President Obama: Draws up women’s basketball bracket

President Obama acknowledged the female basketball community today by actually FILLING OUT A BRACKET!

Step in the right direction, and certainly sets an example for the rest of the country. There are TWO championships going on people!

Hat-tip to Christine Brennan at USA Today for writing about the story.

To get involved in a bracket challenge, join us at WomenTalkSports.com (there will be giveaways!)

WNBA Champions Video: Phoenix Mercury

… in case you missed it live last week, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury won their second title in three years. Excellent accomplishment, and performed in front of a packed house. The video below tells the story.

ESPN’s Nancy Lieberman told me, “It was fantastic. Our ratings went through the roof.”

Congratulations to the WNBA for a truly special season.

We expected great, and that’s exactly what we got.

Can’t wait for next season.

How to increase attendance to women’s basketball games

The other day, I received an interesting question from a reader of WomenTalkSports.com. The individual, a college student, said:

“I’m working on a project to increase attendance at a women’s basketball tournament. Because this is your specialty, I was hoping you could offer any available tips or resources you’ve encountered on the best way to achieve this.”

To be completely honest, I didn’t know a good answer to give him. My personal feeling, as an ex-college basketball player, is that it’s a complex issue that involves many social, cultural, athletic talent and (obviously) financial factors.

Stumped, I crowdsourced the question to my fellow bloggers of the WomenTalkSports community and tweeted the question via twitter.com/womentalksports.

Below are some of the responses I received. What are your thoughts? Interested in continuing this conversation, as many of my friends found it worthwhile to answer.

Question: What are some ways to increase attendance to women’s college basketball games?

Answers….

@loisheilig: “That is a tough question. But if there were more games on TV someone might
watch & decide they would like to go see one. And keep the prices down.”

Sports Girl Kat: (speaking from her personal experience): “Giveaways such as such as iPod Touches, a pair of Red Sox tickets, gift certificates, and a semester’s worth of textbooks.” “T-shirts, free popcorn and soda, as well as competitions between students.”Have a student DJ spin between warm-ups and the game. Dare really popular students to bring as many friends as possible – if they bring 15, they get a coupon for several pizzas. Find out what your non-sports fans will come out to an non-sporting event for, and offer that inconjunction with a basketball game.”

Jayda Evans: (speaking with WNBA perspective) “I would have thought the W’s Live Access would helped, but only a few games aired without constant buffering. If you can’t get coverage, you have to see the product to develop some sort of connection that pulls you to the arena. I’d also say more weekend matchups and probably day-time starts during true summer months. More families can attend games without disrupting kids’ sleep sked. Lastly, I’d say drop some prices down or offer more perks with the ticket. Even college ball in some areas are trying to entice and people love free stuff or the feeling of getting a real good deal.”

Read more

WNBA’s economic struggles

The economy isn’t just hurting the everyday blue- collar workers, it’s also hurting the future of professional women’s basketball.
It was brought to my attention by a friend to take a look at an article released on ESPN.com today, in regards to the economy and its hindrance on the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

The basis of the article talked about the Atlanta Dream’s ( who have first pick) interest in two players who will be playing tonight for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship, Connecticut’s, Renee Montgomery and Louisville’s, Angel McCoughtry, it also brought up some interesting points about the economic difficulties facing women’s professional basketball.

With the draft this upcoming Thursday, April 9th, there is a major concern if most of the draft picks will even make the roster of their prospected teams, due to lack of funding. According to the article the league had to cut back on the number of players allowed to make the roster per club down to 11 from 13 last year. Also the number of athletes allowed to participate in training camp is down from 18 to 15 from last season.

“There’s a chance that even half of the players taken in the first round may not even make a team,” Meadors said. “It’s very sad.”

Sad indeed.

The bad economic times have also urged the league to cut out its pre-draft camp. While last year all of the first round picks played in the league, this season may be tougher for rookies, with the amount of available veterans as a result of the folding of the Houston Comets in December, some coaches might opt to go with a vet over a rookie.

However, there are other options for these players like playing overseas. But the situation is still unfortunate for all of these women to be so deserving of their success but have to be held back due too limited finances.The establishment of the WNBA was a huge milestone in the race for equality in women’s sports,its existence is crucial. I am hoping the league will be able to hold on until an economic turnaround.

David vs. Goliath: NCAA one step closer to its champion

As of last night, there are now two teams left in the greatest basketball tournament of the year: University of Connecticut Huskies and the Louisville Cardinals.

Yesterday, UConn seemed to easily handle Stanford, winning 83-64, and Louisville squeaked by Oklahoma, 61-59.

According to NCAA,

“Connecticut and Louisville have met before with both games coming out in the Huskies’ favor – a 93-65 victory during the regular season and a 75-36 win in the league tournament.”

Mechelle Voepel says Louisville will face the “Godzilla of a team in the national championship game.”

… The perfect way to describe UConn. Tuesday night’s  game is literally a David vs. Goliath match-up.

Of course, I’m rooting for David.

The game is being played tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8:30pm in St. Louis, Missouri. ESPN, whom I would call the biggest supporter of the women’s tournament, will be broadcasting the event live (not surprising).

If you’re looking on resources to read up on this game, I’d check out ESPN Women’s Basketball because they have (by far) the best coverage of what’s going on.

Here’s a list of the top online resources:

Web sites:
ESPN Women’s Basketball
NCAA.com women’s basketball March Madness Central
UConn Women’s Basketball
Louisville Women’s Basketball

Blogs:
ESPN Women’s Basketball Blog
NCAA Live Blogs
Women Talk Sports – basketball
Women’s Hoops Blog

Twitter:
@MechelleV
@RebeccaLobo
@WomenTalkSports
@NCAA
If you know of any more great resources, please be sure to comment. I’m happy to add them to my list.

Stringer rightfully complains about Rutgers’ failure to market her program

Rutgers women’s basketball team have done it again – they’re on their fourth trip to the elite eight in five years. That’s pretty amazing.

But in an article released on NJ.com today, head women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer was not happy.

In fact, she was just the opposite (and rightfully so). She was quoted as complaining about the athletics department’s inability to effectively market a program that has been incredibly successful in recent years.

I have to say, I agree with her.

And speaking out was a great way to put some pressure on their new athletic director, Tim Pernetti.

But the answer is more than just installing a  flashy scoreboard or having smoke come out when the girls run on the floor.

It has to do with engaging directly with your audience, creating fans.

For example, get your athletes online. Have them blog. Get them on Twitter, have them respond to their fans. Hold contests through Facebook. Partner with third party sites like womentalksports.com (disclosure, I am co-founder of this site) to get these ideas out there.

These ideas aren’t new.The fans will come if you earn their respect, I assure you. In fact, if you’re looking for a good role model, check out what women’s pro soccer is doing – they’re leading the way for other women’s sports teams to follow.

In the mean time, keep winning. Keep speaking out about what’s unfair. Your fans will come.

Check out the rest of this article (it’s an interesting one), here: NJ.com on Rutgers Women’s Basketball.

March Madness Online: Thank you, ESPN, for promoting women

Ok, so March Madness has officially begun.

It’s my favorite time of the year!!

This year, I actually decided to participate (shocking) by filling out brackets and starting Women Talk Sports groups) for both the Men’s NCAA Championships (via CBS Sports.com Facebook application) and the Women’s NCAA Championships (via ESPN’s women’s tournament challenge).

The great gift of social media is letting us not only track our brackets online, but also participate by challenging our friends – in my case, it’s the Women Talk Sports community, and whoever else wants to join.

The first resource I found was via Facebook – a friend had invited me a few days ago.

The application is created by CBS Sports. It’s actually really neat – it lets you customize your bracket, track how you’re doing via your profile widget, pick your favorite teams, start discussions and

actually “trash talk” others’ brackets. Very interactive and fun.

Except for one thing.

THEY DON’T HAVE A WOMEN’S BRACKET.

Like, are you kidding me?

When you say you have “NCAA Basketball Brackets” you’d think it was for both genders. But I guess the women’s teams aren’t good enough for a Facebook application yet.

Ugh.

As far as I know, the only site that is actively letting fans participate online with the women’s tournament is ESPN, through it’s Women’s Tournament Challenge. Although it’s not as great as the one on Facebook (in that you have to create an account and invite people who also have to create accounts), it’s still pretty good.

In fact, the ESPN bracket challenge is an actual contest, in that you could win a $3,000 gift card from Best Buy if you get the most points.

Here’s a little bit of background information from their Web site:

“Welcome to the 2009 Women’s Tournament Challenge. The March to the Arch has arrived and that means it’s time to become part of the madness.

The next step is easy. Just select which teams you think will win each of the 63 tournament games that tip off March 21. You earn points for each game you correctly predict. The point value for a correct pick increases with each round of the tournament, culminating with the NCAA championship game in St. Louis on April 7. All 63 games are on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN360.com, so follow along as you pull for your picks to survive and advance.”

So, who do you have going all the way?

You can see my women’s brackets on the ESPN Women Talk Sports group via the ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge. (Yes, I picked Maryland to upset UConn in the championship – that would be exciting).

You can see my men’s brackets on the Women Talk Sports Facebook group via the CBS Sports Application. (I picked North Carolina beating Memphis for the championship).

If either of these applications had an embeddable widget (which would make sense), you know I’d have it up here. If you find any, please let me know!

ESPN features “The Selling of Candace Parker:” Can she transcend women’s sports?

Today, ESPN released a cover story with Candace Parker as part of their complete package of features for Women’s History Month 2009.

The story is well written, clear, inspiring and balanced. What’s great about it is the focus – a story about how Candace Parker is going to be marketed in the WNBA.

Parker is demanding a different kind of attention… the kind that focuses on her talent and her story, not her sex appeal. And that is the most promising thing I’ve heard about the future of women’s sports in a long, long time.

ESPN’s Allison Glock features Parker as one of the best, which is the attention that Parker deserves, as she’s set some serious milestones for women’s basketball over the past decade.

Glock says that Parker will “will transcend her sport:”

She will be a bigger Mia Hamm, a more accomplished Danica Patrick. Patrick is nowhere near the best in her field, but she doesn’t need to be, because she is hot enough to pose for Maxim. While that works for her, Parker wants more. She wants to be a champion, too, like Maria Sharapova, who earns upward of $25 million a year — the most of any female athlete — of which only a small fraction comes from playing tennis. Parker won’t be satisfied until she is a household name. “I wouldn’t mind being the female MJ,” she concedes. “I want to have major crossover appeal.”

What Parker doesn’t deserve is a focus on her sex appeal, which is something that’s started to happen. The focus on sex appeal has to do with female athletes appearing in Playboy and other like-minded disgraceful publications, largely due to the fact that those publications are willing to pay up.

Playboy-like publicity has serious repercussions for female athletes, as it promotes a focus body image. We learned that surfer Layne Beachle frequently suffered chronic fatigue and depression due to the focus on her body image in her career. We’ve also heard stories of female gymnists and volleyball players suffering the same kinds of symptoms as the result of their portrayal in the public eye.

So the question becomes, if Parker really is the next “female Jordan” who will transform athletics, will a “sex appeal” be necessary to get the attention of sports fans?

In my opinion, as a society, we should say no. Because we can do better than that. The athletes themselves should speak up and demand more than that, and Candace Parker is the first “big name” to do this.

Glock says:

“Team Parker has so far avoided the cheesecake route. They have higher aims. They want the all-American money, and the all-American money comes to the athletes people love, not the athletes people want to sleep with.”

What’s incredible about Parker is her story. How she got here. What she’s accomplished. Her personality (I’d love to follow her on Twitter). Her attitude. Her dedication. And most important, her talent.

Just the other day, social media guru Seth Godin (who I love to read) wrote about a difference between PR and publicity. He said the best way to get sustained attention is to communicate the stories of the clients, not simply generate publicity (which anyone can do). The stories, he said, are the ones that sell – they’re the ones that keep people coming back, because they’re real, meaningful and lasting.

And that’s the direction where women’s sports needs to head, and it looks like Parker is going to take them there.

It’s going to be great to hear stories about her baby traveling around with her to games, etc. Because that is new, different and real.

My absolute favorite quote by Parker is how she will deal with the new baby, which she is expecting in July.

“Basketball is calming to me. Whenever anything goes on in my life, I go shoot. As long as I can shoot, I’m okay.” And the baby? “The baby will be along for the ride, with me on trips, at the court.” She sighs. “You don’t hear about male players doing that, do you? Women, we just have to balance more things. It’s harder for us. That’s just the way it is.” She offers a weary smile before adding, “For now.”

Great attitude to take, Candace. I love it.

It’s very promising to hear that Parker’s sponsor (Adidas) seems to understand that Parker has a great story to tell:

Jim Gatto, head of global sports marketing for Adidas — which is releasing Parker’s player-edition shoe, the TS Ace Commander, in 2010 — sees her as an athlete who inspires women at all levels. “She was in our ‘Me, Myself’ campaign,” he says of the all-us-girls-are-in-this-together promotion. “We thought we could build stories around her. She has global reach.” Gatto says Adidas has been tracking Parker her whole career. “She always fit the brand values: authentic, inspirational. And not just from a basketball standpoint.”

With increased attention to her story (her inspiration), she’ll go far, and she just might take the rest of women’s professional sports along with her. In only one year, she has already done great things for women’s professional basketball.

“Candace is already delivering for the Sparks. LA’s season ticket sales were its highest since 2005; twice as many were sold after draft day as before. Home attendance was up 10% for the season, and road crowds were three times bigger for the Sparks than for other WNBA teams. The WNBA’s TV ratings finished up 19%, and Parker’s jersey is by far the league’s best seller.”

That’s awesome to hear.

Parker is the future of women’s basketball, and if she demands attention in the right ways, she just might transcend her sport, and set a precedence for women’s sports in general. Parker is incredibly marketable, she’s got a great story, and she’s not going to sell her body for money.

I wish the WNBA, Parker’s agent and Adidas the best of luck in generating some much-needed publicity to an awesome sport and its most promising chance at creating a new era of marketing for female athletes.

Once upon a time, the WNBA reached out to female bloggers…

And they lived happily ever after.

This is not a fairytale – it’s truth.

Today, the WNBA reached out to me (on behalf of Women Talk Sports), @techmama Beth Blecherman of Silicon Valley Mom Blogs’ Techmamas, @PunditMom of PunditMom and Sarah, @GoonSquadSarah, of Blogher.

Why? Because they wanted our opinion. On how they can become more involved in social media.

It’s truly refreshing to hear when a company actually decides to listen and take feedback from its audience – namely, in the WNBA’s case, influencers of niche female blogging communities.

We gave them some great ideas, including having athletes join Twitter (in my opinion this is the most important thing they need to do), making RSS feeds more visible and identifiable, having more embeddable/portable content, having WNBA players create viral videos teaching basketball moves, attending blogger conferences such as Blogher, guest blogging, offering tickets and incentives to bloggers so they can give them away as prizes, inviting bloggers to attend the WNBA draft, making WNBA players available for weekly or monthly interviews.

This is all really great stuff (there’s more, but it’s too much to type up).

I learned a few things, too…

I learned that Diana Taurasi maybe be one of the first WNBA players on Twitter, also maybe Candice Wiggins (who’s got a great background story). I heard that the WNBA has many great charitable programs that bloggers should hear about and cover. Also, I was invited today to join the WNBA’s Facebook fan page and follow them on Twitter, @WNBA.

In addition, I came to the realization that female sports bloggers need to start more actively engaging with mom blogs (we have many similarities). Together, we can help promote female sports initiatives. THEY are the ones with the connection to the youth audience.

I hope (if I can afford it) to attend future Blogher conferences and network with some of the mommy bloggers – I hope some of the female professional sports teams (and their sponsors) will be in attendance, too. Would be great to have an entire session dedicated to female sports someday.

Anyway, if you have any ideas that you’d like me to pass along, please be sure to leave me a comment. I’m very excited of this new relationship, and I hope WNBA will continue to foster more as they grow to engage directly with their fans and become a more transparent, credible organization.

Thank you, Peter Casey

I would like to publically thank Peter Robert Casey for Tweeting back something to me that should be passed around to women’s basketball advocates everywhere (haha he’s going to laugh when he reads this).

So, to give you some background, I’ve been following Peter Casey for awhile on Twitter, mainly because we have common interests. He loves basketball. In fact, according to his bio, he serves as Director of Sponsorships and Business Development for the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic at the legendary Rucker Park in Harlem, NY. (cool job)

Anyway, he’s got some great commentary and is in the loop with everything geared toward social media and sports. (He’s got 11,000 followers – pretty impressive).

Well, yesterday, he posted an article from Forbes which misogynistically lists America’s Best Basketball Coaches, none of which coach WOMEN’S BASKETBALL.

So I replied to Peter, below:

This is what his response was.

Peter, on behalf of women’s basketball advocates everywhere, THANK YOU.

By the way, Peter’s got a cool looking personal site (totally adds value to his personal brand) located here. Check it out. And follow him on Twitter – like I said, he’s got some great commentary.

Mascots and Masculinity

So the idea from this blog came in response to a previous post that got me thinking.  I have been on teams that have used the term “Lady” in front of our schools mascot in order to somehow feminize our image.  Although this argument may seem trivial or like a small issue, it is important for women to start realizing these examples are preventing women from truly being seen as equals in the sports arena. 

According to the Handbook of Sociology of Gender, more than 50% of 4-year colleges in the United States use sexist names for women’s teams, such as adding “Lady” to the mascot name, adding the suffix “ette” (Yellow Jackettes or Thorobrettes), or using a diminutive version of the mascot for women’s teams (Kittens or Belles).

In my opinion, we are feeding into stereotypes of women, by altering a mascot name in any of the aforementioned ways, to pertain to a women’s sports team.  Why does the mascot have to have any gender at all?  Why is the default gender male?  Does it make a difference if the hawk, bulldog, lion, professor, volunteer, cardinal, etc. is a male or a female?  Does the gender predict how we act when participating?  God forbid men are forced to compete with a female mascot, therefore all mascots must be inherently male.  As female athletes we should want to embody the same ferocious and competitive characteristics as our male counterparts.  What are we gaining by feminizing the mascot?  Do I want to be described as lady-like on the court, field, in the pool, inside the batters box? 

Obviously I do not want to get off topic, but something that just came to mind, “you throw like a girl.”  Well, #1 – I am a girl, and #2 – why is that a bad thing?  Why do these stereotypes still exist, and why, as women, are we contributing to this image? 

In my research I found two noteworthy articles relating to this topic, “We’re not bitches, we’re Bulldogs,” and “‘Lady’ Interrupted.”  Both articles use the Lady Vols as an example, and I cannot think of a better one.  Now, you don’t need to follow Women’s Basketball or even watch SportsCenter to know that the Lady Vols are one of the most known icons in Women’s College Basketball.  They are a FORCE, from all-time winningest college basketball coach, Pat Summitt, to first pick in the WNBA draft Candace Parker.  The Lady Vols have won 8 National Championship titles and have competed in every single NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball tournament since the NCAA began sanctioning the sport in 1981.  I don’t know many men that would argue the toughness that these ladies show on the court day in and day out.  I might go as far to say that the Lady Vols could compete with numerous men’s college basketball programs.  Why do we need to feminize their mascot?  The term lady is used to describe a women who is refined and polite.  I can assure you that the Lady Vols are not worried about being refined and polite on the basketball court.  Nor should any other female student-athlete be portrayed as refined and polite while competing in their respective sport.  And we, as a society, need to realize there is nothing wrong with female athletes WANTING to be competitive, ferocious, intimidating, strong, and powerful. 

In 2007, C. Vivian Stringer and Pat Summitt shared their conflicting opinions on this topic.  Summitt’s stance, “That Lady Vols logo is known throughout the country and throughout the world, I just can’t see that changing.”  Stringer’s viewpoint, “basketball is basketball, and you don’t need to make a distinction.”  The times are evident, and it’s time WE make a change!

UConn is dominating NCAA women’s basketball

Check out this post on Sports Illustrated. Talks about how Connecticut (18-0 after routing North Carolina on Monday) is the unanimous No. 1 team in this week’s ESPN/USA Today’s women’s basketball rankings.

Geno must be doing something right up there…

For the complete rankings, click here.

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