People watch not-the-best athletes all the time. NCAA football and basketball are hugely popular, but they aren’t the best athletes in their sport. Baltimore Orioles or Cleveland Browns fans. Anyone who watches MLS soccer – they are a pale shadow of the European and UK top leagues. Anyone who watches local pro hockey or basketball, if they don’t watch the NHL or NBA.
What an odd take.
I’m sure any team in the WNBA could beat my local high school basketball team, and probably the vast majority of local high school teams. Would they beat NYU’s or CMU’s men’s teams? I don’t know, probably.
Practically speaking, unless you live in New York or some other location with world class venues, if you go see a play or a musical, you’re probably not seeing the best actors and singers. But people still go to local theaters, even here in Arkansas, and I promise you we don’t have the best actors and singers in the world. Sports is the same. I know people who prefer college football to professional. I know fewer still who prefer watching high school to either college or professional. We all have our preferences.
I don’t watch many sports shows these days, and most of what I used to watch didn’t have much of a woman’s equivalent at the time. But I’m just as happy watching the women’s boxing, MMA, or wrestling as I am the men’s. I don’t particularly care if the top women’s boxer wouldn’t do well boxing men. Who cares? I’m just there to see a good fight.