About a year ago I met with an Executive and a Public Relations Manager from a major MMA organization. The purpose of the meeting was a meet and greet and to let them know what I was trying to do in the sport of MMA with my site MMAHotStuff.com.
We met at their office where I got a quick tour and we immediately started talking about past and upcoming fights. They made me feel welcome and the Executive made me feel as if he was really listening to what I had to say. So far, so good.
At lunch I started off by telling them my goal was to help educate people on the sport of MMA. I wanted to talk about the basics and explain how the sport requires more skill and diversity than other sports. It requires discipline, dedication, structure and respect. I wanted to talk about MMA from a girl's perspective. While my opinion and knowledge may not be that much different from a man's, my perspective most likely is.
I can't speak for all women, but I personally tend to make a connection with a person or situation and make a decision on I feel about it from that feeling. Sounds very girly doesn't it? But it's an emotional connection that I need to make. For me, when it comes to sports, I can watch and get into just about anything. However, if you're not a sports fan something needs to draw you in other than your husband/boyfriend wanting to watch a game. I sort of blame my dad. I think my dad caught on to this as I was growing up. He knew if he got me interested in the Portland Trailblazers, he could watch the Blazer games on the big family tv rather than be sequestered into his bedroom and watch it on the smaller tv, alone. He told me funny and interesting stories about the players to pique my interest. Then he'd tell me a story about one of the players from the other team to get me mad so I'd cheer for the Blazers. But his plan worked, now we were watching it together in the family room.
Surprisingly, my dad was on to something. There has to be something about an athlete for me to like them. Sure, playing for my favorite NFL Team (the Miami Dolphins) is a sure fire way for me to like the individual Dolphins as athletes, but when it comes to fighters there's not a team to have an alliance with. But how do I (or others) find that thing that draws me in or turns me off? How can I help educate other people on those things? I don't mean I want to be a fighter's personal cheerleader (although it sometimes feels like I am). I want to give people the information for them to make their own decisions.
I think understanding who the athletes/fighters are is almost, if not more, important than understanding the sport itself.
Ok, back to the meeting. So after I finished my explanation of my goals and why I'm doing MMAHotStuff.com I took a bite of my lunch letting them respond. Their response was not what I was hoping for or expecting. I wasn't expecting a red carpet and horns. Or a hug. However, I was expecting understanding and feedback of support and encouragement. The Public Relations Manager said "we only care about males 18-34 year olds. We just care about those eyeballs and that reach." I looked at the Executive and said I don't think that's what you're really trying to say. He said "right now it's a numbers game we just care about reaching the demographic of males 18-34 year olds." I'm sitting there honestly on the brink of tears (don't forget, I am a girl), sort of devastated. Never mind they just crumbled my hopes for MMAHotStuff.com as a site that could be viewed as useful to essentially help THEIR SPORT GROW but they just told me as a FAN they don't care about me because I'm a woman.
I went home and plugged away at my site. It was fun, at times. But that response plays over and over in my head. I'm still bitter about it. But honestly I'm more upset that these are people that are making decisions for a major MMA organization and they just demonstrated to me that they don't get it.
They don't understand that typically women manage the household finances. We are the buyers in the family. In fact, studies have shown that women are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases. Advertisers get it and for the last couple of years they've made HUGE strides in reaching the female demographic FOR EVERYTHING because we're the people that will purchase whatever it is they're selling. If a guy wants to order a PPV for $50.00 most likely he has to ask his wife. If he wants to go to an event, he checks with his girlfriend. Again, obviously this isn't the case all the time but more than not it is. Oh and we're more than that. Some women actually are fans. And like the sport, those female fans have evolved over time. They're now educated, successful business women who happen to enjoy the sport.
I can't help but wonder how much progress would be made in making MMA a more mainstream sport if they didn't purposely overlook 35-40% of their fan base. *35-40% came from Dana White in an interview with Bloomberg:
