You don’t need politics to sell women’s sports
Zachary Faria
Video Embed
The women’s college basketball championship smashed viewership records. Most importantly, it should completely destroy the notion that you need to get woke to sell women’s sports to viewers.
The title clash between the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers averaged 9.9 million viewers, crushing the 2002 viewership record of 5.7 million. The game had more viewers than multiple high-profile college football bowl games, the 2020 and 2021 NBA Finals, any Stanley Cup final since 1973, and any Major League Soccer game ever.
JILL BIDEN’S TEAM WALKS BACK INVITATION FOR NCAA RUNNERS-UP AFTER RIDICULE
The game did so because of the magnificence of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, a transcendent talent who proved that women’s basketball can be incredibly entertaining. Even in a 102-85 loss, Clark dazzled with 30 points and eight assists. Several LSU players stepped up to meet the moment, with three players each scoring more than 20 points in the highest-scoring championship in the history of the women’s game.
This championship was the culmination of the buildup of talent across the women’s game, making more teams competitive and making the best players, such as Clark, stand out even to casual sports fans. Clark was more talked about than any individual player in the men’s tournament and for good reason given how absurd her highlight reel is.
iFrame Object
This should send a message to the WNBA, the professional league that can only dream of having this level of excitement around its sport. Clark and LSU are proof that talent sells. The WNBA has made politics its focus, though, to the degree that players actively try to alienate conservative audiences by chasing out conservative owners. The WNBA partnered with Planned Parenthood in 2018.
The WNBA also falls into the same trap that the U.S. women’s national soccer team does in constantly comparing itself to the men’s game to demand “equal pay.” The USWNT drowned its most recent World Cup run in factually challenged “equal pay” debates, and discussion of the team usually revolves around whatever gender politics Megan Rapinoe wants to talk about at the time.
The Women’s March Madness tournament did none of this. Players did not demand viewers because they are women or say sexism was the reason people didn’t watch their sport. They didn’t drown games in politics, no matter how hard some at ESPN are trying to after the fact. People tuned in to watch the best women’s basketball player on the planet play an extremely talented team. That is all there is to it.
It is malpractice for the WNBA and the USWNT to actively limit their popularity with sports fans by making their entire existence about politics. People will happily watch women’s sports if they are entertained, as 9.9 million were on Sunday. People want to watch talented athletes perform at the highest level, whether they are men or women. They don’t want political lectures from athletes.