Enough about Mitchell Pearce and his antics, or how two rugby league players missed curfew on a pre-season camp, let’s dig deeper. What I propose is simple, important, yet often forgotten in the Australia sporting landscape. It’s time to talk sporting equality.
The Australian Open has come and gone for another year, but this time it left thoughts lingering in my mind about equality in the sports that we love.
Unfortunately, there really isn’t another example of it other than tennis.
What tennis does in regards to both sexes playing the big tournaments together is world class. Both forms of the sport are on television together for equal prize money.
Tennis shows it is possible to have both forms of a sport running side by side, and that there should be more of it. It expands fan-bases (for example mums and daughters may attend more A-League matches if women play before) and leads to increases in revenue. An increase in revenue improves the product and the cycle starts again.
Women’s sport is an untapped resource. The revenue gained from advertising and TV rights alone make investing in this commodity worthwhile.
The NRL are a step ahead, having played the women’s State of Origin before a Cowboys versus Sharks game in 2015. There was a decent crowd, and from all reports the spectacle was great. There will also be a women’s game played at the Auckland Nines, with the Australian Jillaroos taking on the Kiwi Ferns.
It’s a great way to grow the sport; it exposes more girls to the game and shows parents that it’s a safe sport to have their daughters playing. Either way congratulations to the NRL for heading in the right direction.
The A-League is where the most growth is, with the Women’s World Cup a revelation. The playing level and ability was phenomenal, and opens up a huge growth sector for the A-League.
Why not start playing all W-League games before their corresponding A-League fixture? Currently there are eight of the ten teams that correspond between the two competitions, which opens up the opportunity for the female game to explode into the market. Show it on Fox Sports like the NRL does the Under-20s, get more mums and daughters to the games, and off it goes. The FFA could really benefit from this in the long term.
Similar to the A-League, the NBL needs a strong curtain raiser to give fans bang for their buck, and the WNBL could be the answer. This could be a good selling point to not only daughters and mums but also to the TV companies and could increase advertising and revenue. I travel to Wollongong for the basketball and would happily arrive an hour or two earlier to watch the WNBL. Growth, again, could be huge.
In recent months we have seen the emergence of the Women’s Big Bash League shown live on Ten. Cricket is the leader in promoting the game at this level, and it’s a pleasure to see. The standard of play is extraordinary, with big hits, classic catches and close games for all to enjoy.
Congratulations Cricket Australia for your work, there should be more of it. The Women’s BBL will continue to grow and Cricket Australia are set to profit from their faith and commitment to this form of the game.
The discussion needs to happen more frequently and in more detail, but hopefully this gets everyone thinking about the topic.
We all love sport, if there is more of it out there, we’re all winners at the end of the day.
MaybethisYear
Guest
I absolutely agree with you that men are physically superior but that is not the argument. Women's sport are not looking for equality because we dont live in lala land what we would like though is more than is currently offered which is really poor considering the level of participation by women in sport. How come in NZ netball is a prime time sport on free to air and in Australia where membership is far greater it used to be that it was never played live on ABC but televised a couple days later at midnight - of course I exaggerate but only slightly. Thank goodness Foxtel Sport have come to the party and recognise some value in women's sport otherwise we might never see a live game in Australia.
MaybethisYear
Guest
SEXIST MUCH! Serena's thick body is all muscle. Her body type is genetic and the power it generates is amazing she serves as quick as most of the top men. Its comments like this that make if perfectly clear why female sports dont get much airplay on Australian TV. No comments about body types of the men - honestly just comment on the sport mate.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
What a strange thing to say. If it ain't an AFL first it just ain't worth anything to AFL fans it seems.
Burgs
Guest
The quality of womens sport, no offence but when compared to mens sport its 3rd grade stuff. Find sports where women are truly elite (as they are in tennis) and market them well. Soccer and cricket to me its just physics that men are a lot better at these sports than ladies and therefore there is a big gulf in the quality. I guess the answer is to get women themselves interested in female sports?
Paul Z
Guest
I agree make it better quality. T20 is a perfect example the scores weren't that good. Even W league no commercial broadcaster would touch it, its delayed anyway into non eastern daylight savings times states.Tennis is pretty much only profitable sport for tv. Even the men's tennis earns more revenue in advertising dollars. The women should be playing 5 sets if they want equal pay. As average men's match is longer. It is something that really bugs me about WTA tour.
pete bloor
Guest
Also the we love sport therefore more sport = good. There is already more sport than I can consume. Between, EPL, NFL, NBA, NRL, AFL, Big Bash and Aussie test cricket if you watched every single game you’re probably coming out to more than 12 hours a day of sport. That’s without finals in all those comps, champions league, ODI’s etc, rugby world cups, heaven forbid there is an olympics or you like a bit of German or Spanish football in your sporting diet or some A League roughage. And post game analysis gee you've got no time to dwell on the past. One poor sod died just trying to watch one bloody tournament If you’re hard up for sports content you must have frozen time.
pete bloor
Guest
Look I’m all for equality, I’ve pro positive discrimination and a supporter of quota style incentives even though it inhibits my chances of promotion and success. Where there is an obvious bias preventing a section of society that is of equal calibre from being treated as such you need to intervene in that market for its own good. But trying to apply this to professional sport is all falls down as women and men aren’t athletically the same. The equality in capability doesn’t exist so expecting a measure of equality in commercial outcomes is just counter intuitive.
anon
Guest
The top women tennis players aren't nearly as highly conditioned as the top men. You couldn't have a "thick" body like Serena Williams dominating men's tennis.
Brendan
Guest
This is impossible to say without coming across as sexist but genetically men will always deliver a better TV product. It's not sexist, it's science. Men deliver a better product because they're athletically superior. Please don't hate me ladies.
nordster
Guest
Absolutely. Good luck to them. The audience for women's sport needs to come from women to be an ongoing thing in most cases imo. At least with football. Or maybe cricket is at a pace where people will watch it even if it is slower? Perhaps women's BBL in that sense equates to mens test cricket... :)
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
Quite a few sports come to mind that are not dictated by physical differences. Darts, snooker and pool, archery, diving, and chess. I also remember Shelley Taylor-Smith, who repeatedly beat all of the men in long distance swimming races.
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
Interesting nordster. The WBBL TV numbers were pretty good and on commercial TV too. They also managed to get on the main channel. Perhaps the WBBL is benchmark for all women's sport in this country.
Pepper Jack
Guest
How do we get more women’s sport on TV? Easy, make it of better quality.
The Barry
Roar Guru
To answer the question posed by the headline: * Jelly * Lingerie * Let men play Just kidding. I really am.
nordster
Guest
Bingo. People complain about equality with watching sport and expect men to pick up the slack. Women need to watch less of the superior men's version of a sport and support the women more. :) Or just accept there is always going to be less of a market for it, as women if they are acting rationally will gravitate toward the better version haha...
nordster
Guest
Well no, because when u average it out the men's matches are still longer over the course of the tournament. But hey if the women's games generate the same revenue and numbers (or better) pay them accordingly.
CG2430
Guest
But, without question, we'd be watching the very best regardless of gender. I see no reason why this shouldn't happen at least in non-contact sports - in tennis, for example, if women want to earn the same prize money as the men, just play in a completely open draw.
Onside
Guest
I meant "watch womens sport " but doesn't matter, it's the same thing. Not enough women support women sport.
Onside
Guest
Get more women to womens sport.
Bakkies
Guest
Netball and occasionally women's hockey has been televised. Women's Golf too. Women's Rugby and Cricket gets tv Cricket in Europe. Cricket due to Sky and Rugby has been on terrestrial channels Ireland and France. The Women's RWC Final hit a million viewers in France. The Women's RWC and Six Nations is on the radio in Ireland if the match isn't televised, the news and papers cover it too.