Women's version of March Madness fails
by SouthernFriedInfidel | Published on April 2nd, 2008, 9:47 am | Sports
Here's an opinion piece from the Greensboro News. An interesting take on the failure to generate interest in the regional that was played last night.I agree with Hardin that things are looking bleak so far as marketing women's basketball is concerned... but I think that the basic problem is cultural.
To illustrate: My wife works at a local toy store, and she recently told me of a conversation she had with a customer on the subject of sports. A grandmother came in, looking for something to buy for outdoor play time for her 5-year-old granddaughter. My wife suggested a small-kid basketball set.
Grandma said, "Girls don't play basketball."
My wife said, "Oh I don't know about that. Just last weekend, I went to see the ACC Women's Tournament, and those girls can really play basketball!"
Grandma said, "Those were women. But little girls don't play basketball!"
There's your problem in a nutshell. Far too few girls are taught to play basketball from an early age, the way little boys are. If we had more girls getting their hands on basketballs at the age of 4 or 5, and encouraged to follow college teams and participate in pony league games, the pool of talented female athletes for the colleges around the country would be far deeper, and games would be a lot more competitive and interesting to watch.
Right now, a women's basketball fan could list only a handful of true basketball phenoms in college (Parker, Wiggin, Langhorne, etc), all of them attending a set of top 5 or 10 schools. If big-time talent becomes more widespread, and you start getting 4 or 5 dozen truly great players spread across the country, I bet the sports public will start to take notice.
Might take some time, but I also think it will take some long-term, directed effort as well.
