HONOLULU “”mdash; Since the establishment of Title IX, collegiate
athletic programs have become more equal when it comes to the
inclusion of female athletes.
But that’s college.
In the world of pay-for-play athletics in the United States,
women’s leagues in most sports are still in the building
phase. Even Hawaii’s own female professional football team,
the Pacific Blast, has found the allure of and respect for
women’s sports is still minimal.
Only in the past few years have professional women’s
leagues been established, with their future still very unclear and
unstable. Even the most recognizable female professional league in
the United States, the Women’s National Basketball
Association, must deal with less-than-ideal ticket and
merchandising sales, as well as limited media attention.
For example, in the past few years, the national champion
Connecticut Huskies have received exponentially more nationwide
media coverage than the WNBA champion Los Angeles Sparks.
Playing its inaugural game on June 21, 1997, the WNBA was
supposed to be a triumph for women’s professional sports. To
some extent, that statement is true. But despite the attraction of
WNBA legends like slam-dunking superstar Lisa Leslie and new stars
like Sue Bird, very little about the WNBA makes the news. But the
WNBA has paved the way for the creation of women’s
professional leagues in other sports.
After the 1996 Olympic Games, the popularity of women’s
soccer grew rapidly. However it was only in 2001, after the images
of Mia Hamm’s open-armed, running celebration and Brandi
Chastain’s exposed sports bra had faded, that the
Women’s United Soccer Association was established.
Now in the middle of its third season, the WUSA has a modest fan
base. It boasts a contract with the PAX network, in which over 20
regular season games will be televised. But ESPN is showing just
four games, only one of which is a regular season match.
Compare that to the weekly showing of Major League Soccer games
broadcast on the cable sports giant. Men’s soccer has grown
in popularity in the United States since the Americans’ FIFA
World Cup run last summer, but the popularity of women’s
soccer seems slow-growing, despite being largely revered as the
best in the world.
Volleyball, second only to basketball as the most largely played
women’s collegiate sport, is nearly nonexistent in the
professional ranks.
There are opportunities for players to earn money playing beach
volleyball professionally, but that type of volleyball is very
different from the indoor game. For the collegiate players who
could play professionally, the only other choice is moving to
Europe, where professional volleyball leagues are abundant.
As for women’s professional football, the situation is the
same, if not worse. Creating and expanding a professional league
based on an almost exclusively male sport is hard enough. Take into
account that football is mainly an American phenomenon (without a
European outlet), and it becomes nearly impossible to have a
women’s league.
Maybe it’s a huge accomplishment for women even to have
professional sports. However, the sad fact is that without any
state, media or public support, these leagues are dying,
maintaining the status quo at best. It seems the general American
sports audience and media just don’t want to come out of the
past.