'I Am Woman, Hear Me Cheer'

Female Sports Observers Enjoy Fanfare, Following Favorite Team

Last updated Saturday, August 23, 2008 3:53 PM CDT in Living

By Debbie Miller
The Morning News

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Salley is part of what some experts call a growing trend among spectators. Women make up a significant part of the fan base, and they're often willing to back up their loyalty with their money.

Robert Mann, director of retail operations for the University of Arkansas athletic department, said a sales growth area the past few years has been in items appealing specifically to female fans.

There's the look.

Clothing offered for sale now is a far cry from the gender-neutral look of the past. Mann said in the late 1990s women starting buying wear that had more of a feminine design and fit. Colors transitioned as well. There was the Carolina blue of the early 2000s and then the pinks. The hot color this year: fuchsia.

There's also a new niche - stuff for the home or daily life.

Wall decorations, television trays and even strollers allow sports fans to show their team pride.

"It's definitely driven by women," Mann said of the added lines.

And then there's the jewelry.

Sales are booming with multiple lines offered at Hog Heaven Razorback Gift in just about every price range. Want a bracelet? Mann estimates the lines offered range from $6 to $160.

Indeed, Salley and her Razorback-themed T-shirt with the word play on the quote from "Jerry Maguire" represented just a fraction of the whole at the fan appreciation event. Her red shirt was one of hundreds dotting a lineup that snaked up the hill as far the eye could see before the doors opened. The crowd seemed evenly divided among males and females, adults and kids.

And among female fans, ages and hometowns ran the gamut.

Diane Smithson of Bryant and Connie Smith of Little Rock make the trek to Fayetteville routinely for Razorback sporting events. They have daughters on the university's pom squad.

Smithson's been a longtime fan and remembers coming to Fayetteville for games before she was pregnant with her first girl, who's now a senior on campus. (She also has a sophomore attending UA.) "I really do like the game," she said. Her favorite moment: when the team first takes the field before opening kickoff.

A few yards away, 5-year-old Alina Curry of Fayetteville waited with her father, John. She wore a pint-sized Razorback cheerleader uniform and a white ribbon in her hair as she flashed a grin displaying a couple of missing front teeth. She wanted to meet cheerleaders and football players, she said. She may not know the specifics of the game, but she knows some other important stuff: for example, the Tooth Fairy pays a whole lot better these days. Alina may not be the best person to ask about the closest location for a little girl's cheerleader outfit, however. She suggested Branson.

Paying Attention

Some of the female fans waiting in line for the Razorback event said their interest in sports didn't stop with being a spectator.

Cambre Ricker, 14, of Greenland likes watching football, but also enjoys participating in sports.

Laura Salley, 11, of Siloam Springs has aspirations to play Razorback basketball.

Various entrepreneurs are taking notice of female fans and trying to find ways to cater to a possible niche.

In 1999, Ivette Ricco, then vice president of a financial services company, decided the time was right to provide the female fan a place on the Web that covered sports from the female's unique perspective. Femmefan.com was launched in March of 2000, according to the Web site. It's still going strong with postings last week of an article about gymnast Nastia Liukin winning a gold medal and a new section called "Fantasy Sports" with a lead story titled, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Why a woman should consider fantasy football."

"Women have invested in their favorite sport (emotionally, intellectually, and financially), for years; but their passion, commitment and interest is quite different than that of their male counterparts," reads a collection of paragraphs on the "About Us" page. "Women, although avid about sports, are not nearly as intrigued by the unending statistics and scores as men are. Women want to know about the people in the uniforms, their lives, their families, and what makes them tick. Women want to view their athletic 'icons' in a human way, 'Up Close and Personal.'"

A Web site targeted to female fans is but a part of a trend of the past decade or so.

Beth Dietz-Uhler, a professor of psychology at Miami University in Middleton, Ohio, has researched the subject of male and female fans.

"About 10 years ago the NFL was reporting nearly equal numbers of males and females identifying as sport fans, so they targeted their ads to include and attract women," she wrote in an e-mail message. "Around the same time, the Olympics was trying to attract more female viewers, so they included special-interest segments of athletes to get a glimpse into their private lives (which females were presumably more interested in than men)."

Her work has found differences in the ways the genders' interests are perceived.

"My research shows that when a hypothetical male and female are labeled as sport fans and engage in similar levels of sport fan behavior (e.g., watching sport on tv, attending sporting events, watching ESPN), males are more likely than females to be labeled a sport fan," Dietz-Uhler wrote. "In addition, males are perceived to be more of a serious fan than females, even when females are described in engaging in similar levels of sport fan behaviors as males. Males are socialized to be sport fans, female are socialized to be sport spectators (e.g., attending games to cheer on their favorite team)."

Diehard Fan

Tara Munford is an exception to the general research findings.

The Rogers woman works for Face Painting by Sally and attends a lot of Razorback sporting events, offering simple drawings for fans who want to have a running Razorback or a dainty work of art temporarily gracing their faces.

She and folks like colleague Mary Frost are at every home football three hours before kickoff.

"We're busy right up until the game kickoff," Munford said.

"I absolutely love it," she said of the work. She knows there are a lot of female fans because they're among her customers during that nonstop three-hour stretch.

She understands that the draw for some may be the shared social experience of rooting for the team.

But in her own case, she's a pure fan of the game.

For how long?

"All my life," she said matter-of-factly. She had six brothers, she said. There really was never a question about whether she would follow sports.

Now, her mom takes calls from each of the siblings on Sundays and records their predictions for the day's NFL games.

Munford has championed the Dallas Cowboys for years. Her collection includes taped games from years past and autographs of key players.

"It's pure athleticism," she said of football. "You have to have power, stamina and strength."

When she was in college, she wrote a guide to football for other women. She sought to explain aspects of the game in terms that could be easily understood.

One of the explanations she shared: A tight end isn't some sort of description; it's a position on the offensive team.

She said others laughed at her writings, but told her she "described it in terms they can understand."

It may be football season, but her love for sports transcends the gridiron.

She likes tennis and is a NASCAR fan. She has a Jeff Gordon blanket and jacket.

She's actually into any kind of sports, except maybe the American Kennel Club dog show, she said.

It was a safe bet her eyes had been trained on the recent daily happenings in Beijing, but she confirmed it.

A smile crossed her face as she spoke. "I'm in heaven right now with the Olympics."

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