Women’s versus men’s viewership

“For men, I think they’re just a lot more athletic than women. Men make more powerful moves like dunks and similar things while women do a lot more passing which is not as exciting,” Hayes said. 

From the beginning of time, it has been said that men are naturally more athletic than women. Men have higher testosterone levels, so they can gain more muscle and do so much faster than women. However, that doesn’t automatically make men’s sports more appealing.  

There has been a continuous discussion about whether opposite genders generate different entertainment experiences. Some people prefer the more aggressive, stronger moves, while others prefer the more strategic, team-oriented game.

Richard Stephens, the girls varsity basketball head coach, expressed his opinion on the topic.

“[Women basketball players] tend to play the game in a more pure form. They don’t play above the rim, it’s not all dunks, and they have to work to create shots,” Stephens said. “Women have to be crafty and smart whereas men can just use their size and strength to score.”

The ongoing debate of whether women’s or men’s sports are more entertaining to watch leads to another question: is it really that women’s sports don’t attract as many viewers, or are they just not given the same publicity as men?

“You have to work to find somewhere to watch women’s sports. If women had the funding and the capabilities to be televised properly, I think they would acquire the same amount of revenue and entertainment level as men,” Gaboury said.

A report by the University of Southern California (USC) News discovered 95% of total television coverage on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) and SportsCenter focused on men’s sports rather than women’s.

“Unfortunately, there’s always going to be a percentage of males out there that will have a mindset that [women’s sports] is just not as good. But we have seen in women’s soccer and tennis that the popularity is just as high, if not more,” Stephens said.