{"id":2705,"date":"2019-08-01T16:59:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T06:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iwgwomenandsport.org\/?p=2705"},"modified":"2020-01-17T17:14:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T06:14:54","slug":"opinion-busting-the-myth-no-one-watches-womens-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/opinion-busting-the-myth-no-one-watches-womens-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Busting the myth no one watches women\u2019s sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interest in women\u2019s sport around the globe has grown so fast in recent years that this idea is seriously out-of-date. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by Sarah Leberman, Co-Chair<\/span><\/p>\n

and Rachel Froggatt,\u00a0CEO<\/span><\/p>\n

Women in Sport Aotearoa New Zealand<\/span><\/p>\n

& the International Working Group (IWG) on Women & Sport New Zealand Secretariat<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This story was originally published on Locker Room at\u00a0Newsroom.co.nz<\/a>, and is\u00a0republished\u00a0with permission.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a pervasive myth, an idea that every second person in the street seems happy to share, that no one watches women\u2019s sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 1.2 million New Zealanders who in 2019 watched our mighty Silver Ferns netball team become world champions would, no doubt, have a lot to say about that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interest in women\u2019s sport in New Zealand and around the globe has grown so fast in recent years that this idea is seriously out-of-date. We need to start busting the myth and challenging those still spouting it.<\/span><\/p>\n

For further proof, we only need to look to the 2019 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup, which did even more work to turn this unfounded idea on its head.<\/span><\/p>\n

The football tournament is a perfect example of strategic investment driving long-term commercial return. Established in 1991, the Fifa Women\u2019s World Cup is only a baby commercially, compared to the comparatively sprightly 89-year-old men\u2019s tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifa has clearly recognised the commercial opportunity the women\u2019s game presents. It has a strategy in place to build this property by investing to develop a great product, and to recruit and retain loyal fans. Every World Cup is a quadrennial milestone in a long-term commercialisation plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s working. Fifa has announced that\u00a0over a billion fans\u00a0watched<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/u>the 2019 event worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that, friends, is how you get people to stop saying: \u201cNo one watches.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The spectacular month-long event in France also helped to dispel another myth \u2013 that men only watch men\u2019s sport, and women only watch women play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In pubs and sports clubs throughout Britain, men latched on to the success of England\u2019s Lionesses. With almost every game they played, they helped smash viewer records.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lionesses trouncing Norway in the quarterfinal drew in 7.6 million viewers on BBC One \u2013 making it the UK\u2019s most watched women\u2019s football game ever. That was trumped a few days later by an audience of 11.7 million for the semi-final against eventual champions the USA.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time, it seemed, male sports followers realised the true athleticism and skill of those female footballers. (That\u2019s backed up by Nielsen\u2019s research into women\u2019s sport last year that found 84 percent of general sports fans were interested in women\u2019s sport, and 51 percent of those fans were men.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In the United States, a total audience of 15.277 million viewers watched the US women\u2019s victory in the World Cup final over the Netherlands \u2013 almost 14 million of those on the Fox channel. That outstripped the Fox audience for the FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup final the previous year of 11.3 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also beat most of the viewer numbers for this year\u2019s NBA basketball finals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here at home, 1.2 million New Zealanders watched the coverage of the Netball World Cup across 11 days on SKY Sport and Prime. Over half a million watched the Silver Ferns in action live.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s successful case studies like these that we’ll examine and learn from at the inaugural\u00a0Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit<\/a><\/strong><\/u> in Wellington in October, delivered by Women in Sport Aotearoa New Zealand<\/a> in partnership with the Shift Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll look at commercialisation, and the major imbalance in the related media coverage of men\u2019s and women\u2019s sports, both here and internationally. Coverage of women\u2019s sport in mainstream media in New Zealand still struggles to top 10 percent annually, outside of an Olympic and Paralympic year. And this can again be partly attributed to that ever-pervasive myth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo one watches, so we don\u2019t have to report on it,\u201d say some sports editors, relying on limited evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to fixing the problem here in New Zealand, or indeed globally, isn\u2019t going to happen magically overnight. It needs to come from more proactive investment into women\u2019s sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are multiple issues around a lack of media coverage, but if you follow your nose, it\u2019s relatively easy to find one of the main root causes: sports bodies, both international and national, are not all yet investing in building and showcasing women\u2019s sport, to drive audiences and increase income.<\/span><\/p>\n

Putting long-term commercial strategies in place behind women\u2019s sports content, investing in production and delivery and supporting broadcasters to monetise it, is critical to positive change. As soon as women\u2019s sport is made available on TV or online, the commercial dynamics immediately change. But broadcasters need help from sports organisations to make this content attractive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our greatest bugbear is when national sports organisations don\u2019t have strategies around growing their women\u2019s sport properties. They lump it in with the men\u2019s side of their code, or leave it to gather dust on a shelf in the corner, or in the \u2018too hard basket\u2019, and don\u2019t prioritise it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What people forget is that men\u2019s sport has had a considerable head-start \u2013 it\u2019s had a concerted commercial effort behind it for decades. As we like to say, it\u2019s a mature business. A cash cow if you will. Its audiences are established and its income streams are sustainable. Indeed, many will argue that the men\u2019s game has reached maximum capacity in many cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women’s sport, on the other hand, is an entrepreneurial start-up. It needs investment to deliver a return and like any new business, the return will not be immediate. You must invest to grow. We only need to look across the Tasman, to the new women’s Australian Rules competition, to find an extraordinary model of how it works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The AFLW launched in 2017 with the campaign slogan ‘I’d like to see that’, and a couple of million Australians agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opening round of the inaugural competition drew more than 1.7 million viewers on free-to-air television, and more than 50,000 fans went to the first four games in Melbourne and Adelaide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The growing interest has had a flow-on effect to player numbers \u2013 close to a third of all AFL players are now female. There was a 14 percent spike in female participation last year to just over\u00a0530,000 women and girls playing<\/a><\/strong><\/u>\u00a0the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happens when you have a concerted strategic plan in place. The AFL made a commitment to increase inclusion and diversity in their sport, and boost the visibility of women playing sport. Free entry until a sport has an established fan base is a long-term growth strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The AFLW now have 17 sponsors, with the National Australia Bank extending its naming rights sponsorship until 2022. Their commitment spreads to growing the women\u2019s game at all levels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are similar stories with cricket\u2019s Women\u2019s Big Bash League and Super Netball.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back home we\u2019re starting to see evidence of organisations putting strategies in place around women\u2019s sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand Cricket announced a new \u2018women\u2019s master agreement\u2019 that will bring swift and much-needed investment into the women\u2019s game. Funds in the player pool have nearly tripled compared to the previous agreement, with a funding increase of nearly double for the White Ferns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably, the number of player contracts has increased by more than five times and now includes sizeable new investment into women\u2019s domestic player contracts and new player development contracts, establishing cricket\u2019s first professional playing pathway for female athletes.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time in history, women and girls in Aotearoa New Zealand will be supported to build careers as professional cricketers, taking cricket up to sit alongside netball and rugby.<\/span><\/p>\n

NZ Cricket CEO David White said at a recent event that growth in the men\u2019s game is marginal these days, while growth in the women’s game is huge and only set to get bigger.\u00a0NZ Cricket have recognised that to grow their total income, investing in the women\u2019s game is key.<\/span><\/p>\n

So while some of our bigger sports organisations are certainly well ahead of the game, putting a three-to-five year strategy in place to grow the women\u2019s game is still something many sports here are not yet doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some New Zealand sports organisations remain quite risk averse, arguing that they would be taking money out of the men\u2019s game to support the women\u2019s game.<\/span><\/p>\n

This may be true in the short-term, but it\u2019s a short-termist view. A strategic investment into building the women\u2019s game will open up channels of income far beyond that remaining within the men\u2019s game.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand is a nation of adventurers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1953, there was a pervasive myth that Mt Everest could not be conquered. Sir Edmund Hillary set-out to bust that myth. He didn\u2019t do it in a single afternoon, but he did it with much planning, preparation and dogged determination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached base camp for women\u2019s sport. We\u2019ve got all the right supplies to make the ascent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s reach for the clouds.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interest in women\u2019s sport around the globe has grown so fast in recent years that this idea is seriously out-of-date. by Sarah Leberman, Co-Chair and\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,31,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-news-stories","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2713,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/2713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.iwgwomenandsport.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}