Women's pro leagues face troubled times

[sbp]

An article that talks about this issue.

Indeed, it's not for lack of trying. Since 1996, promoters have launched five different women's professional leagues in sports, ranging from softball to volleyball. Three have folded, and the two that remain are hanging by a thread.

A quarter century after Title IX opened a new wave of college opportunities, the jury is still out on whether women's pro teams can carve out more than the small niche they occupy in the multibillion-dollar sports business.

Women's tennis and golf do well at times, although the LPGA Tour always suffers in comparison to the riches of the men's tour. And every four years at the Olympics, women's figure skating and gymnastics are two of the most popular sports.

But women's sports leagues are proving a hard sell, especially now, long after the excitement of the 1996 women's basketball Olympic gold medal and the 1999 women's World Cup soccer win before 90,000 fans in the Rose Bowl.

[whitak24]

i think the formation of successful women's pro leagues is a process that is going to take many, many years. in many cases, i'm not sure they will ever be as successful as men's leagues. why?

look at the sports women do the best in. soccer, for instance. the u.s. has hardly formed a successful MENS soccer league (although it looks like MLS may finally take hold). same thing with volleyball. how many successful men's volleyball leagues can you name?

other sports, such as gymnastics and figure skating, are viewed as "olympic sports" in america (in other words: we will get excited about this sport exactly once every four years when our national pride is on the line. otherwise, forget it )

then you look at a sport like tennis and right now, while there are some amazing women's tennis players (named venus and serena), there's really not that much drama. i mean, who really wants to watch a tournament where the main question is "which williams sister is going to win?", particularly if anna kournikova doesn't even qualify?

so i think there are challenges to successful women's sports leagues simply because the highest-quality, most competitive women's sports aren't necessarily hot broadcast commodities.

however, i think you have to take a long-term view. today, we equate professional sports with multi-million dollar contracts, $90 million endorsement deals with nike, and areas packed with thousands of fans, while millions watch on TV.

but looking back, the success of the NBA, NFL, and MLB are fairly recent. until the last 50 years or so, MLB was the only "major" sport in america.

think about all the failed basketball leagues and the reconfigurations the NBA (and pro basketball as a whole) endured before they finally started to push their way into the spotlight. same thing with the NFL and pro football.

looking at the last 10 years and trying to judge whether women's sports can become a viable commercial proposition is impossible, in my opinion.