OPINION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 SPORTS
Women’s sports deserve support, game attendance
PAGE 5
FROM THE ARCHIVE
Female athletes deserve respect for the time they put into training and the athleticism they display in their sports.
I
t was a Saturday afternoon, and I was reporting on the men’s basketball game against the Penn in December. As I took my spot on the press bench, I couldn’t help but feel slightly in awe. I was in the Liacouras Center with a full student section waving their cherry and white lights and cheering loudly throughout the game. The experience felt different, but it shouldn’t have. I cover the women’s basketball team as well, and I had already been to several of their games, MAURA watching from the courtside RAZANAUSKAS press seating. So what was the difference between the two events? The atmosphere. A large audience. A big, booming arena with a giant jumbotron hanging from center court. In society, as well as at Temple, we need to pay more attention to women’s sports and give them the respect and support they deserve. This starts with attending and watching more women’s sporting events. “I feel like we deserve more of a crowd,” said Feyonda Fitzgerald, a senior guard on the women’s basketball team. “People are bandwagoners. You can see that we’re doing good, you might as well jump on the bandwagon and come support us.” Even when the women have a better record than the men’s team, they still have smaller attendance. In a recent women’s home game, they drew a crowd of 1,117 people in a conference weekend match against Memphis. Meanwhile, the men’s recent matchup against the Tigers drew 4,950 people on a weeknight. To put the teams’ success this season in perspective, the women were going for their 11th straight win while the men were playing for their second win in eight games. And yet, more than 3,000 people would rather go to the men’s game than the women’s. “I don’t know what it will take to get people to come out to the games,” Fitzgerald said. “I mean we’re winning, so I don’t know what it will take. Hopefully we keep winning and hopefully it attracts more and more people.” Obviously, this discrepancy in support isn’t limited to basketball. Paige Gross, a midfielder on the field hockey team, has also noticed attendance is smaller for women’s sports. Even when fellow athletes support each other, she said, it tends to be one-sided. “We’re all kind of interconnected and we’re all friends,” Gross said. “But you do get a sense that the women’s sports support the women’s sports and the men’s teams will go to the men’s sports.” The lack of attendance at women’s games also plays into discrimination from sports media. “There’s sort of an interesting question in the
sociology of sports around the idea, ‘Are women’s sports less popular because people don’t go to them and they don’t get airtime on ESPN, or do they not get airtime and people don’t go to them because they’re less popular?’” said Andrew Young, a sixth-year Ph.D. student and sociology instructor. This chicken-or-the-egg dichotomy poses an issue because it becomes difficult to determine the most effective way to increase popularity in women’s sports. But regardless of the route we take, progress needs to be made quickly. According to a study updated in 2015 by professors from the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, men’s sports receive more than 90 percent of coverage in the news and sports highlight shows. “That’s one potential reason that people don’t go to games, because they don’t know about them,” Young said. “They’re not seen as important. The cool games are seen as the men’s basketball games and that’s where all the TV cameras are. You could be on TV if you go, and if you go to the women’s game, then you’re just going to sit there with like three other people.” Meanwhile, sports news outlets like ESPN don’t take the initiative to educate viewers about women’s teams, and they don’t encourage them to watch women’s games since the channels won’t show them. This makes it harder for viewers to develop an attachment to a team or admire a specific athlete. People aren’t even being exposed to women’s sports in order to pay them the respect they deserve. Some say they prefer men’s games because they’re “faster-paced” or “more exciting,” but women also put on thrilling games filled with incredible acts of athleticism. It’s just that people aren’t watching. “I think we need respect in that we do put in as much work, as much effort, if not more sometimes, to be where we are and we have sacrificed to get to where we are,” Gross said. “I think that’s something we don’t get as much credit for as the guys do.” Both men and women put in the hours at the gym, follow strict diets, manage busy schedules and, most importantly, they both warrant equal levels of support, facilities, funding and respect. Despite lower ratings and attendance, Gross remains hopeful about the future of women’s sports. I do, too. I hope that women will be heralded with the same awe that sports fans reserve for their favorite male athletes. And the next time I walk into the Liacouras Center and see a full arena, I hope I’ll have to stop and remember whether I am covering a women’s or men’s game. maura.razanauskas@temple.edu @CaptainAMAURAca
September 24, 1976: Temple University Hospital negotiated with city representatives to bring the services offered by Women Organized Against Rape, like medical treatment and counseling, to the hospital. WOAR’s contract with Philadelphia General Hospital at the time was set to expire, meaning survivors of rape could no longer be admitted to the hospital’s emergency room. Last week, WOAR opened a satellite office on Main Campus to offer 24-hour support to survivors of sexual assault. The office’s location will remain undisclosed for the privacy of students. Those seeking WOAR’s services can call its hotline at 215-985-3333 and a WOAR representative will meet up with them on campus at any time of day. TRAILPASS
DELANEY KEITH FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS
Temple Student Government and the Office of Sustainability are hoping to negotiate with SEPTA to offer students a discounted TrailPass.
HISTORY
Philadelphia’s historical sites have stories to share Students should learn about the three centuries worth of history within the city.
I
’ve lived in Center City my whole life, but the only time I’ve ever seen Independence Hall has been in movies and the media. I’ve never made the visit in person. It seems like a lack of motivation on my part. It would only take a five-minute drive from my house to reach the very place where our founders declared our independence from Great Britain in 1776 and cemented the values of our nation in the Constitution 11 years later. Philadelphia, which has existed for more than 300 years, is filled with historical sites dating back to colonial times. These sites have stories SAMANTHA WONG to tell — if people are willing to listen. As students living in the city, we should make a habit of exploring Philadelphia’s past to better appreciate the present. “There’s such a distinct history in Philadel-
phia that is represented in different ways and is told in so many ways,” history professor Bryant Simon said. The second floor of Independence Hall was the original site of the Charles Willson Peale American Museum, a natural history museum founded in the early 1800s that exhibited biological and botanical specimens, said Seth Bruggeman, a history professor. It’s “arguably the first museum in the United States,” Bruggeman added. Alex Marothy, a sophomore film and media arts major, grew up in Germantown near the Cliveden, an estate that was vital to the Battle of Germantown in the Revolutionary War. It was the main site of bloodshed between Americans and the British within city limits. British soldiers took refuge in the home and fought off American soldiers for hours until George Washington’s army finally retreated. “Growing up in a very colonial neighborhood influenced me,” Marothy said. “I was always connected to some geographic ancestry in some way.” Our past is intertwined with the modern day and our own identities. Entering these spaces should allow us all a greater awareness of our ourselves and our humanity.
These realizations should hopefully provoke discussion too — both while we visit a historic site and long after we leave it. “We can talk on hard issues and we can witness one another react in powerful emotions,” Bruggeman said. “There’s something about the museum-going experience that humanizes us.” Some students who grew up in the Philadelphia area relied on grade school field trips to see these historic places — I know I did. For some, this provided less reason to visit independently. “I’ve grown up in Philly, but I only went to historical places and museums during school trips,” said Alaina Castelli, a sophomore early childhood education major. “I feel like people are less likely to go because they feel like they know all that they need to know.” “Even though I only went to these places through school, I still found it educational and thought it taught me a lot about the historical figures in Philly,” Castelli added. Even now though, some Temple students only make the trips to historic sites to fulfill class requirements. But our motivation to learn about the past can’t be limited to mandatory class visits. Curiosity should prompt us to actively seek information about our past.
“History is important but there’s so many different ways to experience it that it doesn’t have to be just the Liberty Bell,” Simon said. “My favorite thing about some of the historical sites is when they try to think about history in new ways, very progressive ways, such as the Eastern State Penitentiary,” Bruggeman said. Eastern State Penitentiary was the first penitentiary in the world, and it remained open until the 1970s. “That structure is preserved as a stabilized ruin, so it’s very beautiful and spooky in some ways,” Bruggeman said. “And their staff has decided to go beyond the spookiness and talk about serious issues of social justice and talk about incarceration.” Clearly, the past can serve as a springboard to discuss modern issues. While attempting to make a difference in the present, it is often helpful to look at the past. But students need to be aware of their resources before they can use them. We could all benefit from being more aware of the city we call home — even if it’s just for four years — and taking advantage of the history Philadelphia has to offer. samantha.wong@temple.edu
letters@temple-news.com