You read the title right. Back in 2004, Sports Business News released a set of statistics that revealed an estimated 40% of the NFL’s fan base consisted of women. 
As an avid fan of football in general, both collegiate and professional, I am proud to consider myself a part of that 40%, and it appears that the NFL and its partners/sponsors are honing in on the group that makes up that statistic. I remember the first time I caught the Reebok commercial for NFL merchandise for women. A rewind and review was necessary and possible with TIVO in order to make sure I had really seen that right, and I must say I was truly impressed with the attempt to target the female audience.
With that said, I came across an article by another female football fan, Ivette Ricco (President of femmefan.com), who is a little less impressed with the way that the NFL supposedly attempts to appeal to its female audience. She proposes a few ideas that would make the game experience better “if chicks ran the NFL.” While a good number are silly and ridiculous, there a few where I think she may have a point. The question is do they require women running the NFL to make it happen? Below are a few of her ideas:
As an avid fan of football in general, both collegiate and professional, I am proud to consider myself a part of that 40%, and it appears that the NFL and its partners/sponsors are honing in on the group that makes up that statistic. I remember the first time I caught the Reebok commercial for NFL merchandise for women. A rewind and review was necessary and possible with TIVO in order to make sure I had really seen that right, and I must say I was truly impressed with the attempt to target the female audience.With that said, I came across an article by another female football fan, Ivette Ricco (President of femmefan.com), who is a little less impressed with the way that the NFL supposedly attempts to appeal to its female audience. She proposes a few ideas that would make the game experience better “if chicks ran the NFL.” While a good number are silly and ridiculous, there a few where I think she may have a point. The question is do they require women running the NFL to make it happen? Below are a few of her ideas:
- Wine, because beer makes us "go" way too often, and puts on the pounds. The wine has to be the good stuff not Wyoming Valley vintage 2000 with twist off caps.
- Baby-sitting services at every stadium in the USA where you can drop off the rug-rats while you sit back and enjoy the game.
- An e-lounge where you can stay wired into every electronic gadget in your life during the game.
- Team Apparel that fits us and isn't made for men who are 6'2" and weigh in at 330 pounds.
- Ladies Day at least once a year in every stadium for every sport.
- We love the yellow first down line; this is the best thing since the Wonder Bra. Every network should be required to use this feature during NFL broadcasts.
- With all the technology available let's put a trailer after the ball or sensors on the goals posts that light up when the ball goes though, or how about positioning the camera above the goal post?
Perhaps Ms. Ricco is on to something. Perhaps a select handful from that 40% of football fans who are women could run the NFL and make it a better game experience. Any female football fan up for the challenge?
5 comments:
I think the points you listed are really good. I'm really not the biggest football fan there is but I'm watching games. I loved Reebok's idea to finally introduce women apparel. We don't have to buy youth and kids size jerseys anymore.
I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to involve more women in running the NFL. As we all know, you have to promote a guys sport differently to women than you do to men. And maybe if the NFL would be marketed more towards women there would be even more women watching and attending games.
I do think more females are getting into football and are actually knowledgeable about the game. I think the NFL should definitely target women in their ad campaigns. I did not like Ms. Ricco's points of having wine instead of beer; it just sounds too girly. However I think it's about time that the NFL and other sports leagues started making women's apparel.
This might seem to be too much of a man's point of view but let's be realistic, The NFL while they attempt to tap the market that is the female fan, they will never rely on the female fan for overall success. We could contribute this to an "old school" mentality. Or we could take a step back and realize that the NFL has been geared towards men since the days of Vince Lombardi. While marketing to females is understandably a great idea with the continued increase in female fans, but "If chicks ran the NFL" is a completely a different story. Don't get me wrong no one is saying that a business woman couldn't run the NFL but yet she could not loose track of the main idea that football is and always will be successful through the targeting of men (from apparel, tickets, memorabilia etc…). We must all realize that business in today's society is not gender oriented thus while men and or women could do a great job in running a business like a professional sport organization or league we must also not be naive to the point where we would believe that such a business like the NFL could ever reach the same success if the NFL were the WNFL. Women and Men alike have the potential to be wonderful business people but what allows those individuals to become successful is the blind eye towards what it takes to be successful.
The world of football is still a man's world. I don't think women want to change things that much, they just want to be recognized as passionate and loyal fans.
My "If Chicks Ran the NFL" articles were meant to be humorous and to inject some fun into what can sometimes become all too serious. The game is after all, a game and meant to be fun.
But that said, women are spending millions of dollars on the NFL, yet the NFL's marketing efforts seem to be stereotyping the female fan in much the same way it stereotypes male fans and beer drinking.
If Chicks..is just a way to enjoy what is the greatest spectator sport in America, the NFL.
I volunteer to head the NFL's Female Fan Divison and set a course for the development of female fans for future generations.
Ivette Ricco
President, www.Femmefan.com
I definitely think that its a great idea to introduce a women's line of Reebok football apparel. Now we can actually buy merchandise without it being overflowing and huge. This will increase sales and profits for Reebok and also make a lot of women football fans happy. While some of the ideas presented by Ms. Ricco are good, other seem quite ridiculous. Having wine at the games or flashing lights to indicate if the field goal was made? I mean, come on, let's be real here. Don't make women seem stupid.
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