Conferences Avoid Marketing Women's Basketball To Lesbians
Eight years after the WNBA "began acknowledging its growing lesbian fan base through advertising and marketing, women's college basketball remains largely indifferent to that demographic despite growing evidence that lesbians are a significant portion of the sport's fan base," according to Rob Bell of the Greensboro NEWS & RECORD. None of the major athletics conferences -- "including the ACC -- markets its women's basketball tournament directly toward lesbians, and only a handful of individual colleges have recognized their lesbian fans publicly." ACC Associate Commissioner Nora Lynn Finch, who oversees the women's tournament, "responded to general questions about the tournament's fan base, but declined to answer specific questions about the tournament's lesbian fan base." Finch in an e-mail said, "Our marketing efforts have been consistent for many years and are really driven toward all fans that want to watch what we think is the best college basketball in the country. We continue to (target) youth groups, in order to cultivate the young fan" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 3/8).
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