Men's sports pull in all the fans and leave the females looking for support.
There are many male-dominated fields in our culture: the military, CEO positions, political executives, etc. At Ohio University, sports can be added to this list as well.
Now, there is not an overbearing amount of male athletes walking around campus when compared to female athletes. But in terms of game attendance, men’s sports have a significantly larger amount of fans at their games than do women’s sports.
For example, in a previous Post report, the attendance for both men’s and women’s basketball was examined, and while men’s basketball attendance stayed roughly the same throughout winter break, women’s basketball attendance took a hit.
But we live in a culture dominated by football and baseball, two sports that women do not traditionally participate in past the age of peewee leagues and summer camps. So we shouldn’t be too surprised to see this tradition of male sport popularity carry over to the humble community of Athens.
That being said, school spirt and the pride for the Bobcats should be enough to even out the participation on the sports playing field. There are plenty of women’s sports here in our OU bubble that provide just as much nail-biting intensity as the 12-7 record of men’s basketball.
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Ohio University women’s sports even outnumber the amount of men’s sports with nine collegiate sports for females as compared to six for males.
So why is it fans gravitate toward men’s sports when women are clearly just as capable of producing entertaining games?
“Faster play," Joey Reinmann, a freshman studying sport management, said. "Men are usually more athletic, I think. It’s just how it’s been since the beginning of time, since the Olympics.”
The last game that Reinmann attended sticks to his beliefs: he was one of many fans at last Tuesday’s men’s basketball matchup against Western Michigan.
Yoseph Girma, a freshman studying computer science also believes men’s sports are just more popular.
Contrary to his beliefs that men’s sports draw in more fans, Girma said the last sporting event he attended was actually a women’s basketball game. Unfortunately, this was only because he had “nothing else to do.”
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“(Men’s sports) generally more hard hitting,” Girma said. “It’s a lot more violent.”
I’m into the sports violence just as much as the next person, but that doesn’t mean we should only go and support the games that stop the clock for a new bloody something every two minutes.
All athletes, regardless of gender, should feel as if the whole school is standing behind them when they play and not just the 20 fans that consist of their roommates and families there to cheer them on. We should all be proud to be a part of the Bobcat family and display this to opposing school when they arrive on our turf.
jj940914@ohio.edu
@thebestjess_21
