[Maxwell Project Blog] ESPN celebrates ‘Danica 500’ and ignores Rousey

By Anthony Alford

This was my recent article from the Maxwell Project. It relates to the historic impact of this past weekend for women's sports. But as this article explains, is ESPN truly invested in the success of women's sports, or do they just want to promote a new superstar for their network?



This past weekend was a historic weekend for women’s sports as NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and UFC fighter Ronda Rousey both took center stage. It was a weekend in which sports media latched on to the historic female storyline.

ESPN began its NASCAR coverage in a “Sunday Conversation” interview with Patrick within 24 hours of her Daytona 500 pole win. Patrick continued to dominate ESPN coverage throughout the week. It felt like ESPN was covering the “Danica 500” rather than the Daytona 500.

Meanwhile, ESPN seemed to ignore fighter Ronda Rousey. Rousey and Liz Carmouche became the first female fighters to compete in UFC history. For years, women’s MMA has been reduced to sideshows on local and regional promotions. But Rousey had the “it” factor to allow women’s MMA to be taken seriously. However, because ESPN does not have TV rights for the UFC (Fox has a 7-year deal with UFC), ESPN felt little need to cover Rousey’s fight.

Rousey and Patrick are both mainstream stars, but if ESPN had it their way, Rousey would have never even existed. ESPN offered only 30 seconds of Rousey’s fight coverage. That’s right, 30 seconds.

ESPN’s coverage selection draws on an even bigger issue in sport. Does ESPN really care about the rise of women’s sports, or is it just a marketing ploy to benefit their outlets? ESPN covered Patrick’s race, but not Rousey’s fight because it was on another network. Sports fans should hope for competition from other networks to end ESPN’s monopoly on sports.

There are rumors of a Fox Sports 1, but those rumors say the network won’t be launched until August. Until then, Americans are stuck with ESPN and its interpretation of which athletes should make history.

On a weekend where women’s sports should be celebrated, instead we must focus on the agenda of mainstream media. Both of these ladies have earned the spotlight this weekend, however only one of the athletes got the fair treatment she deserved.

To read more blogs from the Maxwell Project, go to http://edhd.bgsu.edu/maxwell/MaxwellProject/Blog/Blog.html or the Maxwell Project Twitter page at https://twitter.com/BGSUMaxProject.

It's Gotta Be the Shoes!

 By David Shelmon

Michael Jordan’s legacy is one that nobody has ever seen before in sports and we will likely never witness something like this again. Michael Jordan went from being a man to a brand over the course of his illustrious playing career. He has solidified himself as, almost undoubtedly, the most prominent sports figure in history. By making the most of his popularity through the use of multiple endorsement deals, Jordan has helped to accumulate tens (perhaps hundreds) of billions of dollars in revenues for various companies all while making himself a multi-millionaire in the process. This does not even include his success on the court which brags six championship rings, multiple scoring titles, and other accolades. Not to mention that Jordan is widely considered to be the best basketball player to have ever played the game.

One of Jordan’s most popular endorsements, and one that continues to this day, is his partnership with Nike shoes. Every few months or so, a pair of Air Jordans is released, or often re-released with some upgrades done to them. These shoes easily sell out in stores with people even reportedly being trampled over by others when stores open up and people rush inside to get a pair. Long lines form outside of the stores that are carrying the Jordans, or Jays for short, hours before the store is even scheduled to open. It is very similar to a Black Friday sale in November. Once a person has the shoes, it is not uncommon for him or her to then turn to the Internet and place the shoes on websites like eBay.com to be sold. Doing this allows the people who were not able to get into a store and buy the shoes on release day to buy them conveniently from the comfort of their own homes. Even online, a pair of newly released Air Jordans will sell quickly so the sellers always take advantage of this fact by pricing the shoes pretty high, even higher than what they initially paid. In no time, an online buyer will check out the shoes on a website, place an order for them, and the person who actually went through all of the craziness to buy the shoes upfront at the store just made a nice profit.

Check out the clip below to see the madness caused by the release of a pair of Air Jordans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqwg1KE2-xQ

 

Budget Activity

By: Matt Goryance, Jessica Gatten, and Janelle Campbell

When figuring out the budget for this schools athletic programs we start with $120,000 available to us. The donation from the alum gave us another $20,000, and we decided to have the football team, swimming team, and men’s and women’s track teams complete a fundraiser giving us an extra $15,300. These three numbers totaled together give us $155,300 to work with. We then decided not to single anyone out and make everyone pay to play, since we all had to pay to play in high school we figured these kids could pay to play too generating more money for athletics. A total of 459 student athletes paying $75 a piece totals $34,425. After the pay to play, donation, fundraiser, and money to begin with we have $189,725 in total. The required expenses total $151,350 so after subtracting that from our total money we have $38,375 left to make decisions with.

We decided to use the left over money on jerseys and equipment and not pay for any trips. The sports, equipment, and prices are below but the total for all of it is $26,400. We plan to save the left over $11,975 for future expenses.  That way we don’t have to worry about sending certain teams on trips and we would also not resurface the courts this year.

Sports we ARE paying for:

·         Football – New Helmets $6000

·         Men’s Soccer- New Jerseys $1200

·         Women’s Soccer- New Jersey $1200

·         Men’s/Women’s Swimming- New Suits $1800

·         Women’s Track & Field- Shot Puts $200, Discus $300, Landing Mats $6,000

·         Men’s Track & Field- Shot Puts $200, Discuss $300, Landing Mats $6,ooo

·         Hockey- Jerseys $2,000

Things we ARE NOT paying for:

·         Men’s Basketball- Court Resurfacing $10,000

·         Women’s Basketball- Court Resurfacing $10,000

·         Baseball- Tourney in Florida $10,000

·         Softball- Tourney in Florida $10,000

·         Men’s/ Women’s Downhill Skiing- Training in Colorado $10,000

We are trying to be fair to every team and pay for some of their needs now and keep some money for later so hopefully we can afford everything in the near future. 

Budget Activity

     In class, my group and I were given a task to make a budget for a high school’s athletic teams. We needed to incorporate each and every individual thing/supply that all the teams needed to continue on with their sport. We added all the expenses for each sport together and came up with a total of 195,350 dollars. In order to incorporate all sports and their expenses, a few sports had to either be dropped from the budget or had to “pay to play”. My group and I viewed the ranks for each individual sport and took action from there. We realized that football came in the last rank in their conference and cheerleading didn’t even have a rank. There simply wouldn’t have been enough money to incorporate all sports in the budget so football and cheerleading had to pay to play. We chose football to pay to play because there are 75 players so having each player pay would help with the cost. Each football player would pay 500 dollars which covers their expenses for the new tackling dummies, the new helmets, as well as the miscellaneous expenses. Having each player pay 500 dollars would total out to be 37,500 dollars. We chose cheerleading to “pay to play” because there’s only 16 members and we feel as though cheerleading is the least favorite sport. My group and I decided that each cheerleader would pay 250 dollars to participate in this sport. This fee includes the new pom poms, the trip to Hawaii for the championships and a few other miscellaneous expenses. Having the 16 individuals pay the fee, it will total out to 4,000 dollars. Finally we decided that we were going to have fundraisers for men and women’s track and field, men and women’s swimming, and lastly football.  Making fundraisers for these sports shall be a fun experience and importantly, raise money for each individual sport. 

Angel Akinkuoye

James Flynn

Dylan True

Kool-Aid Jammers High School Budget (Alford, Gibson, Kok, Miller)

For our budget here at Kool-Aid Jammers High School, the first order of business was addressing all of needs that were bolded on the list. The total cost for all the bolded items was $151,350. However, our funds only covered $120,000.

The good news was our Athletic Department received $20,000 from a former football player. We also decided to use Football, Men’s/Women’s Swimming, Women’s Track and Field, and the Men’s Track and Field programs to use fundraisers for because those programs involve the most players out of all of our programs. The total cost of all of the items in the fundraisers (that was not bolded) would be $15,300. This would give $155,300 worth of fundraisers and donations.

The difference between our total amount of fundraisers and donations compared to the cost of the bolded items was $3,950. With the extra money, we decided to use the rest of our money by attempting to buy as many things as possible across multiple programs. We paid $1,200 for new Men’s Soccer jerseys and another $1,200 for new Women’s Soccer jerseys. We also paid $1,200 for new Volleyball jerseys. We then spent $300 for new Discus for the Women’s Track team because they were ranked higher in the conference and had more members than the Men’s Track team. We were left with $50 that was unaccounted for because there was nothing left to pay for within the $50 price range.

Finally, we do not believe teams have to pay-to-play because there is enough funding to support all of our teams. However, with us being only a high school, we do not need to compete in tournaments in Florida or train in Colorado because most of our athletes will go to college for reasons other than sports. We just need to focus on being a championship team here in Ohio.

Budgeting Activity

               

                Our group decided that our four sports with the most number of players would do fund raisers to give ourselves a bigger budget. After our fund raisers, our budget went from $140,000 to $155,300. The total costs that we’re facing add up to $237,750 (for everything in the needs category, whether it be necessary or not). We subtracted the $155,300 we have from the $237,750 that we need, and found that we are $82,450 short from getting everything that we need/want. Sharing that difference with 459 athletes, the extra cost is minimal. We also understand that it’s unfair of us to ask the athletes who do fund raisers to pay just as much as the athletes who don’t do fund raisers. That being said, the 255 athletes participating in fund raisers (football team, swimming team, men’s and women’s track & field teams) will have a slightly discounted price to play their sport.  They will be asked to pay $165 to play their sport, while the other 204 athletes will be asked to pay $200 to play their sport. We don’t feel like this is too much to ask for considering the amount of money we’re putting into our athletic program to give us the best equipment and facilities possible. Unfortunately, having athletes pay to play is a growing trend around the country. With the increase of travel expenses, the need for newer stadiums, and the desire for the best equipment is making high school sports very expensive for athletic departments to be able to afford. This activity was a great way to put us in the shoes of an athletic director and understand the current challenges that many Ads are facing around the country.

Micah Stein
Taylor Brown

Taylor Redd                                                                                                                                          Tony Pape

David Shelmon

It's not happening

By Anthony Alford

After hearing the pros and cons of allowing a girl to join the boys' football team, I do not believe that women should be allowed to play football on a boys’ team once they get to high school. The main reason why I believe that is because the risk of a girl being part of a high school and college team far outweighs the benefits. The main issue would be simply being in the locker room with other guys for an entire season. If I was a father, the dangers of my daughter being in the locker room with other guys in high school would make me remove my daughter from the men’s team.

Hazing is a major part of team sports (especially football) and it is not discussed nearly enough in the media. Certain people on the team may get hazed more so than others. For example, a typical non-starting freshman would get hazed more than a varsity starting freshman. Another example would be perhaps guys hazing other guys on the team that they are not friends with. Hazing, while it serves its purpose of “paying your dues,” is very dangerous and uncomfortable. The actions lead to fights, disputes, and other issues that lead to trouble. So if an attractive girl is on the team, there will be guys on the team who will attempt to haze her with no limits. She could go to a coach, but a coach can only do so much before it’s out of his control.

Hormones among the guys would be the other issue. Many high school football teams have endless hours’ worth of training camp consisting of 2-a-days (or even 3-a-days) during the month of August. Camp usually last a few weeks before school started. Some teams do not allow their players to go home after practice and see the “outside world,” for at least a week. As a result, they cannot see any females. But if there is a girl on the team, there would be a major concern for her safety. She would simply be outnumbered.

Finally, the issue of immaturity would be a huge problem. While many good football teams have mature players, there are just as many immature players on the team. The immature players cannot handle the added responsibilities of having a female on the team because of reasons previously stated among others. Some high school players are on the team just to say they are on the football team, so they have no incentive to follow the rules. Thus, the female is more at risk especially during the summer.

This article is not to suggest that girls cannot play on the boys’ team because there are some very talented female football players in America. But as a guy who has been on a high school team and have coached youth sports, the risks at this point far outweigh the benefits. Hopefully, overtime the demand of females playing football grows to a level where high school female football teams can be formed and real female professional football leagues can be formed and be taken seriously.  

Girls Playing Football, OH MY!!

By: Angel Akinkuoye

Girls playing boy sports, oh my!! Football is usually known and recognized as a sport for males. In the past, females were supposed to be the people who stayed home, worked on house chores, and watch the kids. Times have definitely changed. Women are finally doing what they want and are not sticking to the social norm. I think it’s a great thing that women are interested and desire to play in football. Football along with any other contact sport has its positives and negatives. If females understand the risks, and still would love to play the game, I feel as though they are fully entitled to do so. I actually think it’s motivating to see girls playing a “boy” sport that they actually excel in. Seeing girls’ and women excel makes me motivated to do the same thing their doing. Once I seen the video of Sam Gordon playing little league football with the boys, I found myself in complete awe. This little girl had great talent and was super fast. She outran a number of boys and continued to run until her little legs made a touchdown.  Although the video displayed her getting tackled, you could tell that a tackle never kept her down. You could clearly see that Sam Gordon had a strong determination to be great at football.  If a girl wants to play on a football team, I suggest that she plays and be treated like every other player on the team.  From the video it seemed as though the boys treated her as equal as any other player.