The problem with women's sports | Haley Rosen | TEDxBoston

Women’s sports are on the rise, with viewership, participation and attendance all trending up. The future seems to be right around the corner, but that’s where it’s been for the last 20 years. Despite all the positive momentum, women’s sports have yet to become mainstream. Long-term investment and consistent media coverage are needed, but the real issue facing women’s sports is one that’s almost never discussed — insiders don't treat women's sports like sports.

Haley Rosen is the founder and CEO of Just Women’s Sports. Frustrated by a lack of media coverage devoted to women’s sports, Haley founded JWS in 2020 shortly after retiring from professional soccer. Starting with an Instagram account and a big idea, it took Haley only a few short months to grow JWS into the leading media platform dedicated to women’s sports. An All-Pac-12 midfielder at Stanford, Haley was named to both Forbes’ 30 under 30 and SBJ’s New Voices Under 30.

[lilmoloch]

the problem with womens sports is that women dont watch it dont support it with time

[Anonymous-pyix]

Very good explanation. I've always said that it's the wrong approach to try and shame men into watching women's sports. That doesn't result in organic growth that will last in the long term. If women want more people attending women's sports, then they should buy tickets themselves.

Instead of calling men who aren't interested in women's sports sexist, how about you market it properly to women instead?

Instead of starting with the issue of equal pay, why not focus on growing revenue so that you can afford to pay female athletes the same as men?

[solo]

Imagine if women did care about women's sports

[jayramirez]

But if women don’t go to watch the games why is it the men’s fault?

[sportssupporter]

Yes, It is great to watch the women's games... but if women want the leagues to survive, women need to watch, support, buy tickets, take their daughters to all the games. Women need to support women's teams.... and let's see the amazing plays that are amazing...

[hieungo]

Woman need to watch woman sports and support themselves

[mariahjahanbakhsh]

I’m a woman who doesn’t care about men’s or women’s sports and my friends are the same way. The only reason I’d know what’s going on in the sports world is because of my boyfriend. He loves basketball so much that he even knows WNBA players. Unfortunately I’m not interested in either lol

[downsjmmyjones]

I credit Ronda Rousey and Dana White with the biggest progression in women's sports since 1999.

Imagine making people want to watch women compete in one of the most brutal sports in the world. It took a talented fighter, good promotion/investment, and good coverage.

[prescottmotley]

I think way more women need to support the sports by buying tickets and merchandise. Great example 66 percent of people who go to wnba games are men. Women need to step up there game instead of blaming men

[petergeyer]

Best video I've watched in a long time! This is the message that should be shouted from the rooftops - and especially in the meeting rooms of every sports media company in the world.

[No-One.]

Can I get examples of different men's leagues that failed and were infected with hundreds of millions to revive them like you said? Saying that the main women's sports aren't broadcasted is a complete lie. The fact is most of the time everyone wants to watch the pinnacle of a sport at a given age group, whether it's high school, college, or professional not a mediocre performance so that tends to almost always be men's sports. Now I think the wnba should lower the rim to either 9 feet or 9 and half feet to start. Make these women's sports more interesting like adjusting where needed like rim height.

[perrystein]

Great talk but heres the issue. Not enough woman including woman who participate in athletics watch sports. Heres an example a few years ago i was in a restaurant in New York. I knew that the Us womens soccer team was playing a match at that time. I wanted management to switch stations and turn on the game. I went up to the front of the restaurant and who was sitting there but an entire girls soccer team ready for lunch. So i said to the young woman lets both go to the manger and ask him to turn on the USWNT game. Well i instead of support i got curious looks like i was an alien talking a strange language. Their was no connect between these players and watching the game. this is an issue that has to be addressed. I recently saw a commerical featuring Allie Krieger and Ashyln Harris urging more people (the implication being that this was aimed at woman and girls)to WATCH womens sports. I think this is an effort that needs to expanded and emphasized

[JuniperGal-ekpu]

They should properly market it to women.

[Tenacioustoker]

avg attendance for a WNBA game - 2, 636 - so nobody cares - including women

[jordyrobers]

Wonder if she thought about who is going to pay for the marketing, air time and equal pay. It is a bit strange she does not address that as that is where the key lies. She owns a media company so how does that go ? Many viewers ? Many sponsors ? Who are viewing ? I agree there could be more done in woman sports but it is also up to the people that want to view it and those are the base of finances. And what I understood some woman leagues get percentage wise already way more then the men. Some leagues are kept alive beause of the mens league.

[jamesbcrombie]

Ok #1. We need more investment from investors that see the long game. Example it took 20 years for some MLS teams to turn a profit. Who's ready to throw their 401k into that?

[lockandloadlikehell]

Why are you already deleting comments)

[wilfordhill]

Does anyone remember when parents were suing so their daughters could compete in boys sports? What has changed? They won in court. That should have given them equality.

[gravitatingawaytv]

its such a farce to think men don't support women sports. My entire life men have ALWAYS supported women sports. I don't care what sports it was, MEN SUPPORT, but do you know who does not support? WOMEN!!. everything this woman just said WILL NOT MATTER, why? well because WOMEN DO NOT SUPPORT WOMEN SPORTS...STOP THIS BS!!!

[Rico-wpdg]

I’m sure this will get deleted..

I watched this with a non judge mental open mine. By the end of the video, I realized it’s complete nonsense. The bottom line is men don’t care about womens athletic competition. It’s not entertaining. They’re slow and unathletic. Do women care about womens sports, no! They barely care about sports in general. What happening is they’re trying to force men to WANT to watch female athletes and that won’t ever happen. It’s a joke.