Killion: Women's soccer has made great strides since '99 - SFGate
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Wildfires were blazing all over Western Canada on Sunday, raging out of control and sending smoke far and wide. That is a perfect analogy for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. What happened Sunday was a white-hot fire, one that has flared in the past, then smoldered, and then — once again — burst into brilliant flames. The viewership numbers for the final between the U. S. and Japan were staggering, even for those of us who fully expected the event to be extremely popular. The game drew 26. 7 million viewers on Fox and an additional 1. 27 million on Telemundo, making it the most-watched soccer game in U. S. history. In this day of fractured viewership, the viewing audience crushed both the 1999 women’s final between the U. S. and China and the highest-rated men’s match, last year’s World Cup game between the U. S. and Portugal. This WWC final drew higher ratings than Game 7 of the 2014 World Series and more than Game 6 of the recent NBA Finals. How will things be different from 1999, which also brought in previously inconceivable viewing numbers. The world is less controlled by mostly male gatekeepers — marketing executives, sports editors, producers — who minimized 1999 as a one-off. The soccer world is changing. Source: www.sfgate.com
