A nationally ranked JMU sports team, a team made up of the best athletes in the nation and undefeated in their season. No, I am not talking about Football or Basketball, I am talking about the JMU women’s lacrosse team. The JMU women’s lacrosse team is currently ranked 2nd in the nation with a record of 6-0. On February 10th the dukes beat the 2022 national champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels, in overtime. With this team’s great success and national ranking, most would think that their fan turnout would be larger than what it actually is. This brings up the question of, why is it that a nationally ranked and undefeated sports team is not getting the attention that other successful sports get on campus?
I attended the JMU v. UNC women’s lacrosse game on February 10th and in my opinion it was one of the most interesting and exciting lacrosse I have gotten to watch in person. I grew up playing lacrosse and have always had a love for watching both women’s and men’s games. However, when I was at the womens game a couple of weeks ago, I noticed their were not many fans in the stand, it was mostly parents and some students, but nothing compared to the fan turnout at football, basketball, or even men’s lacrosse games.
All over the world the audience for women’s sports is much lower than the audience for men’s sports. This is due to the lack of media coverage and the quality of any media coverage that women’s sports get is lower quality compared to men’s sports. The amount of money that goes into the broadcasts of men’s sports is almost double the amount of money that goes into the broadcasts and productions of women’s sports. We, as an audience, play a huge role in the popularity of women’s sports. If more people start to watch and support women’s sports, then more funding will go into those programs. This would allow them to have more money for better coverage of their games, and allow them to advertise for different women’s leagues to draw in more fans.
Female athletes also do not know get nearly the same acknowledgments for their achievements as male athletes do. Women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark, from the University of Iowa broke Steph Curry’s record for the most 3 pointer scored in the NCAA. It has been posted on various social media platforms, recognizing her great accomplishment, however people in the comments of these posts are trying to down play her accomplishments. When a woman is successful in sports and becomes more successful then a man, there are always comments made that it is easier for a girl because they play at a “lower level” than men. It is rare that women get the recognition that they deserve, however women prove, time and time again that they are capable of the same things that male atheltes are.
Equality between men and women sports has been something that women have been fighting for, for a long time. People are more inclined to watch men’s sports, whether there is a reason for not watching women’s sports or if their reason is solely that they do not want to watch women’s sports. It takes the us, the audience to give support to women’s sports teams, these female athletes are strong, talented women and they deserve the same recognition as the male athletes. As years have gone on we have seen women rise to the occasion, setting records, drawing in more attention, changing the world of women’s sports.
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