Today it was announced that Danica Patrick is going to NASCAR full time over from IndyCar. This means she will share the stage alongside Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. This is huge for women's sports. But is it huge for women's sports fans?
I honestly cannot say what will happen. Danica Patrick is a huge figure in sports, because she is one of the few women who actually compete in a sport that is still male dominated. The culture of the sport also seems to appeal to men. If you've ever noticed the sponsors, they usually are car companies such as Toyota and beer companies like Budweiser.
With Danica Patrick making this huge change, will NASCAR make a valiant effort to actually court women viewers? I would hope so. Marketing studies have shown that NASCAR's audience as a whole has changed from white male dominated to include men and some women of other ethnicities.
Hopefully ad sponsors and networks will use this opportunity to include women in their ad-space. But to me this applies to all sports, not just NASCAR.
For instance, when I watched the NBA playoffs this past spring, most of the ads were for the average, beer drinking single guy with the occasional Applebee's commercial thrown in. Doesn't anyone think that it's more than just men watching sports? What about those of us who don't have to shave their face yet? I'm just saying it would be nice sometimes for the ad world and the sports world in general would acknowledge that women don't just watch women's sports.
And hopefully with the addition of Danica Patrick to the big time that will mean more attention will be paid to the female fan. And by fan I don't mean the women who watch because they were promised a nice dinner afterwards. There are actually some of us who know what's going on. It would be nice if that was acknowledged from time to time, you know?
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