"Women have completely infiltrated sports the biz"
By Patrick Calabria

The fact that there is a celebrity golf tournament in these parts next month isn't big news. After all, these charity events are as ubiquitous as dandelions. The news is that the Ann Liguori Celebrity Golf Outing at the Westhampton Country Club on May 21 is named after Ann Liguori, another sure indicator that women have infiltrated the territory of the sports business heretofore held solely by men. It's a good thing.

I go back to the days when hockey teams actually held votes on whether or not to admit women reporters to their locker rooms, while male reporters smugly watched the tally come in. What were we thinking?

Now, I'm still not totally comfortable with the idea of a female journalist standing with a microphone in front of a stark naked linebacker, but I figure if he doesn't want to put on a towel, that's his problem. Liguori may have not pioneered the trail of equal rights for women in the media, but at least she's widened it.

You know the name. She has produced the Sports Innerview with Ann Liguori seen on Fox Sports Networks through the country since 1989, when women in sports was still a novel idea. She has hosted a weekly show on WFAN for more than 10 years. She has covered top sporting events like the Masters, the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the Ryder Cup. Until we connected recently, I hadn't spoken with Ann since we were at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

"Madison Avenue is more open to using female athletes as spokespeople and putting them in ad campaigns (than it was) when I first started in the business," Liguori said. "The Nike ad with Mia Hamm helped put women's soccer on the map. People see those commercials, and it has a tremendous impact."

It's what I've been saying for years: the image of sports isn't sold to the fan, or potential fan, directly anymore. It is sold to advertisers - Nike or Lexus or whomever - and with that advertising support, the athletes become familiar outside the arena. So grandmothers know who Michael Jordan is.

Liguori has had a front row seat for all this.

"The business of sports is having a big influence on what women buy into and what they watch," Liguori said.

It has changed so much that Liguori, and others like her, are no longer seen as window dressing, present only to give the women's perspective. The days when women print reporters languished on the "society page" are long gone.

Think Liguori only interviews Martina Navratilova or Pat Summitt? Think again.

"My show is genderless," Liguori said. "I've interviewed everyone from Ted Williams to Monica Seles. I don't even think about gender when I'm booking a guest. If the person is engaging, I put them on the air. I just look for the marquee value."

Certainly, that's progress.

I remember when tennis events were sponsored by Virginia Slims, a cigarette. The truth is, Virginia Slims bankrolled women's tennis when no one else was willing to do that. It helped grow the sports into the popular attraction it is today.

More and more, sponsors are replacing the entrepreneurs as the financial backers of sporting leagues and events. Sports today - especially women's sports - couldn't exist without a strong advertising base. It's why Ann asked me to mention that her golf outing is supported by AT&T Wireless, McDonald's Corp., Outback Steakhouse, North Fork Bank, Marsh Client Services and Ben Pinnell and Associates.

I told her I didn't do that.