Differences for attendance to Women's Team vs. Men's Team

[Palatine]

Is there a difference in the cost of the tickets for men's and women's hoops?

 

[John]

better cougars at the Men's games.

 

[HuskyNan]

Both programs fans are spoiled so the stats should be similar (and higher) nonetheless. But the fact remains the men's games are more competitive, the parity is there in the mens game and not in the womens game. It's hard to find fans who can get themselves out of their warm homes in the winter to go watch the women Huskies knowingly win another by 50-60 points so their numbers are very good considering that in itself and the fans of the women should be commended. Still the athletic nature of the mens game, whether people like to believe the women "play the game it's supposed to be played" or not, is much more appealing to the every day basketball fan.

Most of the women's team fans are older. They used pay the points to sit in the lower bowl but then UConn got greedy and kicked them out for a bunch of Suits that don't bother to show up at the games. The loyal fans now have to go to the Civic Center and climb the stairs into the upper levels. Fans, like Teddy, the Cat in the Hat guy, had physical issues that made that difficult so they stopped going to all of the games.

Then, UConn raised the prices. Families with younger kids, and some seniors, couldn't afford the tickets and parking prices. This also made fans have to choose between going to men's games or women's games as well as possibly the football games. An all-around drop in attendance in all sports was seen.

On top of that, the Big East, the AAC, and the NCAA decided to milk the cash cow by holding as many tournaments as possible in Connecticut. Fans now have to choose among the men, the women, football, regular season, conference tourney, or NCAA tourney games. People with X numbers of dollars choose the most competitive games in their favorite sport.

It's a complicated issue with many variables.

 

[7774]

These all seem pretty "bashy" to me.

I guess I thought the tone of that post was irritation over the fact that people were bashing the UCONN women's program. Those posts were just bashing women's basketball in general, which of course is what is going to happen when a thread is created about why men's games have bigger attendance.

 

[Leebo]

I guess I thought the tone of that post was irritation over the fact that people were bashing the UCONN women's program. Those posts were just bashing women's basketball in general, which of course is what is going to happen when a thread is created about why men's games have bigger attendance.

Well, I mean the question is about attendance at our games, not games across the country. Any comments apply to our women's team in that sense and not others.

The UConn women's team isn't like any other women's team.

 

[mauconnfan]

Most of the women's team fans are older. They used pay the points to sit in the lower bowl but then UConn got greedy and kicked them out for a bunch of Suits that don't bother to show up at the games. The loyal fans now have to go to the Civic Center and climb the stairs into the upper levels. Fans, like Teddy, the Cat in the Hat guy, had physical issues that made that difficult so they stopped going to all of the games.

Then, UConn raised the prices. Families with younger kids, and some seniors, couldn't afford the tickets and parking prices. This also made fans have to choose between going to men's games or women's games as well as possibly the football games. An all-around drop in attendance in all sports was seen.

On top of that, the Big East, the AAC, and the NCAA decided to milk the cash cow by holding as many tournaments as possible in Connecticut. Fans now have to choose among the men, the women, football, regular season, conference tourney, or NCAA tourney games. People with X numbers of dollars choose the most competitive games in their favorite sport.

It's a complicated issue with many variables.

They used pay the points to sit in the lower bowl but then UConn got greedy and kicked them out for a bunch of Suits that don't bother to show up at the games. The loyal fans now have to go to the Civic Center and climb the stairs into the upper levels. Fans, like Teddy, the Cat in the Hat guy, had physical issues that made that difficult so they stopped going to all of the games.



This happened to so many of us years and years ago for the men's too. Great point.

 

[kemba]

1. Most people find the skill and athleticism of the men's game more entertaining.

2. Competitive balance. Early season men's games against Central, Maine, etc. aren't well attended, have bad atmosphere's, and aren't really that much fun. But they are as competitive as every single women's game. Even in year's the women's team isn't quite this dominant, 95% of the games are still over by halftime. It's hard to get really invested when there's only a few games a year worth watching.

3. Just not nearly as much nationwide popularity of women's basketball as men's. So there's less rivalries, less interest in following what's going on in other conferences, etc.

4. And related to lack of parity, the regular season is completely meaningless. Even when they do play a Tennessee, Notre Dame, Baylor, those games don't matter, even with a loss, you know UConn will dominate the rest of the schedule and still get a #1 seed.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I love every UConn sports program. Doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you they're fun to watch.

 

[Penfield]

They were a 31 point favorite in their elite eight match-up against 31-4 Texas. That's mind-boggling.

There are few things I love more than watching UConn steamroll people. But this would be like if the best team we played was Coppin State. That would suck.

The women regularly play the top teams in the sport and absolutely crush them. A better comparison is if the Men played Duke, UNC, Kansas & Kentucky every year, and beat them by all 20 pts. Score wise it might be similar to when the men play Coppin St, but competition wise it isn't.

I thought your first response was great btw.

 

[ctchamps]

Men's sports are simply exponentially more popular than women's sports. I think that fact can be traced back to gender expectations, some of which are socially constructed and some of which are biological.

Some would argue that men's sports are more popular for the simple reason that men are bigger, faster, and stronger. That might be true, but I think physical traits that are distinct to gender often say what we want them to say, and because of that I believe the popularity of men's sports derives primarily from cultural roots. Every young boy is exposed to an environment that views athletics as a celebration of masculinity. But to the extent that men's sports are celebrated while female sports are minimized is also somewhat arbitrary. They are different, yet different in ways that are not necessarily inherently better or worse (obviously, a men's team would beat a women's team on the scoreboard, but that doesn't make it a better product; many people on this board prefer college basketball to the pros despite the fact that the quality of play is vastly inferior).

I'll be interested on the direction you take your project in. What I've always wondered - and continue to wonder - is whether female sports would surpass men's sports in popularity if the platforms were reversed. What if instead of people like me growing up watching men sports, we grew up watching female sports? That seems preposterous and maybe it is, but the way we would react to that hypothetical would likely denote whether there is an intrinsic appeal to men's sports or if it's an extension of culture. I'm not sure if that makes sense to anybody besides me, but if we were told - explicitly or otherwise - from a young age that female sports were superior, I think there is the possibility that we begin to conceptualize female sports in a completely different way.

How does a cerebral post get into this thread. Mind boggling!
You make a lot of good points. It's a combo of culture and gender differences and preferences. But in general males dominate cultural expression.

If sex were considered a sport men would lose pen8s down. That's why it's not a sport and women are denigrated for this activity while men are lauded for their sexual prowess. Egos dominate our expression individually and culturally and the gender that controls societies dick tates that expression.

 

[BleedHuskyBlu]

These all seem pretty "bashy" to me.

What I said was true though...

 

[champs99and04]

The women regularly play the top teams in the sport and absolutely crush them. A better comparison is if the Men played Duke, UNC, Kansas & Kentucky every year, and beat them by all 20 pts. Score wise it might be similar to when the men play Coppin St, but competition wise it isn't.

I thought your first response was great btw.

Of course I understand that, I'm simply comparing the fan experience, or the idea that the disparity between UConn and Texas in women's hoops is roughly equivalent to the one between a one and a sixteen in the men's game.

 

[Penfield]

Of course I understand that, I'm simply comparing the fan experience, or the idea that the disparity between UConn and Texas in women's hoops is roughly equivalent to the one between a one and a sixteen in the men's game.

I definitely see your point, and I will admit that I don't watch most of the games. I think its the fact that its slower and played below the rim that makes it less exciting.

But to play devils advocate - if Texas is a 16 seed level type competition then what does that make the teams outside of Baylor, SC, ND? To me the fact that UConn is so much better than everyone else isn't a knock against the competition level of womens basketball. There is probably more parity than ever. It's just that Geno has assembled and coached a nearly perfect basketball team.

I understand why it can be less enjoyable to watch when the game never seems to be in doubt, so recently I have been looking at it a different way. Instead of worrying about how they fare against their opponent, I focus on how they fare against perfection. That Miss St game was just about as close as you are going to see.

I just try to imagine if the men's team were to go on a similar 4 year tear - would it really get boring? I am not sure, but as a fan I can't imagine not enjoying it.

 

[ctchamps]

I definitely see your point, and I will admit that I don't watch most of the games. I think its the fact that its slower and played below the rim that makes it less exciting.

But to play devils advocate - if Texas is a 16 seed level type competition then what does that make the teams outside of Baylor, SC, ND? To me the fact that UConn is so much better than everyone else isn't a knock against the competition level of womens basketball. There is probably more parity than ever. It's just that Geno has assembled and coached a nearly perfect basketball team.

I understand why it can be less enjoyable to watch when the game never seems to be in doubt, so recently I have been looking at it a different way. Instead of worrying about how they fare against their opponent, I focus on how they fare against perfection. That Miss St game was just about as close as you are going to see.

I just try to imagine if the men's team were to go on a similar 4 year tear - would it really get boring? I am not sure, but as a fan I can't imagine not enjoying it.

Well I can tell you positively I would be thrilled. And most of the fans deriding the women's team for lopsided victories would be as well. Don't let them kid you for one moment.

What fan of any team would prefer their team be adequate versus dominant.

And as far as the drying paint comments about the women's game that's another load of horse manure. There were a lot of games the past two seasons by the men in which I actually watched paint dry while they dribbled incessantly on the perimeter.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Thank you for your opinion, but you're in the minority fella

You're actually telling me that the majority would rather watch paint dry. Somehow, I doubt it, but I'm not gonna put up a poll to find out. Same applies to my other two sentences.

You might want to rethink your metaphor. Perhaps, like me, you're just much more interested in the men's game and UConn Men's team, as I and most others on this board are. Stop polishing your turd.

 

[arch]

We all know that UConn Women's team has been winning much more than UConn Men's team.
However, Men's team has been selling more tickets.
What explanation would you have for that? I have my guess, but I would like to hear the opinion from the fans of the Men's team.
Could you share your thoughts about that?

1. Men dominating men is more attractive to both men and women than women dominating women. Cave man stuff I guess. (And yes, I realize that there is an entire entertainment industry that begs to differ)
2. I'm sure you've already thought of this but Campus might be best place for such research as the student body attendance disparity appears much greater than that of the general public.
3. Might one suggest that, based on the responses so far, you consider redirecting your research to studying "why are nimrods attracted to sports forums?"

 

[ctchamps]

1. Men dominating men is more attractive to both men and women than women dominating women. Cave man stuff I guess. (And yes, I realize that there is an entire entertainment industry that begs to differ)
2. I'm sure you've already thought of this but Campus might be best place for such research as the student body attendance disparity appears much greater than that of the general public.
3. Might one suggest that, based on the responses so far, you consider redirecting your research to studying "why are nimrods attracted to sports forums?"

Way over generalized. The national women's soccer team gets far more viewership than the men's soccer team. Same with volley ball and figure skating and gymnastics.

There's a gradual shift towards gender neutrality in viewership of sports. There's a gradual shift away from certain sports towards other sports.

It took centuries for this country to remove racial barriers in sports. It wasn't long ago that Jackie Robinson was a sensational event. It wasn't long ago that the white population was appalled by the inclusion of a black man in "America's Sport". There was probably a generation of white males that went to their graves still hating that change, thinking it was wrong. Most fans today don't think that way. They aren't culturally programmed the way their grandparents were programmed to think.

It is part of the human state of mind to resist change - to accept the status quo because we feel that something different is silly, detrimental or dangerous.

Personally I find value in observing a multitude of types of skills at a multitude of levels. I just have to reset my mind to a different protocol to derive entertainment.

 

[Gabriela]

Because I can watch better basketball for free at a local boys highschool game.

Just so I can understand: what defines a better basketball for you?

 

[Matrim55]

Way over generalized. The national women's soccer team gets far more viewership than the men's soccer team.

That is very, very wrong:

A look at comparable types of games on English-language television show that these differences:

+212% 2014 Men's World Cup group stage vs. 2015 Women's World Cup group stage
+87% 2014 men's send-off games vs. 2015 women's send-off games
+70% 2015 men's friendlies vs. women's friendlies

Even when you include the record 25,400,000 viewers who watched the 2015 USA-Japan final on Fox, the U.S. men outdrew the U.S. women by 74 percent for their World Cup games.

What is not included are Spanish-language viewing figures.

SoccerAmerica - TV Viewers: U.S. men vs. U.S. women 04/01/2016

 

[Gabriela]

Thank you for the contributions to this discussion!
I agree with many of your answers.
Remembering that sport is not always the kind of thing where logic holds.
Feel free to add more ideas at any time!

Some of you pointed one thing that also was in my mind:
Would you stop attending the Men's games if they started to get results like Women's team?

 

[MattMang23]

Just so I can understand: what defines a better basketball for you?

I like when it's inflated and those grippy things haven't worn down.

 

[Fishy]

Some of you pointed one thing that also was in my mind:
Would you stop attending the Men's games if they started to get results like Women's team?

Would we stop going to games if the UConn men won all their games all the time?

Yes.

Someone please note the date and time at which I finally demonstrated restraint.

 

[8893]

Someone please note the date and time at which I finally demonstrated restraint.

 

[BleedHuskyBlu]

Just so I can understand: what defines a better basketball for you?

Better Offense, Defense, Athleticism.

 

[AtlantaHusky]

I think you should compare UConn women's programs to other Colleges women's programs.
Then compare fan attendence UConn men versus other Colleges men's programs.
Then compare the attendance ratio of men's and women's programs in one school versus others.

You will have a better comparison of apples to apples and probably find that relatively speaking the women have a more successful program than the men from a fan attendance perspective compared to their peers.

Also the support of both UConn's Men's and Women's programs versus other universities is no comparison (I have no facts but I'd imagine that's how this study would turn out).

The original comparison is unfair.

Apologies if this point was already stated.