Of those Americans citing their favorite sport, basketball is ranked second behind American football. However, in regard to money the NBA is ranked third in popularity. More Americans play basketball than any other team sport, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, with over 26 million Americans playing basketball. Basketball was invented in 1891 by Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Women's National Basketball Association or WNBA is an organization governing a professional basketball league for women in the United States. The WNBA was formed in 1996 as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association, and league play began in 1997. The regular WNBA season is June to September. Most WNBA teams play at the same venue as their NBA counterparts. The top tier professional Basketball league for females is the WNBA. It is not as popular as its male counterpart. Women's NCAA Basketball is also popular, although less so than men's basketball. The women's national team has won eight Olympic gold medals and ten FIBA World Cups.
Women's Basketball in the Media
The WNBA and Women's basketball in general has a low popularity rate compared to the NBA and Men's basketball mainly due to the media coverage and the amount of money put into the WNBA. In the WNBA the league only has so much money it can spend due to sponsorship and the money it makes off of merchandise and games. As a result of this the athletes are paid significantly less than the men in the NBA because the WNBA has less media coverage and less promotion to gain money for the league. With the NBA they have news coverage and many sports channels that discuss how the season is going for the men. WNBA games and content is more difficult to access due to limited media coverage. "Women account for a large percentage of the sporting world, but it is disheartening and discouraging to thousands of female athletes that they account for only a mere fraction of its media coverage.":17 Many female athletes are only accepted by society and receive coverage in the media if they participate in traditionally feminine sports. If a woman participates in a masculine sport, their sexuality is questioned. The media tends to ignore, which devalues, women's athletic accomplishments by focusing on their physical appearance, private lives, and femininity and sexuality even if they achieve more impressive athletic feats. "The idea of women having a biologically inferior body has been extensively used to justify the exclusion of females in certain sports and influence the idea that women who chose masculine sports are promoting lesbianism and other unfeminine traits. The female body continues to be identified as an object within sport and women often experience significant conflict with the negotiation of being an athlete and being a woman.": 219
