Skysports Link:"Womens Athletics"
Although this issue primarily deals with the state of English women's professional football (soccer as it is known here in the United States), this issue resounds across all fields of women's athletics across the world. Professional athletics is a massive industry involving plenty of money amounting in the millions if not billions. One common factor regardless of gender, that firmly establishes professional athletics as a viable investment, is its potential to entertain. The powerful, trash-talking, hard-edged version of any athletic endeavor found within the fields, gyms, or stadiums of mens professional athletics tend to have a much more prominent entertaining quality than womens sports. However, the imbalance starts at the very bottom, where girls are somehow weaned off the athletic field, not as a necessity but because of the lack of opportunities, and as a result women's athletics suffer in the long run. Now the United States seem to have a leg up over many other countries, as it already has produced some incredible athletes, primarily through college athletics. Some female athletes are simply phenoms, such as Serena and Venus Williams, albeit they had plenty of support from their father. But this is probably what sets U.S. apart from the rest of the world. Women have the opportunity to play at every level, whereas the rest of the world rely on special development structures functioning within the professional system to develop their female athletes. However, at the lowest level, the lack of facilities and support for development rings true worldwide. With the reintroduction of a revamped women's professional soccer league looming in the near future in the United States, will this venture prove to be a success or will it once again fail such as the now defunct WUSA? Future investments in womens professional athletics and womens athletics as a whole could be hanging on the line, depending on the success of Womens professional leagues worldwide.
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