It is getting more popular every year.

It doesnt help that men are way to often allowed to participate in female sports.

I did't know about it and watching someone play golf would be torture for me. So, I guess that makes me among the 85% in this case.

The reason that people want to watch is that OVER 50% of the potential audience is women. Also, amateur men can LEARN more from watching the women. Most amateur men can NOT begin to DO the things that young professional men can do. So, they can learn more about their own game by watching the women professionals.

Women should definitely play sports, even professionally. What they should not do is expect anyone to watch, and certainly not expect to get paid even one penny more than commensurate with what their league brings in for revenue. Forget subsidies.

Please provide a link to support that assertion. As I stated previously, absent Caitlin Clark, almost no one would be watching WNBA.

Why would LPGA/WNBA be getting more popular? Has the product improved? Are the matches exciting?

Yes, I often look to up my golf game and basketball skills by watching the women pros. [/sarcasm]

Really? Can we have an example of something you've learned about playing golf, from watching the LPGA?

As someone who stated "watching someone play golf would be torture", I doubt he learned a single thing...

I agree 100% amateur men can learn a lot from pro women, I know I certainly have! But not from watching them...more from coaching and podcasts (in my case at least). I'd rather watch the men pull of their incredible feats....although watching women has its charms.

(OK don't label me as a creep! I'm just saying what you are thinking!)

Joe

Actually, I do enjoy watching the women play because they are much closer to my golf game compared the the guys on the PGA tour. When I see a woman hit a 7 iron 140 yards that is about what I would hit, not like the men hitting a 52 degree wedge from 140 yards!

How to place a ball correctly on a T? Proper way to clean a golf ball?

The answer? Whether it is the LPGA, the WNBA, Women's Association Football, NCAA women's basketball, Women's full-contact football, flat track roller derby, Women's gridiron football, lacrosse, the WTA, or whatever female league we're talking about...is simple. those leagues succeed or not, not because of the skill of the individual female contestants in whatever league we're talking about, but because of the financial subsidization they get (or not) from the MALE counterpart of whatever sport is under discussion.

We, as a race, are hardwired to value male attributes such as speed, coordination, strength, and teamwork. Virtually every Olympic sport as well as many others have that as the primary value. As far back as the stone age those male attributes were the deciding factor if the tribe ate or not, were slaughtered or not by the tribe in the next valley, which tribe got the best cave for the winter, etc. etc. The female skills were of an entirely different type: child raising, assuring domestic tranquility, making sure which kid belonged to which guy, cooking, medicine (such as it was), etc. etc. We, as a species, place value on the relative contribution each gender provides to the whole. There is a reason that the Miss America pageant doesn't (as far as I know) allow drag queens to compete.

Look. I enjoy seeing Maria Sharapova playing tennis as much as any other red-blooded guy, but let's be honest. Maria didn't land the title of the highest-paid female athlete because of her athletic abilities, extensive though they were. Would she have attained the popularity she enjoyed, and translated into dollars, if she'd have played her tennis in a pair of denim coveralls? Answer is obvious...and VERY telling. Whether we want to admit it or not, our race places importance on what each gender contributes, and we have no more control over that than we do the weather.

You can't fool Mother Nature.

The only semi-mainstream sports I can think of, where women and men *could* compete on an equal level, would be figure skating or dancing, or other sport where "grace" and "technique" are as valued as athleticism.

Synchronized Swimming? Break Dancing? Dressage?

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