Transcript
Major issues which have emerged in evidence at the Senate Inquiry into women’s sport and recreation include sheer frustration at the ongoing lack of coverage of high quality and exciting women’s sport.
This is despite proof that it is immensely popular when packaged well, as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games prove.
One recent example is the failure of any broadcast or pay television channel to put to air the Women’s Football Asian Cup semi final or final.
Australia’s national team, the Matildas, won the semi-final against Japan and, while they lost the final to China in thrilling match that went to a penalty shoot-out, their achievement saw them qualify for the Women’s World Cup finals in China next year, the fifth biggest global sporting event.
The Football Federation of Australia, while not responsible for selling the broadcast rights in Australia, said there appeared to be little interest from Australian media despite comprehensive coverage in other countries with a team in the Asian Cup tournament.
Links
- Terms of Reference
- Kate Lundy Media Release: The Inquiry
- ALP Media Release: The Inquiry
- Kate Lundy Media Release: The Matildas
- The Matildas home page
5 Comments
Reply | Subscribe
Is this really an issue? If women watched more sport rather than complaining while their men watch sport, women’s sport would be popular. The average male doesn’t want to see women play cricket or soccer because it’s a joke and ruins the credibility of the sport played in general.
If women were interested, then I’m sure women’s sport would be popular.
By the way, the weather is nice up in sydney (please refer to the SMH article
)
I really enjoy watching the netball,swimming and soccer when women play. If the federal government could bailout Soccer in this country then I believe a concerted effort to finance women’s sport could also be made
dr paul
Congratulations on using technology to reach the community and receive open comments.
Just finished a conversation with a feloow administrator in Cricket and together we are trying to grwo participation of womens cricket in South West Sydney.
The male bias ith the No.1 sport is a barrier despite the many commitments mad eby Cricket Australia and relevant State bodies. What is clear to us though is that womens sport should stop trying to offer the same game as the men / boys to new participants.
Women / Girls are not able to play the “same” game but the market is definitely there for them to play the same Bat & Ball game but modified to suit an all women / girl participation.
Lots of detail behind that statement but leave that thought with you.
Allan
If anonymous reckons “The average male doesn’t want to see women play cricket or soccer because it’s a joke and ruins the credibility of the sport played in general.” then anonymous needs some facts.
The Australian Women’s Cricket Team have won more world cups than any other side. They are considered the best women’s cricket team in the world and are ranked number one. How on earth could you think that possibly ruined the credibility of the sport?
The Matildas, the Australian Women’s Soccer team, are also very successful and with an impressive record – they have won or drawn their last ten games.
If you think women’s sport is a joke and ruins the credibility of the games, that says more about you and your attitude than it does about our very successful and highly skilled women’s teams.
The fact is that women’s sport is vastly underfunded, and so women know that there’s not a fulltime professional career available to them in their chosen sport – in stark contrast to the highly paid men. Perhaps that has more to do with women being, as you implied, less interested than men, than their being women.
I bet if your average footballer got told they wouldn’t be paid enough to support themselves and would have to work as well as playing AFL, there’d be an uproar (considering how some of them carry on upon being told their salaries are being cut) – and yet in women’s sports that’s the status quo.
Thanks for you thoughts on this – The lack of coverage is a serious problem. If it were a joke, why do ratings of women’s sport skyrocket during events like the Olympics?? This shows it is more about investment in quality production and promotion and a decent time slot. allan’s point is spot on too – there is a lot of lip service paid by organisations but not much happens unless people like allan make it happen! Rebekka’s point about under funding is true, and that is linked to no coverage, which means less sponsorship, which means no salries for women athletes etc. It’s a vicious circle that needs to be broken.