The excitement has been arriving for some time.
And the challenge, joy and work involved in making women’s sports a success will be the focus of the 5th Annual Warsaw Sports Business Symposium. The event starts today with a keynote address by the president of the WNBA, Val Ackerman, and workshops are available tomorrow.
The focus of this symposium is on “the changing face of sports business.” And while that face certainly is changing, with the advances come bumps in the road. It seems that with every stride women make, complications arise.
Balancing femininity with being athletic is perhaps the first complication to come. The two characteristics certainly are not mutually exclusive. But from the outside perspective, where they overlap can be confusing. For all the success the U.S. women’s soccer team had in the 1999 World Cup, the ultimate victory wasn’t always the hottest news. After her game-winning penalty kick, Brandi Chastain tore off her jersey to reveal a sports bra, and the theme became the perkiness of her chest and not the power of her legs.
And when women finally burst into professional sports — the WNBA being the first breakthrough women have had in the Big Four: hockey, football, baseball and basketball — stories in Vogue magazine had the ball players in couture dresses instead of their jerseys. Apparently, they needed makeovers more than mad game.
Finally, and most importantly, look at the few women in positions of power and how they are portrayed. How many of the WNBA franchises have female coaches? Seven out of 16.
Right here on campus, Jody Runge is held up as the strong athletic female. Yet Runge is often portrayed as bitchy. No one really discusses football head coach Mike Bellotti’s personal life; yet Runge’s has been the subject of countless articles. Has anyone asked why?
And has anyone asked why, in sports broadcasting, the women in front of the camera always play second fiddle to the announcer with the deep, older male voice? Men are included on women’s sports programs, but not the other way around.
For every advance women make, they are aware that they could go so much farther.
Thus, dwelling on the challenges for women in sports should be a motivator, not a downer. It should get women up for the game of their lives.
This business sports symposium is one path to motivation. Examining the changing face in sports business will show people that that face is more and more often female. That face is proud, graceful, strong, intelligent, fierce, stubborn, gentle, beautiful, competitive and relentless. That is women in sports.
Thinking now of all the women who have graced the sports stage throughout the 20th century and who threaten to become superstars now, women can revel in their own greatness. They’ve come a long way, baby. And they’ve got next.