Sports Fans Hunt for Women’s Games: Beyond News Media Coverage

In the United States, women’s sport participation has seen an exponential increase on the scholastic, collegiate, and professional levels. However, women’s sports broadcasts are hard to find, if available at all, and women’s sports news coverage remains marginalized to niche platforms. The lack of media attention on women’s sport creates structural barriers for audiences to engage in mediated fandom. This chapter examines the technological, socio-cultural, and economic structures that shape mediated fandom of women’s sport. Fans of women’s sport encounter numerous barriers to access games, including the inconsistency and multiplatform nature of game broadcasts, gendered narratives around fans, and lack of investment in the promotion of women’s sport. Building upon existing literature, we argue that researchers center women’s sport in sport fandom research, challenge masculinist conceptualizations of fandom and fanship, and build bridges across disciplinary boundaries.