Women don’t get their share of spectators, I’m told, because a. women don’t spectate and b. women are not spectacular. I’m curious how you would react to that.

As a female athlete and coach and parent of female athletes, I love playing and teaching sports but not spectating. (except for youth games where I know the players) I occasionally watch the men’s games because their speed, accuracy and play-making leaves you shaking your head and saying whoa! It’s good entertainment.

What I love about watching the best women play the sports I play is I can actually hope to (try to) play that way. I can’t rip a driven pass out of the air and stop it at my feet in one touch (like the men) but I can touch it into space and one-two it to create a scoring chance (like the women). So – I guess if that’s role-modeling, I’m stuck there.

Looking forward to reading more posts.

Thanks as always for the thoughts.

The biggest challenge for women’s soccer is making the WPS league viable. It’s skating on very thin ice in its third season, with just 6 teams. I hope there will be a post-World Cup boost for the league, but it has a lot of tough issues regardless.

The games from Germany that I’ve seen have been terrific, lots of great goals. The quality of the sport is improving; if Brazil and France can improve goalkeeping and fitness levels that long have been the advantage for the U.S., that will be something to behold. Their talent and skill on the ball are exemplary, evidence of being from soccer nations.

The initial overnight ratings for the US-France match are good: http://fangsbites.com/2011/07/strong-overnights-for-womens-world-cup/

And ESPN does see a lot of potential for soccer, mostly international events, English Premier League, US men and women, etc. So its commitment to WWC is paying off as well:
http://espn.go.com/blog/poynterreview/post/_/id/80/espn-resources-pay-off-at-world-cup

Ian Darke is ESPN’s voice for much of that soccer; it’s not just limited to the women.

But the American team’s showing I think will help give women’s sports another powerful, visible example, and that is to be commended. Just like the emergence of Maya Moore as a basketball superstar.

Gradually, more and more people are being won over by how these women compete, and their personalities as athletes and entertainers and not just how they look or what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. This is why I rail so hard against the feminist hardliners, who want this perfect world that fits their narrow ideology. Winning over men such as yourself is the real key to women’s sports truly broadening their appeal.

(PS – Ian Darke just might have become the kind of signature broadcast voice who, with his call of USA-Brazil, will give women’s sports the cultural heft and centrality it can so clearly benefit from.)