Frustration from a professional softball player

[CoogansBluff]

It's a complicated issue. It's not purely men v women.

While MLB players make a fortune, pro women's softball players make peanuts, the women softball players do make more the men's softball players.

And while tennis players on the men's tour make more than women's players (not at the majors, but in general), women's pro tennis players make a lot more than men's lacrosse players and most all men's sports.

I can name only a handful of professional fighters, and all of them are women (ie, Rousey).

There are many factors that determine what people make in sports.

The disadvantages that women have are

(1) bias against women's sports ... For example, there are those in our extended family who are old-fashioned and don't value girls sports and would be more interested in DD's softball is DD was DS.
(2) bias against women's sports II ... The media sometimes is less open-minded to women's sports, assumes that people won't watch it. They don't cover or promote it. (There also are exceptions where I think they promote for the sake of promotion)
(3) women don't play the same sport at the same athletic/ability level as men. Hate to say that, but I believe it's true. That doesn't matter to many fans, but probably to some. For example, the Cavs vs. the Warriors are playing basketball at the highest level possible. The WNBA can't match that.
(4) Most women's sports don't have the same long history and tradition. One reason that tennis and golf succeed as women's sports is their history. Very hard to make your mark as a new or growing sport. Hard to compete v the NY Yankees.

I'm sure there is more if I think about it.

btw, a college baseball player could remake this poster w/ the word vagina and point out that D-I baseball teams have less scholarship money than D-I softball teams. Not that I'm against Title IX, but there can be advantages and disadvantages to gender depending on sport.

 

[BobInMadison]

There are a few women's sports that are popular with spectators.

Tennis, figure skating, gymnastics to name a few.

In most of the world, men's tennis is more popular than women's tennis. I don't know if this is still the case, but at one point women's tennis was more popular than men's tennis IN THE USA. When that happened, the US Open finally started paying women as much as men.

Some pro athletes in any sport make more $ from endorsements and ads than from playing. Sad but true, a pretty female athlete makes far more endorsement money than a plain one, to a much greater extent than men. I am sure Aaron Rogers would still make some endorsement money if he were ugly, but Jennie Finch would get hurt much more if she were ugly.

 

[MacLobo]

One major problem is interest of women spectators.

In men's sports, what is the target demographic?? Men aged 18-35, right? As it should be. Men are going to be more drawn to watching other men in the sport they're interested in.

What's the target demographic of women's sports? Probably the same...

What should it be? Should they be targetting women? If you want to increase revenue in womens sports, you need to gain the attention of the female population. How do you do that? Get more girls playing the sport as youths. Our culture still pigeon-holes young females into dance, cheer, etc.

There is nothing wrong with dance or cheer, as my daughter cheers and loves it. But, we also gave her the opportunity to play soccer, softball and competitive gymnastics. While she loves cheer, it's #4 on her list. I have a feeling a LOT more young girls would feel this way, too, if given an opportunity at a young age. It's almost a given that a young boy will be enrolled in T-ball, but when you say you're daughter is playing T-ball, you get the whole "oh, really, that's so cool" almost as if it's a completely foreign concept.

 

[joe720]

Can complain about any body part she want, but until there are sponsors, endorsements, tv deals, and sold out venues they can only be paid what they bring in.

 

[Rambler34]

I agree with many of you and think the biggest problem is exposure. There are fans out there but the teams in the league are not reaching some of the most die hard softball fans in America. Would a Socal team with regional players not have a decent following? Would a team in Atlanta full of SEC players not draw some fans? Not to bash Ohio or Illinois but the are not in some of the fastest growing softball areas. The southeast has exploded with interest over the past 10-15 years. From girls being introduced to the sport to parents like me that have fell in love with it through our girls.

I would definitely go to games if a team leased a true softball facility from a place like UAB and loaded it with talent from SEC schools. I think they could get pretty good crowds. The same thing could be said about the Atlanta area.

 

[JAD]

The only women's sports that pay well are tennis, golf and beach volleyball...

 

[Rambler34]

The only women's sports that pay well are tennis, golf and beach volleyball...

One thing all three of those have in common are the fact they are individual sports. Money is not being split to pay 20 players per team.

 

[Doug Romrell]

It all boils down to demand (people voting with their dollars in the market place for the things they most value) relative to supply.

 

[JAD]

One thing all three of those have in common are the fact they are individual sports. Money is not being split to pay 20 players per team.

They are individual sports and most of the ladies making BIG $$$ are doing it with sponsorships.

 

[marriard]

I agree with many of you and think the biggest problem is exposure. There are fans out there but the teams in the league are not reaching some of the most die hard softball fans in America. Would a Socal team with regional players not have a decent following? Would a team in Atlanta full of SEC players not draw some fans? Not to bash Ohio or Illinois but the are not in some of the fastest growing softball areas. The southeast has exploded with interest over the past 10-15 years. From girls being introduced to the sport to parents like me that have fell in love with it through our girls.

I would definitely go to games if a team leased a true softball facility from a place like UAB and loaded it with talent from SEC schools. I think they could get pretty good crowds. The same thing could be said about the Atlanta area.

The whole model is wrong. The idea of a 'national' professional competition is wrong - the logistical costs of getting full teams from city to city is out of line with what they have and makes marketing impossible..

I would be interested in seeing if someone could go down the Japanese company sponsor shipped regional competition model. Pick 2-3 connected states, get several major corporations to agree to hire a bunch of players work for their company (they all have degrees, there is work in any company for players), let them knockoff work at 3pm and practice 3-4 times a week and then play 2-3 games a week and create a strong regional adult competition. Have some success, replicate in 3-4 other markets and then play a national championship if you like. For example you could have a Florida competition with teams driven out of say USSSA, Disney, one of the banks, BlueCross Blue Shield of Florida, Florida Power and Light and so on you could do this cheaper than the NPF attempts to do today. Hell, the universities could maybe hire on their ex-players and have their own team if they wanted (I am sure that is some sort of NCAA violation but I am sure it could be worked around). Players are now being paid for play at some level plus they have a salary for their 'real job', travel is limited and so on... It solves players making a living wage out of the game plus it reduces the massive logistical cost of running a national league with teams thousands of miles apart.

I am sure I have over simplified how it would work. But it is clear what is being done now is struggling, so new ideas are needed.