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IsaacHock 5:04 Thu Jul 22
Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

Hello everyone. I live in something of an echo chamber in certain regards, and my outdated world views are normally reflected amongst those I talk with in the real world. I am interested in the counter viewpoints to this assertion, which I strongly believe.

'The massive push behind womens sport at the moment seems to be having to be done in a sneaky fashion due to their being no audience for the product.'

Whether it be the new Hundred cricket competition where you buy a ticket to see a decent game and you get a free ticket to the womens event (which is played immediately before), a womens West Ham season ticket for a pound when you buy a full priced Mens one, or BBC headlines that promise Man City vs Chelsea highlights, only for you to click on it and find that it is the Belles v The Lionesses or some such.

If the product is sufficient for it to stand on its own 2 feet then let it find its own audience and grow organically; if it is not then let it fail. Surely that is better than artificially propping it up and tricking unsuspecting punters into getting involved in something in which they have no interest.

Am I a dinosaur?

Nurse Ratched 5:07 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

No.

wd40 5:14 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

It works in reverse.
Am a 60' fat male poll dancer and the lovely ladies substitute my wages .

Mike Oxsaw 5:15 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

It's CHEAP and it ticks a lot of boxes.

Institutes with agenda driven parameters to meet will push it all they can, whether or not there's a real (not focus-group driven) audience for it.

Westham67 5:17 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

The BEEB are the worst surprisingly

Moncurs Putting Iron 5:29 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I dont think it's sneaky, I think it's astute.

The infrastucture and potential fan bases already exist.

You cannot have equality in all things due to the game, rules and yardsticks being designed around the physical capabilities of male players.

Some people would not enjoy watching u23 or ladies teams in their colours because it's not the pinnacle. Whilst overs would watch if they felt the team was giving their all at whatever level, but not in an atmosphere vacuum.

I am in the latter category, would happily go watch ladies football but not in a quiet empty stadium. So draw them in get them enjoying it, build the team.

Lee Trundle 5:40 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I've fallen foul of the BBC's headlines and been suckered in by highlights of Team A v Team B (I can't remember who it was) and it turned out to be women's football.

Today on their front page is the headline "Alex Scott: Fifa's first female English-speaking commentator".

Like that's really headline news....

Sven Roeder 5:45 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

Have said before that things that promote womens sport that get young girls active and off their arses is a good thing.
And giving them teams and role models to watch is again good.

But agree this agenda of trying to pretend it is equivalent to most male sport and should be treated as such is nonsense.
The sports should develop and improve but noone is ever going to pay £800 for a season ticket for West Ham ladies.
It should receive media attention equivalent to the demand for it .... Man City v Man U will be a Premier league match that people around the world will pay a lot to see.
Hartlepool v Rochdale isn't so wont be on SUPER SUNDAY any time soon.
Womens football is a fair way below THAT fixture yet will headline the BBC website & be televised.

The ones who are stealing a living are women tennis players. Probably one of the sports where there is a viable womens game with its own sponsors but the idea that the 3 set womens champion gets as much prize money as the 5 set mens winner is ludicrous.
Which would be proved if they split Wimbledon into two consecutive tournaments and looked at ticket prices and tv revenue bids between the two.

Block 5:47 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I love watching sports, so whether it's men or woman playing it really doesn't phase me.

I disagree that woman players should be paid in line with men though, the reason the men are paid so much more is because there's so much more focus on it, investment, air time etc etc.

Once the womans game gets to that level of popularity amongst not only the public, but by media and sponsors, i've no issues with them being paid the same at all.

BRANDED 5:47 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I'm a great fan of women's beach volleyball. Regarding the Cricket last night they got 10,000 in to see some blubbery women play cricket like an average village side. The crowd did have a load of young women though so there may well be a good market for this thing in the future. For me fit birds with minimal clothing smashing it all around the ground would work better.

Mad Dog 5:59 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

Bbc and sky really want to make women's sports as important as men's.

Shame very few people give a fuck about it.
Even the west ham kit launch featured loads of shots of the women's team.

bruuuno 6:05 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

120 odd years ago there wasn’t much interest in the men’s game.

Come back in 100 years and see how the women’s game is doing.

Everything needs to start somewhere and this is a good way of doing it.

Women’s football is more about encouraging women and girls to play rather than making money from tv revenue. If girls get exposed to it on the tele then it will encourage them to play. That’s probably the best way to look at it

chim chim cha boo 6:08 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

You have to admit that the men's team swapping shirts at the end of a game is a MUCH tougher wank? Not impossible of course but takes several minutes more.

stepney hammer 6:12 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I dislike it when there's a headline that reads something like, "Hammers confirm new signing" only for it to be someone in the women's team.

Why not Hammerettes confirm new signing? Because no cunt would bother clicking on it I assume.

Fifth Column 6:15 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

The free ticket thing is an aim to promote interest. It's not in any way sneaky. The idea is to build up a customer base and do that by initially offering cheap/free purchases. The same way new products are frequently offered in the market. The question is whether they can be made financially viable in the long term by people starting to make full price purchases.

I would have taken my daughter to watch West Ham women if they'd played in Stratford/Upton Park. But they play further out towards Essex and that's a bit far for me. So the product is not attractive to me even if it's virtually free. Now I live 200 miles away so definitely not taking her.


The BBC sport headlines on their website eg "highlights of Man City v Chelsea" or whatever is, I agree, massively annoying and 'sneaky' would be accurate. You click on it and then think "oh FFS" because you're being shown it under false pretences. They need to write "MAN CITY WOMEN" or whatever so it's clear.

TonkaToy 6:17 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

This observation also follows for able-bodied Vs disabled (or whatever the woke term is at the moment) Sports events...

Same strokes but for different folks...

Kaiser Zoso 6:21 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

It’s funny how some can’t see it’s deliberately obscured that it’s women’s football

I don’t mind watching women’s golf, but it isn’t snided as if it’s the men’s game, like football blatantly is.

And good luck thinking women’s football will grow in support. It won’t

Lee Trundle 6:26 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

bruuuno 6:05 Thu Jul 22
"120 odd years ago there wasn’t much interest in the men’s game.

Come back in 100 years and see how the women’s game is doing."


I've mentioned this before but the womens transfer record is £250k. That's what the mens record was in the early 70's so it's probably about 50 years behind.

Fifth Column 6:37 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

I watched the Holland v Zambia women's game highlights from Olympics on BBC.

It finished 10 v 3.

The Zambian gk appeared not to know the rules of the game.

The Dutch keeper also made a huge ricket.

Women's goalkeepers in 2021 are what African male goalkeepers in the World Cup were from the 1980s.

RBshorty 7:32 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

They want equal pay.And feel if you shout loud enough and shove enough of it onto the public. Enough people will accept it.

No. You’re not a Dinosaur.

Alex G 7:49 Thu Jul 22
Re: Promoting Womens Sport - Why the Sneakiness?

Seems like shrewd marketing to me.

Ask yourself why you support West Ham?

Is it because we have the top players? Is it because we are successful and win stuff?

No (okay, occasionally we have some pretty decent players). It's because at some point in our lives we formed an emotional attachment to the club. Most likely a relative or friend made you watch us, something caught your attention and years later you're still here.

The women's clubs know this, and are trying to get as many people in to watch in the hope they become attached and keep coming back. Then once the fans are hooked they whack up the prices and start making money.

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