Australia's professional sports world "is looking to women to increase viewers and funding," according to Louise Evans of the BBC. "Normalising" the role of women in professional sport -- whether as players, spectators or club and competition officials -- "makes business sense." Cricket, for example, "risks becoming a dying sport if a new and bigger audience isn't embraced." Cricket Australia's Big Bash League Senior Manager Anthony Everard told the Asia Pacific World Sport and Women Conference that T20 "was specifically introduced to attract women, children and a wider ethnic mix to cricket." He said the aim was to make BBL a "favorite form of entertainment for families" by attracting women who may have never attended a cricket match. Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop "is also looking to women for a fresh impetus." The FFA "is trying to make the environment at A-League matches more female- and family-friendly," but Gallop admits the atmosphere at games has received a "bad rap," thanks to some violence between rival teams. Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver admits that "there are too many men dominating sport at all levels." Chasing female eyeballs and dollars "is a matter of economic survival,"
agrees sporting equipment company Rebel Sport Managing Dir Erica
Berchtold, who is the sole female board member at A-League club Sydney FC. Berchtold: "It makes sense to target women because women make so many of the household decisions about spending and family outings" (BBC, 11/4). The AAP reported Cricket Australia has firmed up plans "for a women's Big Bash League." CA's push toward the women's big bash league "gathered further momentum at last week's board meeting, when a project team was established to prepare the competition for launch in 2015-16." Big Bash League General Manager Mike McKenna and fellow CA administrators Pat Howard and Belinda Clark "will now work through the major issues." CA CEO James Sutherland said, "There is still a lot of work to do before we can make it a reality. But we have high hopes for what could be an important step in further professionalizing women's cricket in Australia" (AAP, 11/6).
