Lack of Recognition for Females in Sport

The highest attendance for a men's sporting event was 199,854 people for a World Cup match between Brazil and Uruguay in 1950. 

The highest attendance for a women's sporting event was 92,000 people at a volleyball game at the University of Nebraska in 2023. 

The difference in attendance is staggering, almost a 100,000 person difference. 

That is almost a 75 year difference between those two games and the highest attendance for women is still less than half of the highest attendance for men. 

For years, the argument about the validity and popularity of women's sports has been a steady uphill battle. No matter what records they set or how many wins a team earns, women's sports will never be supported like men's sports are.

According to Play Today, 66% of U.S. sports fans watch more men's sports while only 3% consume more women's sports. 

This isn't because there is a unbalanced ratio of men's to women's sports fans. There are as many female sports fans as there are male, but sports marketing is more focused on promoting their male teams because that's where the money comes in. 

In 2010, the broadcast rights for the men's NCAA tournament were sold for $10.18 billion while the women's rights were sold for $500 million.

That is a nine billion six hundred and eighty million dollar difference. The difference in the broadcast rights are almost 20 times as much as the women's rights. 

When people think of events like the NCAA March Madness tournament, they think of all the men's teams that have commercials on television. 

What they don't think about is how Geno Auriemma coached the UConn women's team to three-peat championships from 2002-2004, a back-to-back championship in 2009 and 2010 and then four back-to-back championships from 2013-2016.

From 1982 forward, when the women's teams joined the tournament, no male team has ever done that. 

But, a coach is nothing without his team. 

Breanna Stewart led the UConn Huskies to four national championships from 2013-2016, was named the Final four's most outstanding player a record of four times and was recognized as a three time consensus national player of the year.

She was the first overall pick in the first round of the WNBA draft where she was drafted by the Seattle Storm. She now plays for the New York Liberty.

With over 30 career awards, Stewart is a 2x WNBA champion as well as a 2x WNBA Finals MVP. She was on both the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic team as well as the 2020 Tokyo team where she was a member of the winning gold medal squad.

22-year-old Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka became the highest paid female athlete, making $37 million in earnings in the past year. 

In 2023, baseball player Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million for 10 years with the LA Dodgers. That breaks down to $70 million per year, which is still double what Osaka made. 

In the past few years, women's sports are getting more recognition and bringing in more revenue, but there is still a long way to go. 

Women's college basketball is producing more and more athletes who are being drafted into the WNBA, and people who kept up with college basketball will follow athletes like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and so many others through in their journey forward. 

Also, the PWHL (professional women's hockey league) has just debuted and it is inspiring young female athletes to follow their dreams. There was never a professional women's hockey league in the U.S. and I think that sports in general are taking huge steps forward in female recognition and the pay gap but there is still a long way to go.