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As long-time readers know, I’m a fan of the Lingerie Football League. I don’t actually watch it. (I’m not a big fan of American football no matter who’s playing.) And I think it’s a silly enterprise that could only happen in a country where boob-themed restaurants are the biggest growing sector in the hospitality industry.
But given the struggles they’ve had just finding cities to host teams (“Women playing a man’s game in their underwears? Not in MY town. We are proper folk here and don’t go for that kind of trashy entertainment. BTW, did we mention the WWE will be at the Coliseum next week?”), I do have a soft spot for the LFL.
And I admit that even though I don’t care for football as a sport, I do think football is the most sexist sport America has. Manly-men gladiators hitting each other whilst being cheered on by sexpot babes? I mean, c’mon.
Now, it seems, the LFL was a stealth plot to make women’s football a mainstream sport (and a lucrative business).
Essentially, the LFL is “rebranding” itself the Legends Football League, and the women will now be wearing actual uniforms. Also, the tag line has been changed from "True Fantasy Football" to "Women of the Gridiron."
The object is to focus on the athleticism of the sport – an angle that, actually, the LFL has been keen to emphasize for some time. This isn’t a bunch of supermodels playing touch football – this is real competition, only packaged as male eye candy. Kind of like (and I’m just pulling an example out of the air here, really) beach volleyball.
The two obvious questions are: (1) “Why bother?” and (2) “What’s their attendance going to be like?”
Both are hard to answer, because I have no idea what kind of turnout the LFL games get now. Obviously they must do well enough to keep the business financed (and expand internationally), but I don’t know if they’re filling stadiums – and the LFL tends to stick to vague descriptions like “millions” and “more viewers than the WWF had in its first three years”.
The press release says the LFL is now big enough that it has “reached a crossroad of gaining credibility as a sport or continuing to be viewed as a gimmick.” But seeing as how it was the gimmick that drew in the punters, what will happen if you try to get them to take you seriously?
It will be interesting to see where this goes. The LFL is ostensibly saying that there is a market for women’s pro football, and we just created it while you were busy ogling lingerie babes.
I’m not entirely convinced this has been their plan all along. On the other hand, it’s something of a breakthrough. Outside of soccer, schools and charity events, America’s biggest team sports are guys-only affairs, and football is the most guys-only game there is – even colleges don’t have women’s football teams. There have been attempts, but the argument has always been there’s no interest – football fans wouldn’t care, and even if they did, you couldn’t find enough women who’d want to play, and even if you could, chicks just don’t play football as well because of, you know, lady parts and stuff.
The LFL has been proving that wrong. And it says a lot that the only way they could do that was to start it off as a sexy cheesecake gimmick.
It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep that interest level without the lingerie. Although the track record of pro football franchises that aren't the NFL is not promising.
First and goal,
This is dF
But given the struggles they’ve had just finding cities to host teams (“Women playing a man’s game in their underwears? Not in MY town. We are proper folk here and don’t go for that kind of trashy entertainment. BTW, did we mention the WWE will be at the Coliseum next week?”), I do have a soft spot for the LFL.
And I admit that even though I don’t care for football as a sport, I do think football is the most sexist sport America has. Manly-men gladiators hitting each other whilst being cheered on by sexpot babes? I mean, c’mon.
Now, it seems, the LFL was a stealth plot to make women’s football a mainstream sport (and a lucrative business).
Essentially, the LFL is “rebranding” itself the Legends Football League, and the women will now be wearing actual uniforms. Also, the tag line has been changed from "True Fantasy Football" to "Women of the Gridiron."
The object is to focus on the athleticism of the sport – an angle that, actually, the LFL has been keen to emphasize for some time. This isn’t a bunch of supermodels playing touch football – this is real competition, only packaged as male eye candy. Kind of like (and I’m just pulling an example out of the air here, really) beach volleyball.
The two obvious questions are: (1) “Why bother?” and (2) “What’s their attendance going to be like?”
Both are hard to answer, because I have no idea what kind of turnout the LFL games get now. Obviously they must do well enough to keep the business financed (and expand internationally), but I don’t know if they’re filling stadiums – and the LFL tends to stick to vague descriptions like “millions” and “more viewers than the WWF had in its first three years”.
The press release says the LFL is now big enough that it has “reached a crossroad of gaining credibility as a sport or continuing to be viewed as a gimmick.” But seeing as how it was the gimmick that drew in the punters, what will happen if you try to get them to take you seriously?
It will be interesting to see where this goes. The LFL is ostensibly saying that there is a market for women’s pro football, and we just created it while you were busy ogling lingerie babes.
I’m not entirely convinced this has been their plan all along. On the other hand, it’s something of a breakthrough. Outside of soccer, schools and charity events, America’s biggest team sports are guys-only affairs, and football is the most guys-only game there is – even colleges don’t have women’s football teams. There have been attempts, but the argument has always been there’s no interest – football fans wouldn’t care, and even if they did, you couldn’t find enough women who’d want to play, and even if you could, chicks just don’t play football as well because of, you know, lady parts and stuff.
The LFL has been proving that wrong. And it says a lot that the only way they could do that was to start it off as a sexy cheesecake gimmick.
It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep that interest level without the lingerie. Although the track record of pro football franchises that aren't the NFL is not promising.
First and goal,
This is dF
