Jan thinks so!
Stephenson is old enough to know better. What a sell-out!
BTW - In considering Stephenson’s argument about the LPGA needing sex appeal to survive, I’m not a golfer, but I can’t recall a time that sex appeal was a consideration for the LPGA in the last 20 years or so. In fact, I thought it was more or less accepted as a working fact that the player demographic of the ladies golf tour is at least 50% gay. In fact, in the few times I watched ladies golf while channel surfing, the last descriptive word that would come to mind in watching the white, non-asian women, is “sexy”. Sturdy, bulky, trundling, powerful perhaps … but not “sexy”.
Stephenson is an elitist moron.
Jan, racism is so unsexy.
Well, like it or not, it’s celebrity power that gets people interested in golf. See Tiger Woods for the best recent example. People that are very cold and cordial about the sport, regardless of their race, can kill it if the sport really needs attention.
Huh? The LPGA is loaded with attractive women. Can’t say I know which of those attractive women are also gay.
As to Stephenson’s point, she’s at least half right. I’ll leave it to others to opine whether competitors should be “sexy,” whatever the heck that means. But smaller sports such as golf become bigger sports such as NASCAR by having personable performers. The pro-ams she cited are a perfect example. I dunno whether throwing the women out on the course wearing lingerie or whatever would be effective (or would be a good idea even if it were effective), but the “ams” in a pro-am are paying the big bucks to schmooze with a pro golfer. They want to be told “nice shot” and “thanks for coming out today” (heh) and they want a picture to hang in their office and a story to tell a client. If the foreign competitors are unable and/or unwilling to do that, then yes, the LPGA has a problem.
Golf is dull.
Women’s golf? Now that’s something else…
Thanks for the clarification, I know relatively little about professional golf as a business, and I had no idea that amateur and pro schmoozing was such an integral part of the economics.
I’ll leave culture out of this (as Jan may have considered doing) and say that I’d be a liar if I didn’t know what she was saying as far as the lack of common courtesy among certain individuals, and that I like when a golfer is depicted as being amiable and sportsmanlike on the links.
It’s been a few years, but when I was in high school looking at the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Professional Athlete was listed under “Entertainment”. I must say that I find it hard to disagree with this definition as well as the sentiment that sides somewhat with Jan.
Racism? I don’t think. A poorly worded observation? Yes.
Does anybody disagree that all professional sports are entertainment? And that sex somehow figures in most sports.
Peace,
mangeorge
What complete rubbish. Ms Stephenson is a moron.
She’s a jackass.
Also, since when are Asian women unsexy? (Okay, I don’t have a thing for Asian women, but it sure seems to me a lot of guys do.)
Tiger’s really not the friendliest guy in the world. He’s a celebrity because he’s young and immensely talented (and :eek: part Asian! ;)).
If you (Stephenson) are going to claim your comment is not racial, don’t make a division along racial lines. This kind of flap happens often enough that you’d think celebs would learn. I guess not. If she wants to complain that the players on the LPGA Tour aren’t expressive or friendly enough, or don’t do enough to promote the game, fine. If she wants to say the sport should be sexier… she’d get some arguments (particularly for saying the women across the board are less talented), but that’s still okay. Blaming Asians as a group is not acceptable. People are really sensitive when you single out a racial or ethnic group and generalize about their characteristics, particularly when you say something as insulting as what Stephenson did (“the Asians are killing our tour.”)
Manhattan hit the nail on the head. During pro-am’s, some of these amateur sponsor’s shell out $5K to $10K to have the privilege of playing with some of the world’s best players. And to have the pro say 12 words during the course of a five hour round, who want’s to support that? The sponsors and tournament promoters are the ones who pay for the tournament and if you can’t put eyeballs on the screen or fannies in the seats, then why are spending money to promote a product nobody wants to see?
I think Jan didn’t articulate it well, but she’s right. Se Ri Pak, Grace Park, Mi Hyun Kim for example, are terrific players and are easy on the eyes so to speak, but due to their limited English speaking skills, they are shy (not unwilling) to communicate with their playing partners and the sponsors that play in pro-ams. It’s not just pure golf, unfortunately, that sells on both the men and women’s tour. Annika Sorenstam has proven to be one of the alltime greats, but it wasn’t until she played in a PGA tournament and burst from her reserved shell that people took notice. As a result, the LPGA has gotten a ratings boost and with that, more sponsorship.
How the hell did this escape the BBQ Pit?
Moving this, pronto.
I bet if you got all those non-communicative golf pros to give blowjobs LPGA would pocket tons of money.
Sports are entertainment. The SPORT is the entertainment. The athletes aren’t or shouldn’t be eye-candy, nor should they be expected to glad-hand when they are supposed to be, you know, participating in a sporting event.
If the sport isn’t enough to keep the league afloat, then the LPGA’s problem ain’t the non-talky, non-asskissing Asain women who play.
Possibly, but the pure “sex appeal” issue aside, and just concentrating on inter-personal skills, if (per Manhattan and others) some degree of schmoozing skills with corporate sponsors are necessary for this professional league to be “big time” successful, and the top players are being relatively uncommunicative, due to language limitations or cultural differences, to parties seeking (and paying big dollars for) some bit of interaction, this could well turn into a serious income and sponsorship problem over time.
As an additional point, if the corporate PRO-AM “amateurs” in this case are typically (I’m guessing) upper and upper middle class women their long term tolerance for a professional female partner that will not engage them in communication is likely to be fairly low, especially if they are writing a check with 4 or 5 figures to play a round with them.
Oh cut the bullshit that sex has no place in athletics.
Look how extraordinarily well women’s tennis is doing with their sexy approach.
It wasn’t too long ago when most of the field were manatees.
But look at them now. Sleek, sexy, with figures to die for.
And check out their share of the purse. Before, it was a fraction of what the men made. Now, the women’s take is the same or close to what the men get.
And that is because these days, there are a lot more good-playing, good-looking women on the tennis pro circuit, and the world loves to watch them.
Anna Kornakova is a case in point. Her game sucked, but the men flocked to the stadiums - not because she played so well, but because she is/was (in their opinion) gorgeous.
Maybe the LPGA should take note.