Allison Creekmore

The Pay Gap Between Male and Female Athletes

Allison Creekmore Sports Pay Gap

In recent years, people have started paying more attention to the wage disparity between males and females in the workplace. This has been a topic of concern for many years, but it’s becoming an even more crucial issue as society continues to change. Recently, people have started thinking about the pay gap between male and female athletes. Is it fair that a male athlete makes significantly more money than an elite female athlete?

Some Sports Have Larger Pay Gaps

It’s important to recognize that the pay gap is more substantial in some sports than it is for others. For instance, basketball has an extremely large pay gap between male and female athletes. Other sports, such as tennis, don’t have that much of a pay gap at all. Tennis seems to be the one sport where top females are capable of earning money comparable to the top males in the sport.

There are also instances of certain female athletes earning high wages in other sports. Ronda Rousey was a big draw for the UFC during her time there, and she made more money than most fighters while she was on top. Things aren’t as easy for women who play team sports, though. Most women in team sports make substantially less money than their male counterparts.

Revenue Differences

In most sports, the female sports leagues are not very popular in comparison to the male sports leagues. The WNBA has very low viewership when compared to the NBA, and the revenue of the WNBA could not stack up to the male league. This lack of revenue has a lot to do with why female athletes don’t make as much money as most male athletes. There are some instances where revenue increases haven’t caused female athletes to be paid more, though.

The U.S. women’s soccer team has earned more revenue than the men’s soccer team. Despite this, the income disparity is still present. Even female professional wrestlers generally make substantially less money than the men do even though they have become a big part of the success of those organizations. Pay differences in sports will continue to be a hot issue, and many want the pay gap to disappear entirely as soon as possible.

from Allison Creekmore’s Career Overview https://allisoncreekmore.com/the-pay-gap-between-male-and-female-athletes/
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Allison Creekmore

Technology is Changing the Way People Watch Sports

Man Watching Soccer

 

Advanced technology creates many advantages, and this also translates into how people view and interpret sports. Not only can you watch sports on different media, but technology has added numerous factors to make it more enjoyable for viewers. While game rules mostly remain the same, the following aspects have changed how consumers watch sports, especially live events.

Improved Sound and Video Technology

The sound quality and the crispness of the picture keep improving. You can see a remarkable difference over broadcasts from just a few years ago. Since broadcasts use high-end microphones, they eliminate unnecessary sounds for good clarity. Additionally, cameras transmit even tiny details for superior quality.

Real-Time Updates

Players, teams, fans, and franchises have become more connected because of social media sites. They use Facebook walls, Instagram pages, and Twitter feeds to communicate. This engages the fans like never before. It also gives teams the chance to keep the audience involved, especially when they run contests during games and matches. Since many of the portals share instant updates, it can help keep fans informed, even when they can’t watch the game.

Advanced Replays and Reviews

Reviews and replays have been around for a while, but advancing technology keeps upgrading them. At one time, umpires and referees had to base their decisions based upon footage from a single-angle view. However, new inventions have made it easier to review plays. The advanced functions can significantly lessen judgment errors made by referees and umpires. That’s why they have become popular among sports viewers.

Instant replay also allows players to assess their performance instantly and can lead to game-changing performance improvements. The methods used include slow-motion cameras, on-field mikes, different camera angles, and jimmy jibs. While this technology mainly helps the sports officials, it also changes how people watch the sport because they can see what factors contribute to the decision-making process.

Live Streaming

At one time, you could only watch live matches on television or follow a live radio commentary. If the game was on when you didn’t have time to watch it, you had to wait for highlights on the news or sports commentary. Nowadays, many people watch games on OTT platforms. These allow you to stream just about any events on the go via internet connections.

from Allison Creekmore on Technology http://allisoncreekmore.net/technology-is-changing-the-way-people-watch-sports/
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Allison Creekmore

The Differences in Perception of Men’s and Women’s Sports

Men And Women's Sports

 

Thanks to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, sports is being watched, discussed, scrutinized, and studied 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. A perfect example of this is the Thanksgiving holiday. While the NFL has televised a couple of games on Thanksgiving for decades, other sports are now using the holiday to showcase their leagues or teams. The NBA, NHL, NCAA, MMA, and PGA all have begun to schedule events on Thanksgiving for their teams and athletes.

Due to the around-the-clock availability of sports, it’s interesting to see how fans perceive their favorite teams or athletes. Another interesting way to examine sports is across the gender line – that is, how do sports fans perceive men’s and women’s sports? Do they think differently about male and female athletes, or are women athletes more popular than their male counterparts?

In this blog post, we will dig deep into the statistics to show you how people feel about sports from a gender-based perspective.

Male Sports Still Earn More Money and Viewers

Although 2018 was hailed as the Year of the Woman, studies indicate that men’s sports still outperform women’s sports when it comes to television ratings and player salaries. In fact, this issue has been openly talked about in professional soccer, where female FIBA players have very vocally demanded to be paid equally to their male counterparts, even though they do not earn as much revenue as male soccer players do.

However, the female FIBA players have pointed to ratings that suggest that women’s soccer has become increasingly popular around the globe over the past few years, which is why the lady soccer professionals believe they should earn a larger piece of the revenue pie.

Competitiveness Versus Progressiveness in Sports

Although women’s sports have become more popular in recent years, men’s sports are still more popular overall according to studies. Social scientists believe that one reason for the elevated popularity of men’s sports is that the viewing public views men’s sports as more competitive than women’s sports.

For example, a recent study shows that less than half of people believe that women’s sports are competitive in general, and 63% of people believe that male-based sporting competitions are more competitive than women’s sports.

Still, the future is bright for women’s sports.

More people report being inspired by female athletes than guy sportsmen – 36% of poll participants are inspired by women, while only 26% of people report feeling inspired by male athletes.

Additionally, women’s sports are seen as more family-oriented, more progressive, cleaner, and less money-driven than male sports.

from Allison Creekmore’s Career Overview https://allisoncreekmore.com/the-differences-in-perception-of-mens-and-womens-sports/
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Allison Creekmore

Title IX’s Impact

College Women's Sports

 

It is hard to believe, but Title IX was passed by Congress and then signed into law on June 23, 1972, 46 years ago, by President Richard Nixon. It was part of the Education Amendments of 1972 and stipulated that any federally-funded educational activity or program that receives cannot discriminate against girls and women including in athletics programs.

The most famous impact has been on sports programs in schools. Since almost every U.S. college receives some federal funding, female athletes have been able to use the Title IX in an argument that the schools should recognize women’s athletics in as serious a manner as they do men’s. Because of Title IX, more females, including Olympic athletes, have given credit to Title IX for the chance to attend college with athletic scholarships and have the opportunity for higher education.

Examples of how Title IX began to work, although the regulation had opposition along the way and didn’t go into effect until 1978, a cover story in TIME in June 1978 reported that six times as many girls in high school were in competitive high school sports compared to 1970, North Carolina State’s women’s sports budget had multiplied 15 times in four years, the University of Michigan went from no formal women’s competitive sports in 1973 to 10 varsity women’s teams five years later, and other similar statistics.

Also, as the story noted, the effect of Title IX was not just felt by elite college athletes and public school students because young girls to older American women who wanted to compete were discovering the joys of competition in the 1970s. Females were showing they can be as determined as males and that they also learned through participating in athletics that if they believed in themselves and what they were capable of, they could do anything they set out to do. Sports build a better society because they encourage physical and mental vigor, tenacity, and courage.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the impact of Title IX is still being felt. In the 2015-16 academic year, 211,886 females participated in sports in United States colleges, and that represents a 25 percent increase over the previous decade. Title IX has encouraged many girls to play sports over the years and reap the health and societal benefits that sports provide.

from Allison Creekmore’s Career Overview https://allisoncreekmore.com/title-ixs-impact/
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Allison Creekmore

Tech is Improving The Diversity Of Startup Founders

Women Meeting

 

Statistics from CB Insights indicate that only about one percent of founders of venture capital-backed startups are black. When Latino or black women are analyzed, there are even fewer of these demographics in founders positions. Often, this occurs due to the difficulty for these individuals to access training programs or networks that can assist them with the steps that need to be taken to obtain startup funding.

Founder Gym Supports Underrepresented Demographics

With many jobs or careers, there is some type of training that a person is able to take so that they gain the knowledge that’s required to be able to perform their job. For example, if an individual wants to become a heart surgeon, they’ll go to medical school, and if they want to become a real estate attorney, they will attend law school. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case for people in the underrepresented demographic who would like to be venture startup founders who are capital backed, but that may be changing in the future due to a training program that is known as Founder Gym. The program is the first of its kind, which is creating a curriculum that is tailored towards meeting the needs of underrepresented founders.

Differences Are Strengths

The Founder Gym focuses on the uniqueness of the founders who are in the program. They are taught that their differences are actually strengths. Where they grew up and who they grew up with taught them how to handle certain situations. How they view the world and solve problems was developed all throughout their lives. The founders are taught that this gives them a competitive advantage. Individuals who are from affluent backgrounds don’t have the same life experiences as these founders, and they handle problems in a different way. Founders in this group are taught that this can be an advantage for them as it adds new insight and a different perspective into situations.

Online Network Building
The program is only accessible online, which some thought would make it difficult for networking to occur. Yet, this hasn’t been the case at all. In fact, a great deal of networking has already taken place in the program. By being in the same space and working with like-minded individuals who are also focusing on their dreams, it’s created a passionate community where members of the group support each other through peer training and affinity groups that are held on a regular basis.

from Allison Creekmore on Technology http://allisoncreekmore.net/tech-is-improving-the-diversity-of-startup-founders/
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Allison Creekmore

CLEAR is Changing Your Game Day Experience

Sports Stadium

Biometrics was once seen as a technology of the future, but tech advances quickly these days, and we’re starting to see it finding its way into not just professional security but also our personal lives. Fingerprint scanning is now a feature available on all of our phones, and the company CLEAR is taking strides forward to make it a part of our everyday lives.

Sporting events are a promising place to test out the benefits of fingerprint scanning in the retail industry. The huge amount of visitors to sporting venues means that drink and food vendors have to process a large number of customers in a short amount of time. CLEAR is betting on the notion that biometrics can make the process of making a purchase easier for customers and cut down on the length of lines at vendor booths.

They’re approaching this new technology smartly. Accounts are free and easy to create, and the benefit of efficiency means that it’s a sensible investment for those who are invested in stadiums. While these biometrics are most commonly used as a “fast pass” system when entering a stadium, they’ve begun to start experimenting with its usage for buying food and drinks as well. As of now, 14 different stadiums have implemented CLEAR’s technology into their ongoing infrastructure. In terms of users, the buy-in is even higher. Over 3 million customers have signed on for CLEAR’s services, and that could fundamentally change the way that stadiums run by reducing the need for ticket checkers and speeding up the process of verifying tickets or manually entering credit card information. CLEAR is also being utilized in airports.

Part of the reason that CLEAR has managed to acquire such a high install base is the ease of registration. Customers who sign up for the service are required to register their ID, email address, and phone number, as well as three separate prints for their hands. This assures a higher level of integrity when verifying a customer’s identity, but the actual verification process usually takes about five minutes to complete.

Privacy advocates emphasize that customers should be careful when registering with programs like those offered by CLEAR. While CLEAR promises to not sell customer information to other businesses, their privacy policy does note that they may share data at the request of government agencies. Regardless, the principles behind the company seem benign, and it could represent one of the most important innovations in bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds.

from Allison Creekmore on Technology http://allisoncreekmore.net/clear-is-changing-your-game-day-experience/
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Allison Creekmore

Where is Women’s Sports On TV?

Women's Track

 

For the longest time, sports in America were largely seen as a discipline reserved almost exclusively for men. While women could find prominence in the Olympics and particularly in more culturally “feminized” competitions like gymnastics, men dominated the world of sports. And while the last few decades have seen women getting more representation with the formation of leagues like the WNBA, women’s sports organizations still don’t hold the cultural cache that are found in all men’s leagues like the MLB and NFL.

One of the biggest gaps in representation comes due to a lack of airtime. While live performances can be a great way to earn yourself an audience and create a sense of unified enthusiasm, it can be hard to develop an audience on a national or even regional level without any representation on TV. The WNBA is already over two decades old, signifying a shift where women can finally make a living in a field once reserved exclusively for men, but that doesn’t mean that the living WNBA players earn is equivalent to their male counterparts. The average NBA player makes twelve times the amount of a WNBA player, and there’s a direct line of connection between the lack of airtime and the lack of comparable salaries.

This lack of interest in female-led sports franchises is – to a not insignificant degree – a self-fulfilling prophecy. Networks and advertisers assume that viewers aren’t interested in women’s sports, and the lack of coverage dampers the opportunity that new viewers have to become fans and the opportunity existing fans have to strengthen their loyalty to their chosen franchise. The general assumption when promoting a new entertainment property is that meaningful development is necessary for popularity to grow. While pushing to improve viewer buy-in may have significant upfront costs, the hope is that continued support will create a self-sustaining model of viewer investment. Unfortunately, it’s been two decades since the advent of the WNBA, and few steps have been taken to provide prominent representation on national media.

While this may seem like an isolated issue, it’s actually endemic of larger currents of misogyny in American culture. The notion that women are physically inferior to men is well embedded in the public consciousness, and it’s reflected in everything from our attitudes regarding women in the armed forces to the justification of more men in high-level management positions. Seeing strong women on TV in the short term may allow female athletes to achieve more equitable pay with their male colleagues, but its long term effect could mean a fairer understanding of gender equity in the popular consciousness.

from Allison Creekmore’s Career Overview https://allisoncreekmore.com/where-is-womens-sports-on-tv/
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Allison Creekmore

Relation Between Tech Companies, Ethical Problems, and Diversity

Tech Company Employees

 

 

Through the evolution of business and social changes, it is important more than ever to successfully combine profit and principles of a company. Many large companies in Silicon Valley are placing people in positions to regulate and maintain their reputation when it comes to ethical decisions. It could be that the larger issue surrounding the poor ethics of companies is the lack of diversity in their employees.

Role of Diversity in Tech Companies

More tech companies are experiencing a crisis related to data and privacy breaches, disinformation, questionable investors, and fake profiles on their platforms that spread hate and division between different groups. If the group that makes decisions is more diverse, the ethical issues can be identified in the boardroom. When the company has representatives of various marginalized groups they would have a clear viewpoint on how those groups would react to their decisions and would be impacted by them.

While the main focus of companies is improving speed and ease of access, there are also important issues arising with users and in particular with minority groups. Decision making groups often lack people that represent minorities. No matter the expertise of the chief ethics officer, only a true representative of the situation can give a correct way to act that would benefit smaller groups of people.

Diversity and Funding

Not all money is the same. People are more and more repulsed by businesses that startup and are funded by money that is won by violence and intrigue. With transparency of the dealings of investors, it is good to have diverse opinions about the money with which tech industries are funded and how that impacts their ethics policies and the social image of the company.

Diversity and Changing Communities

With the expansion of tech companies, local communities are changing, and the diversity of small businesses and towns are also disappearing. When the different cultural demographics change in an area, the costs of living and rents rise.

It is vital for companies that displace some at the expense of others to provide assistance to those living in poverty. Another ethical solution for tech companies is to work with the citizens and businesses that are already present in a newly entered community. This will assist already existing businesses and create sustainable employment to its own residents.

from Allison Creekmore on Technology http://allisoncreekmore.net/relation-between-tech-companies-ethical-problems-and-diversity/
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Allison Creekmore

The Rise In Graduation Rates For Student Athletes

College Sports

 

Student-athletes may primarily be known for their athletic prowess and contributing to successful sports programs at signature schools. However, not nearly as much attention is paid to whether or not they are able to graduate with degrees once their tenure at the school comes to an end. In a bit of highly encouraging news, there has been a surge in the graduation rates of student-athletes across all platforms. The numbers show a rapid increase, and the narrative of athletes only going to school for the notoriety and fame associated with sports seem to be changing.

According to Graduate Success rate data, there has been a 14 point increase in the student-athlete graduate rate from 2002. The rate has increased from 74 percent all the way up to 88 percent. There have also been noticeable increases in individual ethnicities such as the African American population (2 percent) and specific sports such as football (3 percent). In fact, African American male basketball players have enjoyed a 36 percent graduation rate increase in that time period, and African American female basketball players have had a 19 point increase.

NCAA president Mark Emmert set a goal of an 80 percent graduation rate for student-athletes and he was more than astonished to see that goal being exceeded greatly. With these increases across the board in mind, there has emerged the questioning what the source behind this increase is.

Primarily, the NCAA has enforced certain academic policies and members of the NCAA board made academic rule changes. This has directly influenced the increase in athletes getting their degrees. Not only has the number of student-athlete graduates increase, but another source of encouragement has come in the form of meaningful degrees.

While studies have shown that student-athlete graduates are more than twice as likely to get a degree in fitness and athletics (unsurprisingly), we have also seen an increase in degrees in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. According to the Division 1 Diploma Dashboard, more and more students, especially of the female demographic have gained more degrees of academic importance.

As you can see, the increase in graduation rates for student-athletes has been prominent all across the country. The increase in meaningful degrees has a great impact on society with no end in sight.

from Allison Creekmore’s Career Overview https://ift.tt/2jBEpSi
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Allison Creekmore

Wimbledon’s High-Tech Setup

Wimbledon Player

 

As a cultural phenomenon, Wimbledon far transcends those who are avid tennis fans. For many, the tournament has been capturing the attention of people from all walks of life and athletic interests since its inaugural season in 1877, with no sign of interest slowing down anytime soon!

How is this possible, though? How can something so consistent and similar continually re-invent itself and keep people coming back each year as enthused as ever?

Wimbledon’s success can likely be attributed to its ability to progress with the changing pace of technology and not against it. The US tech company IBM knows this well, having over 20 years of experience working with the tournament.

One of the most important aspects of the tournament is broadcasting and streaming. For those who aren’t able to make it to Wimbledon, being able to watch it on television and through the internet no matter where in the world they are.

Backstage during the tournament, there is a huge monitor listing all of the statistics surrounding the data occurring on all 18 courts. This information is fed to commentators and broadcasting companies so they can understand what is happening, subsequently sending the information on to consumers.

For many, this takes the form of streaming or television, but in recent years it has even gotten as complex as sending text messages to people who want updates on the games. Through this method, even the most interested tennis fans don’t have to worry about falling behind because of a shift at work or a commute home!

A really groundbreaking element of the technology utilized by IBM to monitor Wimbledon is an AI-powered video automation service which can recognize the moods that players are exhibiting and also create dynamic presentations easily. The most impressive part about this? The turnaround time for videos has gotten as quick as 15 minutes, meaning that fans or people not at the games can watch highlight reels with only a slight delay after the games happen. That is an unprecedented amount of efficiency for sports coverage, something that is helping re-define the way we view sports reporting in general.

Tennis will always be a sport that relies on simply a racquet, court, and ball, but the technology we use to document it will continue to evolve and help introduce many more people to the wonderful sport for years to come.

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