$500 Million Women-Exclusive Sports Arena Changes America's Social Landscape

In an effort to bring gender equity to the sports arena, Seattle taxpayers recently funded a new $500 million dollar Women's Sports Arena. The arena will have a capacity for 67,000 fans, and an additional 7,000 club seats. The venue will also have an adjoined Exhibition Center highlighting women's sports, costing another $70 million. Additionally, large executive suites, ranging from $50,000-$150,000, are available. The field meets all National Football League, Major League Soccer and World Cup Soccer field and sight-line requirements. And, not only do they have male "Sea Guy" cheerleader squads scantily clad at each event, but this year, there is a new 2004 Jr. Sea Guy Program, for boys aged 7-14 to participate in the areas of dance, cheer, teamwork, physical well being and self esteem. The Junior Sea Guys will experience the thrill of performing at halftime, will get to know the Sea Guys up close and personal, will receive a Junior Sea Guy uniform, pom poms, performance video and photo with the Sea Guys with their autographs.

With such a wonderful venue available, Seattle is hosting some of the hottest names in women's sports. Men and women alike have turned the local news on its head, asking for information on women's sports in town to dominate the first 9/10 of the news sports segments, as male-exclusive sports used to for half a century. The local Seattle news even preempts adult male sports events in town now, with a segment called "Erin's Little Heroes," to show young girl sports teams in action. Finding information on where and when male teams are playing in town is as hard as it used to be to find women's athletic events in Seattle. Girls are turning out for athletic teams at schools and parks all over Seattle in record-breaking numbers, as boys compete to get onto cheerleadering squads to cheer for the girls' teams. Athletic sponsorships for women have boomed, as have salaries for professional women athletes and professional male cheerleaders. More women got into college on athletic scholarships this year in Washington State than all women athletes combined in years prior.

What will become of our sexy Sea Guys and their junior protégés? Will they get the modeling contracts they deserve? And what will become of Seattle's fast and furious women athletes that have taken over a once male-dominated field by storm? Other cities have expressed sincere concern over this behavior in Seattle spreading to their towns. Men have taken down satellite dishes to keep women in rural areas from seeing the sports segments coming out of Seattle. Nothing seems to have changed much other than a gender switch in sports in Seattle. Yet many surrounding areas are already organizing protest groups of women to picket these arenas with signs saying, "I would rather be ironing," should these women athletes come to rural America next. One can only imagine the dreams coming true for the Junior Sea Guys as they perform at halftime, or the Women Athletes as they kick ass with 72,000 screaming fans behind them…I hope that women in rural America do get to see those Sea Guys up close and personal too!

"We don't need the men, we don't need the men
We don't need to have them round, except for now and then
They can come to see us when we need to move the piano…
But they'll look cute, in a bathing suit,
on a billboard in Manhattan." - Malvina Reynolds

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Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.

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