You were miscontruing your relationship Ok, if it was Montemayor with Chantelle on his show, and presumably he had the same audience you do, weird huh, that he could get away with that?
Note that he is no longer here, and not to sound egotistical (although i know it does) but there is quite a ratings difference now.
To say the WNBA game is "unwatchable", is a statement of opinion, NOT fact -- more accurately stated as "I find the WNBA unwatchable".
To say NOBODY cares, is in fact UNTRUE, because I for one DO care. Therefore this statement is erroneous, and not worthy of ever being stated again.
sorry. i guess i should put an "IMO" at the end of everything I say. How's this: most everyone I speak to (with exceptions) find the game painful to watch. again, just opinions, reflected by lack of television coverage and most major online sites relegating it to the back page. I don't know how much better I can say this without getting slapped around. You like it? Good, seriously, good for you. Go stand on the street corner tomorrow at your local mall and poll 100 people as to whether or not they like the WNBA game. Maybe I'm wrong.
Oh Boy on this one, first off you need a new favorite writer, Simmons sucks, and I find him unreadable! Why does he insist on writing about that which he doesn't care for? Here's the insight -- there's a thousand things he doesn't care for or about, but he's not writing one whiff about them, no, he keeps coming back to ragging on the WNBA -- why? Because he feels better about himself by having somebody to put down, the WBA threatens him, the idea of women who could KICK HIS @SS in basketball does not compute in his male ego mind. It's safer for him to say the whole thing is a joke.
Again, here we go. Bill Simmons happens to be the most popular writer BY FAR on the entire website. Considering ESPN.com is the most read sports website in the world, that's saying something. Note his very visible place on the front page, while other writers share blocks with each other. He must be on the same page with some other people, otherwise he wouldnt be so tremendously read.
Also, I am not buying for a second, that these types of comments are not swipes at women in general. It's almost comical how utterly clueless the guys who make them are to their misogyny. Except it's not funny.
If you want to get militant, that's fine. Just because someone says "the wnba sucks" doesnt mean they're a woman hater. i don't particularly care for rap music. am I a racist?
Yeah, the language is loaded, but I agree with him here Dave to a degree. And if you had addressed the topic on your show more cogently I probably wouldn't have called you out. But here's what I've preached forever to Val Ackerman the previous commish. "Stop with the talk that you are the 5th major sport. You're not." We are along the lines of every other sport trying to find a niche. The majors are sucking off the tailpipe that is ESPN and Fox, don't forget that Dave as long as that gravy train continues those sports will be flush and as long as ESPN and Fox dictate what is hip and not, and don't think that y'all don't dictate what is hip and "acceptable" to watch by what you say and what you air. Sure its generated by ratings but you have to power to influence what the marketers/advertisers think they want to buy into. You have as much power to create an audience and you know that. Well, not you but the royal "you."
You're talking to a guy who has been completely alone for the past couple years in promoting another fledgling sport that got zero mainstream coverage, the UFC. This is a sport that I found EXTREMELY entertaining, but when i started pushing it, my colleagues looked at me like I was nuts. I have had to basically CREATE an audience, sell the sport, have more fighters on in a month than all other mainstream stations combined in a year, and fight public misconceptions.
As of a couple of weeks ago, ESPN, CBSsportsline, Sports Illustrated, and Fox have all jumped online. I have traveled back and forth to Vegas, Stockton, LA, SF, and many other locales to make this happen, and usually out of my own pocket. I believe in the sport, and was willing to gamble my ratings (my job) and reputation to stoke the fires. Its paying off in droves.
If you have ever listened to my show, you know that I am the LAST guy in this market to follow a company line, and to be afraid to push something that might be "uncool". Heck, I'm doing a live remote on location for the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in July.
I just find the game unwatchable. The original start of this thread was me finding a way, any way, to get the sport talked about on the air, with it being interesting to my young, typical male audience.
You want me to talk about more WNBA? Everyone sits around and wonders why it isnt being talked about or covered more? The numbers to call in arent a secret. Use them. It shocks me that as committed and almost militant as many fans of the league are (as I am with the UFC), why WNBA fans in different cities havent gotten together on message boards like this one, and filled up the phone lines with WNBA questions.
Seriously, pause and think about that for a second. I'm really trying to help here.
It costs no money, and forces the subject to be spoken about. Most shows run no longer than 3 hours. Imagine what happens when 20 calls in those 3 hours are WNBA related. Would it be that hard?
Just my .02
