At the annual Sport Marketing Association conference (presented by SuckerPunch) in November in St. Louis, an impressive presentation was given by Natalie Bunch, a doctoral candidate at Georgia State University.

Bunch’s presentation, “Are you doing ‘Kenough?’: Male professors’ role in creating an inclusive environment in sport management,” was selected as the winner of the fast-moving “Ignite competition,” an exercise requiring speakers to give a 20-slide PowerPoint presentation in exactly five minutes.

The objective of Bunch’s presentation was inspiring male sport management faculty members to increase their promotion of women’s sports. Using the recent “Barbie” movie as a figurative backdrop, Bunch showed images that made clear women’s sports warranted visibility equity in the classroom.

One slide showed that for the first time since the modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens (when women were not allowed to participate), the 2024 Summer Games in Paris delivered a milestone of 50% participation for each gender.

Another graphic included the August 2023 University of Nebraska volleyball game, for which the Cornhuskers women drew 92,003 fans, setting a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in the U.S.

Bunch also could have highlighted the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, at which Team WNBA defeated the USA women’s national team, drawing a television audience more than three times ( 305%) the previous record for a WNBA All-Star........

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