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'Bed - rock, Bed - rock!' my sister and I screamed in unison, as our breath seemed to freeze in midair at Candlestick Park. Pitcher Steve Bedrosian, a.k.a 'Bedrock', was about to close the deal for the San Francisco Giants baseball team with a victory over the Chicago Cubs in the 1989 National League Division Series Championship. Experiences like these were the building blocks of my life as a sports fan. My father, a Giants fan since the age of four, went to great measures early on to ensure that his daughters would also be lifelong fans.
How is a sports fan made? I believe she is born. She is born into a family that values sports and spends time to develop athletic traditions and loyalties. Historically, fathers have been more able to pass on a love of the game to their children based on personal playing experiences. Conversely, many mothers lacked familiarity or experience with any sport, and therefore had few or no athletic traditions to pass onto their children. When asked about her first impressions of sports, my mother recalls memories that are strictly visual in nature -- watching and cheering, mostly for the football team and occasionally at a basketball game. She and other young women were literally sidelined from the action.
Consequentially, in past years children have learned from males to be sports fans and cultivated interests in sports mostly by observing male athletes and heroes. The opportunities to play sports were also created by and mainly for men. It is those who have the chance to deepen their sports experience and perception through playing that have better odds of becoming lifelong fans. For years, such opportunities have excluded women.
Long-term fans are what create profitable and successful professional sports leagues because it is their perceived and quantified interest that generates incentives for corporate sponsorship and advertising and result in radio and television airtime. It is this type of publicity that surrounds professional male sports and extends their popularity into profit. Professional women's leagues require the same level of public attention and financial support in order to persist. This can be gained by a dedicated group of fans that pass on a legacy of interest and loyalty to future generations, recycling sports stories and heroes, as has been done in male sports.
Since fans are a critical element in maintaining the financial health of professional sports, the good news for professional women's athletics is that there finally exists a generation of women who have played the game throughout their lifetime. Born in 1979, one year after the official end of 'Generation X', I represent this first generation of girls and women who have truly reaped the benefits of Title IX and experienced opportunity for participation in sports all the way from childhood to elite levels.
'Generation neXt' consists of over 19,771,195 women between the ages of 25 and 34 (U.S. Census Bureau: http://factfinder.census.gov), who were able to play soccer, basketball, softball, tennis, gymnastics, and many other sports from day one. Many of these women have had or will have children that will be raised with an entirely different set of expectations, opportunities, and interests surrounding sports -- different from that of their grandmothers, and even their mothers.
From a business perspective, of even greater significance surrounding this generation of women is their vast influence over millions of American men. The sons, fathers, husbands, and friends of these female fans will likely join them as they continue to attend, watch, and create demand for coverage of women's games during their post athletic career.
Male dominated living rooms and couches, beware. Mothers from 'Generation neXt' will have first hand experience to share with their children and can more actively participate in the athletic components of family tradition, including watching sports on TV within the home ('Dad, can you please get me and Mom sodas?').
How will professional women's sports survive? Many believe the answer is by getting men interested in watching them. This can be achieved in a more profound and long lasting way through the emergence of a generation of adult women who simply can't live without sports. The men that can't live without these women will have no choice but to recognize the merits of and increase their exposure to the women's game, will be more likely to build female team and player loyalties, and will share in new family traditions that include women's sports. This is how fans are born at any age, for any gender.
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