Shawnee Barton is happy with the NFL’s ongoing push for more female fans, but she hopes the organization will start thinking beyond marketing:
Judging by media coverage, dollars spent (according to the NFL, women’s apparel spending went up 76 percent in the last three years), and the much-talked-about football fashion spread in the September issue of Vogue, it would appear these efforts are working. (Though in 2011, Katie Baker smartly argued that the rise of female football fans more likely results from sports and popular culture increasingly blurring than it does from savvy NFL marketing efforts.)
I love a form-fitting, logo-emblazoned throwback blazer as much as the next gal. And it’s understandable that the NFL tries to boil female interest down to clichés—marketing, after all, is marketing. Yet the focus on merchandising both misses the real reasons women watch sports and forgoes an opportunity to engage them in far more meaningful—and for the NFL, lucrative—ways. If league execs spent as much time bettering the stadium and fan experience for women and families as they did contemplating how to get Condi to model her Browns jersey, pro football could win over more female fans, keep the avid ones it already has, and transform casual female consumers into lifelong, diehard fans.
Sarah Maiellano suggests repealing a recent security policy mandating “see-thru” handbags for women as a good place to start:
We want the option to carry our handbags. Our pants and skirts don’t always have pockets. We don’t want other fans to see our personal items. We are concerned about theft either in the stadium or on public transportation home. We are worried that we won’t be able to fit items like diapers, tampons, or nursing pads in tiny purses. We don’t feel like swapping purses to attend a game. We don’t own a small clutch and don’t want to pay for a new clear bag. We don’t want to carry a Ziploc bag because it has no handle and, frankly, looks stupid.
The new rule was implemented as both a safety measure and a way to speed up the entry process. Those are admirable goals. But they need to be balanced and reasonable. What seems reasonable to a group of men may not to women. According to the NFL, 35% of those who attend games are women and more than 50% of women say they watch regular season games. The league has made strides in marketing its merchandise to women. But the NFL’s female fans deserve more than lip service when it comes to this war on purses.
The Dish 