Unequal treatment: Why not televising the Irish women's rugby match is a big deal

            One of the most continually prominent issues with sports coverage (in any country) seems to be the excessive attention that male sports receive compared to female sports.  There seems to always be discussion about getting more viewers interested in women’ sports, but action is needed in order to actually make this happen.  The fact that the Irish women’s ‘historic debut at the Aviva’ (Cummiskey) won’t be nationally televised due to the men’s France v. Scotland match, proves that it’s not imperative for women’s sports to get equal coverage.

            The Irish Times reports that the issue lies within the kick-off of the Irish men’s match v. Italy, which is scheduled to start at 2:30pm.  If the women’s match was moved to finish before the men’s match, it would be able to be televised nationally, but the IRFU believe that this would be “detrimental to the attendance” because it would be “too early  to entice a decent crowd.”  They are basically stating that more people will watch the match in the stadium than would watch on television.  The article goes on to subtly prove why this is a load of garbage.

            The statistics of last weekends Ireland v. England match (women’s) from RTÉ Two show that there was an average of 316,500 viewers watching on television.  The reported attendance at the stadium was 15,000 (keep in mind that supporters weren’t charged to watch the women’s match after watching the men’s).  Based on these statistics, it can be easily put that the IRFU are denying coverage for more than possibly 300,000 fans, simply so that they can generate revenue for themselves by selling more tickets to the match (since kickoff is later in the day).

           This is evidence that giving women’s sports equal coverage as men’s sports is simply a nice idea to talk about; not an idea that should be taken seriously.  Still unsure?  What if this was reversed and the men’s match wasn’t being covered?  Would the IRFU leave over a million fans hopeless by not letting them watch online? Or would they move the time so that the maximum number of fans in Ireland and Italy could watch?  Most everyone would agree that they would move the match.

            Therefore, women’s sports advocates need to buckle up, because nothing is changing anytime soon.  In order to get more coverage, the employees at the top of the IRFU need to care more about sport itself than money.  As of now, they want to generate as much revenue as they can at night so that their business grows.  And if you can’t watch your favorite team play an international rugby match, who cares?  That’s their mindset.

Works Cited

Cummiskey, Gavin. "Irish women's team's historic debut at Aviva not to be televised nationally." The Irish Times 27 February 2014.