In July, 1972 millions of Americans huddled around television sets and radios broadcasting what was probably the biggest international sporting event to take place that month. It wasn’t the Olympics or the World Cup. It was the world chess championship, which pitted American prodigy, Bobby Fischer, against the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky. The hysteria wasn’t caused by a surge in the popularity of the game among Americans. In fact, chess was never particularly popular in America. Rather, it was caused by the backdrop of the cold war, and the narrative of a lone 29-year-old kid from Brooklyn taking on the Goliath that was the Soviet chess system. Furthermore, Fischer exhibited erratic behaviour and a flare for unpredictability that bordered on neurosis, all of which made for a fascinating protagonist who captured the imagination of the American public.
If nothing else, the widespread interest in the match between Fischer and Spassky shows us that any audience can be compelled to pay attention to any spectator competition, sporting or otherwise, even if they have no knowledge or inherent interest in the game itself. Boxing promoters have understood this for decades. Although boxing, along with baseball and horseracing, once stood atop the pyramid of the most popular American spectator sports, it has long since drifted into obscurity. Today only a handful of die-hard fans follow the sport with any regularity. Still, when big enough fight comes along, promoters manage to get casual fans, who haven’t watched a match in years to shell out $50-plus to order the pay-per-view broadcast.
The formula is actually quite simple. (1) Introduce potential viewers to the combatants. (2) Share intimate details about the fighters’ lives so that viewers can develop an emotional connection with one fighter and, if possible, a strong animosity toward the other. (3) Explain to the viewers that the stakes are so high in this particular contest that victory is almost a matter of life and death.
Once a promoter has covered these three steps, it doesn’t matter whether someone is a boxing fan, or even if they know the rules of the sport. The human interest aspect is enough to pull people in. The same general formula can be seen in many of the top sports movies, especially documentaries. That’s probably why the two biggest television networks in boxing, HBO and Showtime, began producing entire documentary mini-series (24/7 and Fight Camp 360 respectively) that they air in the weeks leading up to every fight just to build up the anticipation.
Given this trend of highly unpopular sports enjoying sudden, ephemeral bursts of prominence, one shouldn’t be surprised at the interest in this summer’s Women’s World Cup of Soccer here in North America. American sports fans are especially fickle about the sporting crazes they’re willing to latch onto, yet given the right marketing push, they’ll gladly embrace even the most obscure sport, such as freestyle swimming, as Michael Phelps demonstrated in 2008.
In most cases, women’s sports aren’t nearly as obscure as boxing, chess or swimming. Rather, the problem is that sports fans don’t know the players, and they don’t realize just how good those players are. On top of that, little to no resources are spent on generating a buzz for women’s leagues and women’s tournaments, so potential fans never get the sense that something major is at stake. Instead, women’s leagues are viewed as a sort of recreational league for players who aren’t good enough to go pro and now just play for fun. In other words, it’s similar to an exhibition match. Contrast this with NCAA basketball and football. The vast majority of NCAA athletes really aren’t good enough to go pro, yet their championship matches are some of the most widely watched sporting events in America every year. The difference is the marketing.
The popularity of the U.S. women’s national soccer team during the world cup was garnered despite a woeful lack of marketing. If advertisers had given the event the same attention they pay to men’s sports, who knows how big the World Cup could have been. Perhaps the U.S. soccer community should be looking to Abby Wombach as the vehicle that finally propels soccer into the American mainstream, rather than the aging and overrated David Beckham.
Could it also be that society places less value on women's sports because women are considered inferior athletes?
the key is tribalism. national sports are almost always compelling because you have a 'vested' interest in cheering for one side over the other. people will sit through any olympic event, no matter how dull if they think their side can win a medal.