Quote:
Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I think this is a good point. But your argument essentially is, people aren't as interested in women's sports as they are in men's and the only reason why Serena and women's tennis is so successful is because it is completely linked to men's sports. Therefore, Sorenstam needs to identify herself with men (or the best because in this case the two are interchangeable) in order to achieve similar success.
I think this is unhealthy. I think that she should continue to dominate against women and the LPGA and everyone else should look into why women's sports and women's golf (in specific) isn't as popular. Maybe the answer is as simple as, "people want to watch the best." But I don't think that's true because I would rather watch women's tennis than men's any day. So what is it?
TM
|
I don't think the argument boils down that way. I agree that such a view would be unhealty. But I was really talking about the visibility of the sport, not about people's inherent interest in it. People tend to be interested in what's visible, for better (tennis) or worse (the Bachelor). Women's tennis became more visible, and thus generated more interest, because it was linked to the
visible tour. Women's tennis is now successful not because it's linked to men's tennis, but because the link gave the women the opportunity to show off -- which the Williams sisters have done in spectacular style.
It's unfortunate that it had to come about that way, but the results show just how silly it is to banish the women's game to second tier status. You are not alone in finding women's tennis to be that much more interesting -- in fact, some people think that women's tennis is what's keeping the pro tour alive.
Annika's making a strong showing in a PGA event may increase visibility and may help make women's golf more popular, but it would be a shame if it pulled women away from LPGA events in favor of competing in the PGA. But barring a total revolution in the way that the tours are organized so that the women can benefit from the PGA tour's pre-existing visibility (i.e. setting it up so that the men's and women's US Open, etc. occur during the same period with alternate days/times of play) women's golf just won't reach the same level of popularity. TV only has so many minutes it will devote to golf, and TV execs don't want to sacrifice advertising revenue for the sake of advancing the women's game.
