Ask any sports administrator around the globe who is involved in a sport that is not the “national” sport how hard it is to get media coverage and they will tell you it is nigh on impossible.
This is still the story when video clips and audio are produced for television and radio, or match reports submitted with photographs. Sadly from the media outlet’s perspective frequently the quality of these contributions are not up to the required standard, or the questions asked and answers given fail to be newsworthy.
Credit must be given to England Hockey in relation to the coverage that they have managed to generate in the newspapers in England.
Having hosted major international tournaments in the past three years involving the top men’s sides from around the globe the turnaround is remarkable. From a maximum of three to four paragraphs in a corner of one or two National newspapers for those tournaments, they have managed to garner close to full page stories in tabloid supplements and papers almost on a daily basis.
Sure the stories are nearly all England-centric and you would be pushed to know there were another 15 nations participating, but the key is the coverage is there. That coverage in turn is generating interest in the game.
The coverage the Irish team has generated in the Irish press is another story entirely and has come down purely and simply to the performance of the team on the pitch. This team who had to raise funds to participate, whose players gave up their jobs to give the World Cup their best shot have captured the hearts of many. They topped Pool B, which included the Olympic Gold medallists England, India and the USA. They are in the Quarter Finals and could well progress to the semi final.
The coverage is remarkable on so many levels, for a start Hockey is regarded as not being a mainstream sport, it is often referred to as a tier two sport. This is related to the fact that few who play the game are full time professionals, and none could retire on their earnings when they hang up their sticks.
The other fact is this is the Women’s World Cup. How often do we hear the comment that women’s sport simply doesn’t sell? That no one is interested in Women’s sport?
England hockey sold out all of England’s pool games, the semi finals and the finals, and it is believed at the time of writing that few tickets for the quarter finals are available. So it would appear that the truth in relation to women’s sport selling has been lost somewhere.
It does help that this is a competition with the cream of women’s hockey participating, however it does make you wonder what is possible.
Across many parts of the globe Governments are trying to encourage women to become involved in sport. Also many sporting bodies have realised that the participation numbers in male sport are only capable of rising a minimal amount, so they have turned their attention to trying to promote women’s sport. The main reason being that many CEO’s bonuses are based on participation numbers as is the sport’s funding. So the sudden focus on women’s sport is because it will bring in additional funding and revenue.
It is well known that the rise of the women’s Hockey team from the United States is a direct result of the ruling that the Universities must spend equally on men’s and women’s sport. So with multi-million dollar investment in American Football and Basketball programs, women’s sports in Universities was going to benefit, and Field Hockey was a sport that embraced that opportunity.
Imagine if politicians sat down and looked at the American University system and what has been achieved here in England with the women’s World Cup coverage, and pondered on the possibilities.
This is a dream, as most of the media outlets are now privately owned as opposed to Government owned, but imagine if newspapers were forced to give an equal, or a percentage amount relative to the male sports coverage to women’s sport. What impact would that have on women’s sport in general?
It would also have a massive impact on the sports that struggle to garner media coverage.
The bosses will question whether it will increase the sale of newspapers. It may well do. It may actually change the demographic of readers and therefore open up a whole new vista when it comes to attracting advertising.
This is sadly unlikely to happen, but when one looks at the coverage that the Women’s world cup has attracted and the fact that people who have never watched the game are actually talking about it, it shows that there is an audience out there. If this is the case with Hockey how true is it of so many other sports?
(This was the original premise behind NTFS to cover none mainstream sports and also women’s sport. On air in over 400 shows we covered over 70 sports).
