Women's Sport

As a sports fan, a good 80% of everything I watch on TV is sport I will answer the question, zombie thread or not.

So in light of this thread and the calls for more exposure and the fact there's an international match on right now..... Who's watching?

No, I didn't watch. I could say I was at work at the time, which would be true but also irrelevant as I often record events I'm interested in. I didn't watch because

a) I'm not English and have no particular interest in the England team.
b) I generally prefer individual sports, football is the only team sport I ever watch at all.
c) As football goes I much prefer club to international football.

Sports I have watched on TV in recent weeks include athletics, where I enjoy the women's as much as the men's and favour individual events at any given time depending on the strength and depth of the field.

MotoGP, no women there.

UFC, absolutely love women's MMA, it is a sport whose very nature allows us to play to our strengths and I really enjoy seeing how women approach it in a slightly different way to men and hearing the (almost exclusively male) commentators running out of superlatives in attempts to describe women's flexibility and balance. Enjoy the men's too, and as with athletics, the weight divisions I prefer vary depending on competitiveness at the time.

Tennis, mostly prefer the men's though there are some matches on the women's side that attract my attention, wish they'd show more doubles.

Snooker, again generally doesn't have women though a couple were invited to the Shootout earlier this year. I felt for Reanne Evans, who is the top woman, not because she lost to the legendary Jimmy White, the Shootout is pretty much a lottery anyway, but because she didn't do herself justice and you could see how annoyed she was with herself.

I watch sport for entertainment and don't watch women's for 'feminist reasons' if that makes sense, but there are many sports where women's is of as high a level of competitiveness as men's and is equally entertaining.

(Thanks for the @ by the way!)

Whilst this is a zombie thread, it's quite interesting to read 7 years later (fucking hell, is it really that long since the London Olympics?!).

Since this thread was started, a UK women's bobsled team had to crowdfund to get to the Winter Olympics last year, where I'm fairly sure they outperformed at least one of the mens teams (please correct me if I'm wrong, it was a while ago and it's still early in the morning! )

On the flip side, women's football is currently riding a wave that I really hope continues. The quality of the football has also massively increased in these last 7 years. And all this with only a fraction of the money that is in the men's game.

I think that football is a bit of an anomaly though. It's our national sport (of the working class at least, IMO!), we fans take pride in being the home of football and we like to think that we appreciate good football no matter who is playing it. Men take it seriously.

Women's sport in general? I'm still not sure that it's taken as seriously as it should be. I wonder how many threads there have been in the last 7 years asking why female tennis players should get paid the same as the men.

I won't mention the bepenised elephant in the room.

(Don't worry Lang, I am cringing too because I typed 5 nations instead of 6 nations... shows how long in the tooth I am).

Can I just point out the obvious?

This is a zombie thread from 2012, people.

The Telegraph now covers women's sport. The BBC has a women's football roundup on Four (akin to MotD) - and the Manchester derby, City v. Utd set a record crowd for a women's match of 31,000 plus (post the lifting of the FA ban, that is - no-one's yet matched Dick Kerr Ladies). England-Italy in the women's 5 nations set a record crowd for women's rugby (I was there - it was awesome). And there have been some epic achievements in endurance racing - a woman won the Spine race for instance.

Obviously still lots of work to be done - Women's Tour de France, for instance. No reason women couldn't do this.

And of course there's the ever-present worry that this might be as good as it gets due to men infiltrating women's sports.

UCI world championships cycling in Yorkshire in 2 weeks going to watch women's race live. Will compare turnout to man's race, usually lots do watch here. This is to watch not ride obviously.

Okay Sorry Cleg I did not know I will not at you anymore buddy

It's not at all obvious to newcomers, if you want to reference someone who is participating on the thread the preferred etiquette is to put their name, or an identifiable part thereof, between asterisks to bold it. The @ is generally of use to alert people to a thread they're not on which might interest them.

In this instance, for example, @DickKerrLadies might have a relevant contribution (and if any of you don't know why I'd say that, google Dick Kerr Ladies - one of the most popular football teams of the early 20th century.

steeples - welcome to Mumsnet. Almost certainly predictably, I will ask you not to @ me on threads I am contributing to. I prefer not to receive endless notifications - I'm on the thread already.

@ErrolTheDragon There are a few cycling events and If you contact JEan Hatchet or look at her blog there are details on it
there are also a few organisations that organise cycling events

• I have tried to find out if there are any women's cycling meets coming up, but I just can't.

I've not tried these myself yet, and it looks like leisure rather than 'sport' but may be if interest:

www.letsride.co.uk/breeze

@LangCleg number are on the increase which is a good thing to see
woman's football is good

Chelsea v Tottenham's women's match at the weekend got 25k attendance.

@FromEsme people like Jean Hatchet cyle for women's rights

Really good match but I only saw it by luck.

Of course many MNetters are at work at 5/6pm mayor - can't all sit in front of daytime telly!

Yep that's what I'm talking about.
Watching it now before the united match, was just interested to see the level of interest given this is an international match on the BBC and free to air.
I'd disagree on the diving but there isn't as much pissing and moaning at the red which is a positive. Unfortunately the quality of the women's game always suffers by comparison IMHO but these aren't exactly the two teams you'd watch for quality.

I take it you mean the England Croatia match mayorquimby. I've recorded it to watch this evening though football (men's or women's) is my very least liked sport, though thankfully women's football does seem not to have as many of the diving divas as men's does. Much prefer rugby.

mayorquimby "So in light of this thread and the calls for more exposure and the fact there's an international match on right now..... Who's watching?"

Wonderful question!

So in light of this thread and the calls for more exposure and the fact there's an international match on right now..... Who's watching?

I guess it is supply and demand. If there is the demand for women's sport to be shown on TV and it is financially viable to the point of being an income generator, then it will be shown.

However, the correct financial decision is not always the correct decision for equality.

I do think that the BBC could be very positive in this area even if it is not financially viable, at the moment.

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9551632/BBC-wont-bankrupt-itself-to-keep-top-stars-says-new-boss.html

Every cloud has a silver lining apparently. Lack of cash means BBC looking to women's sport as it cannot afford male sports...

It is not included in this online edition but the print edition reports;"Mr Entwhistle also suggested that the BBC might be forced to concentrate on minority sports such as women's football as commercial rivals muscle in on showcase events."

So maybe it helps us women to be a cheap minority sometimes

I'd be up for letter writing. I read on twitter (but unverified) that netball gets higher viewing figures than the Scottish premier league but netball is on sky sport 3 and the spl on sky sport 1. I love netball. I might start there if I can verify it :)