.