Several leading female athletics administrators will participate in the Women in College Sports Forum April 6 in Tampa, Florida. The day-long session begins at 9 a.m. in the Tampa Hyatt Regency and will end before the national semifinals of the Women’s Final Four. Online registration is available here. 

Among the scheduled sessions is one called, “Portrayal of Female Athletes in the Media.” Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota has conducted preliminary research on the topic and will be sharing it publicly for the first time.

The Tucker Center convened 12 focus groups over the past year that included males and females ages 18-34 and 34-55. Kane, who will be joined on the panel by Rutgers Senior Associate Athletics Director Kate Hickey and ESPN announcer Beth Mowins, has been told by sports marketers that the best way to get men 18-34 interested in women’s sports is by using the “sex sells” strategy.

“I’ve always wondered how do they know that? Where are the data from sports marketers to support it?” Kane said.

The Tucker Center showed the focus groups six random photographs of female athletes that ranged from athletic to risqué.

“Women in both age groups and the men in the 34-55 group that were interested in sports were mostly attracted to images of athletic competence,” Kane said. “They were offended by images that sexualized female athletes. For the younger guys (18-34), they would say things like, ‘Wow, hot, sexy, fabulous,’ But what were they interested in consuming? We asked, ‘Would they purchase the magazine where the photo appeared?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. We asked, ‘Would you look at more images of her?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. We asked, ‘Would you attend an event?’ ‘No,’ they said, ‘because this picture has nothing to do with sports.’”
These findings are from a small sample, and Kane hopes to receive more funding from the Women’s Sports Foundation to gather research on national level.

But the initial findings are telling.

“The takeaway for us is when you sexualize female athletes, you risk alienating your core fan base, which are females and dads with daughters,” Kane said. “You do attract the interest of young males, but what you attract is the desire to find a female athlete that is a hot sexy babe. That does not translate into ‘I want to watch her play basketball.’”
Kane believes that sports marketers should pay attention to what happens at the Women’s Final Four, which has been played in front of a sell-out crowd since 1993.

“The event is sold the way men’s sporting events are sold,” Kane said. “They sell athletic competence. They sell strategy. They sell pioneers of the game like Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. They sell superstars like Candace Parker, but they don’t sell her in a skimpy sexy bathing suit. The most successful sports for women are marketed exactly like men are marketed.”

Other sessions to take place at the Women in College Sports forum are: “Breaking Barriers Together: Lessons Learned from Successful Women in Athletics;” “Women of Color: Beyond the Rim;” and “Life/Work Balance for Coaches and Administrators.”
Sheila Johnson, president and managing partner of the WNBA Washington Mystics, will deliver a keynote luncheon address.