Watching Sports as an Activity with Network Effects
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2016/jul/09/helen-pidd-why-wont-tv-show-more-womens-cycling
In the talk of gender equality in sports one issue is that women athletes are paid less than male athletes in the same sport. This can be partially attributed to the fact that the male versions of sports typically have more fans, and thus a larger viewership.
The enjoyment of following a sport is not only derived from watching it, but also discussing the sport with other people who also watch it. Thus, following a sport can be thought of as an activity with network effects where the more people who watch it, the more each individual benefits from watching it as well. And the act of getting into following a sport can we thought of in the same way as an economy with network effects, where the price is how much effort it takes to get into and follow a sport and the payoff is the enjoyment one gets from following it.
Thus, in order to make more people start to follow a women’s sport, like cycling, the barriers in place that raise the amount of effort it takes to get into the sport should be taken down. The thing this article advocates for is more tv coverage, which would make it easier for people to get into watching the sport. If said barriers are lower enough, it will be easy for a lot of people to get into women’s cycling, as with the effective “price” sufficiently lowered it will be easier to reach the unstable equilibrium z’. That equilibrium can be thought of as a tipping point, because if the percentage of the population watching the sport is slightly over z’, there will be an upwards pressure pushing to an even larger equilibrium percentage of the population z”.