Governance of Women's Sport
Since women’s professional sports have begun they have expanded quite quickly and have been watched by both men and women all over the world. The greatest impact on women’s sports occurred when the AIAW was taken over by the NCAA. The AIAW governed all women’s athletics while the NCAA was limited to men’s athletics. “ ‘When the NCAA realized that they weren’t going to change Title IX, they did the next best thing- take over all women’s athletics,” (Gardiner). The NCAA had two choices they could continue to lose to Title IX and continue to lose money to the AIAW or they could promote women’s athletics much like they did men’s and make money off the women’s sports. Attendances at the games increased due to the new governing body. “Attendance, which has skyrocketed for almost every women’s sport since 1982, is only one measure of advances made under the NCAA’s governance…The 2001 Division I championship game (basketball) earned a 3.34 rating on ESPN, the equivalent of 2.7 million households. That outdrew any of the 200- plus regular season men’s basketball games on ESPN and ESPN 2 and dwarfed that network’s average rating for regular-season major league baseball (1.23), (Gardiner). The new contract for the women’s NCAA basketball tournament is $160 million for 11 years (Gardiner). The methods of marketing that the NCAA learned through trial and error from the men’s teams that they had governed over the years were implemented to promote women’s athletics for the NCAA’s own financial benefit. Regardless of the motives, the NCAA is helping women gain spectators and respect from the public.