According to my colleague Randy Walker, March 31 is the anniversary of the day young Martina Hingis took the number one spot on the WTA Tour, making her at the time the youngest man or woman to take the top ranking…gender didn’t matter, story did. I know this because I remember exactly where we were when the news became official that ‘The Swiss Miss’ was atop the rankings. We were in a Cracker Barrel in Hilton Head, SC, and we couldn’t go back to the press conference until Martina mastered this game where you take the golf tees and cross them over each other on a triangle until you get down to one. She did it…and it gave us a great insight into the mind of what it takes to be number one.
I mention that because, as we wrote a week or so ago, those athletes and the storylines around them made them so marketable. They were engaged, had thoughts beyond the game, were super talented, and came into a void that was promotable when many athletes were still of the ‘just play, talk less’ mentality. Their opinions and their attitudes also created the storytelling sports needs…drama, heroes and villains that are at least perceived…they made fans, both diehard and casual, want to root for or against them. Bland, vanilla, middle of the road, noncontroversial may work for some with amazing ability. For most of us, we want the interesting, the unpredictable, the emotional, the silly, the thoughtful, the relatable, to make us watch, follow and engage.
There has to be personality, and that personality can’t exist in a vacuum. It has to be pushed into a megaphone and amplified far and wide. Some of that can be traditional ‘media,’ whatever that is today, some can be amplified on owned platforms, some can be pushed into the social sphere, some can be carefully orchestrated in brand campaigns, some just happen because of the moment and have a life to itself…but few times do you reach the heights dreamed of without the assistance of others. It’s just not that easy.
I raise this all on the last day of March as some wonder how women’s basketball got to the heights that it suddenly, supposedly did. Well, the new flash is that this is not new, its been building for years, and combination of a relatively faceless men’s tournaments for long lead stories, the rise of the WNBA, the growing attention brought to women’s team sports, the investments and brands and media companies into these storylines, and the personalities that are now mainstream talk…as well as those primed to take the spots in the coming years, has made these stories powerful and must follow. It wasn’t one push, it is a cumulative one fueled by great personalities, amazing athleticism, a rising level of depth of talent…
And heroes and villains.
I’m not in the room with LSU Coach Kim Mulkey, so I don’t know if the drama that went on this week was planned…a new form of what John Thompson drove as ‘Hoya Paranoia,’ or whether it was an overreaction to what was perceived by her team as ‘media.’ Bottom line is the profile was a worthwhile balanced read, just like the one the Washington Post had on UConn’s Danny Hurley the same day, and it extended a media cycle for LSU that is well deserved.
Like those WTA athletes of a few decades ago…you love them, you don’t love them…but you talk about them and their coach because its interesting…and interesting is better than bland.
Now there are remaining stories in men’s March Madness that will keep our attention. However, the buzz, and some of the dollars, have certainly seen a shift to those athletes who are women right now, similar to what happened in tennis back in the day. Is it sustainable? Sport interest does ebb and flow, but depth and investment is deeper than before. Here’s another piece that shows the doubling down of dollars for sports played by women…real, tangible investments.
Just think pretty soon it will just be basketball. Best stories get the gold.
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