ABSTRACT
It took a while, but sports marketers discovered the female fan. Perhaps they had not been looking. Perhaps found while there all along. Perhaps capitalism’s relentless drive to expand markets gave permission to create her. Regardless, many see women as the new ‘hot’ market for sports (Gaffney 2002). In the US, women have grown to over 40 per cent of spectators at men’s college basketball and football games, over 35 per cent of National Hockey League and Major League Baseball spectators, and nearly that proportion of National Football League and National Basketball Association spectators (LaVoi 2009).
