“We need to get out of the ghetto of being a role model for girls,” said Andy Crossley, the Breakers’ director of business development. “You can’t make dads feel like they’re visiting Chuck E. Cheese’s.”
For me the remark was particularly disturbing in light of the general attitude other WPS executive had toward marketing the game toward women.
Yesterday in the Boston Pro Soccer Examiner, L.E. Eisenmenger more or less asked Crossley to explain himself. Crossley's response:
“With the word ghetto,” said Crossley, “I mean we can’t let ourselves be pushed into a corner and marginalized, to do this one limited thing and not have the ability to get out and broaden our horizons beyond that.”
“People said, ‘you’re dismissing your most loyal audience,’ and I’m definitely sensitive to the way that came off,” said Crossley. “My point is that there’s a limit to what we ultimately can do if the audience is limited solely to being a youth soccer audience. If the role of the players is viewed as simply there to provide good role models then winning and losing isn’t that important ultimately.”
I'll have more on this sometime after the holiday.
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