BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – What would it take to pay women’s sports close enough to men’s sports that women like WNBA superstar Brittney Griner wouldn’t feel the need to travel out of the country to earn money?
Darin White, who directs Samford University’s Center for Sports Analytics, says it’s important to maximize sports’ four revenue streams: ticket sales, sponsorships, licensed merchandise and media rights. And while all are important, White says the last one is key.
“Media rights are the biggest source of revenue for almost every sports organization. And so…the more people we can get interested in actually watching, the more they’ll buy licensed merchandise, the more they’ll want to go to the games, right?
But White says there are obstacles to growing that audience. Samford and Tigris, a Denver-based sports marketing group, studied the issue and released their findings in a report called “Why You’re Not Watching.”
Among their findings is that it is difficult to watch a women’s sports team on television consistently enough to form bonds.
“There are all kinds of studies that have looked at this, but the percentage of women’s sports, if you take all the sports content, like the premiere on ESPN, the percentage that is actually dedicated to women’s sports is in the single digits,” says White.
White says people in the study also complained that the quality of the women’s shows did not match that of the men’s competitions. White says their research suggests that, in addition to revamping broadcasts, media outlets that broadcast games are investing in better promotion of players and building connections with fans, among other things.
“We love watching the Iron Bowl in Birmingham because we know it’s important, right? This game is important to us, right? But when you see a commercial on TV that two WNBA teams are playing each other, if you have no idea why this game is important , then you probably won’t tune in,” White said.
You can read the full study here:
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