How Women’s Games as Curtain Raisers Benefit Women’s Sport

In order to advance women’s sport, we should constantly find creative ideas to move towards closing the visibility gap to ensure growth.

One of the ways in recent times is scheduling women’s games to play before the men’s game. In August last year, we saw the Springbok Women, for the first time, runout against Spain on the same day and venue as their male counterparts who were facing New Zealand that same afternoon.

You could see it on their faces ahead of the game, how exhilarated they were and how they relished the opportunity to play on such an important occasion at the iconic Ellis Park Stadium.

We saw most recently the Varsity Cup also implementing curtain raisers ahead of the men’s competition.

Did I tell you that we're were the curtain raisers? 🥺🐺🏉 #Wolverines #womeninsport #womensrugby

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— P 💜 (@PhelaRadikeledi) April 4, 2023

Let’s look at some of the ways women’s teams benefit if they get to “raise the curtain” ahead of the highly supported men’s game:

Media Coverage:

There’s a sense that media houses are still reluctant to and hardly allocate enough resources to cover women’s sport. A women’s game starting a few hours earlier than the men’s, by design the media is already at the venue, so the same resources can be used to tell more stories about SA’s women’s teams, from our national squads to competitions such as the Varsity Cup.

Our federations need to maximize this and actually communicate and show the media houses the value of “killing two birds with one stone.” Ensure that since media house ABC will already be at the game, the cameras will already be set up, ask the respective editors to also write pieces on the women’s game as well. Are our federations communicating and giving directives effectively and consistently with media houses when it comes to women’s teams?

Sponsorship:

It goes without saying that various stakeholders and big wigs attend these games, which means that when they see women giving it a go in the green and gold, it’s easier to buy into the team and consider coming on board as a sponsor. When they see the stories and dreams come alive of the likes of Sinazo Mcatshulwa, Springbok women flanker, they can dig into their sometimes deep pockets.

Confidence Booster: Nadine Roos, before playing Spain ahead of the Springbok men’s team at Ellis Park, had never watched a game at the stadium, so the anticipation and privilege to run out in front of a home crowd was massive. As a result, the team, then coached by Stanley Raubenheimer, won the clash against Spain. It proves that the prospect of having large crowds, media and high-profile guests could have also boosted the confidence and drive of the players. The validation and nod goes a long way.

Crowds:

Then there’s the played-out misconception that women’s sport is boring and not as competitive as the men’s. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Interestingly, it’s a perception from people that have never even watched one match involving women. That said, such perceptions can be disputed and nullified when the crowds that were initially going to watch Siya Kolisi and co. get to see that the Springbok women’s side is as worthy of keen eyeballs. We saw a sold-out affair at Newlands Stadium in the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup that featured the Momentum Proteas and with that being an advert for women’s sport, more curtain raisers can ensure that more people go out to watch their games.

We successfully host a myriad of events annually as gsport, including the prestigious gsport Awards with no shortage of women in the various sporting codes. Women, as you read this conclusion, are constantly making their mark in the various codes, they just need the same number of microphones and cameras so that their efforts are beamed to the public and curtain raisers are certainly a great start. Not a favour for female athletes but a commendable but long overdue and deserved manoeuvre. We hope to see more stadia and sporting codes follow suit.