Website Targets Female Sports Fans
A unique website aimed at the female sports enthusiast has recently seen an increase in the number of visitors and views this as a trend reflecting the growth of this untapped market.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(PRWEB) July 27, 2005 -- A unique website aimed
at the female sports enthusiast has recently seen an increase in the number of
visitors and views this as a trend reflecting the growth of this untapped
market. Ivette Ricco launched, Femmefan.com, five years ago when she realized
there was a need for a forum dedicated to female sports fans' interests. Now
Femmefan.com logs an average of 2.3 million visits each month, she says. They
have also logged an average of 120,000 unique visits monthly during the first
six months of this year, indicating a large number who revisit the
site.
"Woman are interested in sports, but their passions, commitments
and interest are quite different than their male counterparts," Ricco says about
her reason for launching the site.
"Women, although avid about their
sports interests, are not nearly as involved with statistics and scores as men
are," she says. "Women want to know more about the people in the uniforms, more
about their lives, their families and, in short, what makes them tick. And they
don't mind a little beefcake thrown in for good measure."
Though Ricco's
columns are mostly about her prime interest, football and the National Football
League, the site has attracted writers from other sports, including baseball,
basketball, hockey, boxing and stock car racing.
The concept for
Femmefan.com has its roots in the South Bronx, where Ricco was a teenage
football fan. "On Sundays, the women in the family would go to the kitchen to
cook while the men watched the New York Giants game on the television. I soon
realized the men were having a much better time, so I left the kitchen
forever."
Now married and living in the Bay Area, she discovered there
were a growing number of women at sports venues. On her game-day visits to
Candlestick Park, she also noticed there were a large number of women-only
tailgate parties. With the help of a former business associate, she developed
and launched the site in March, 2000.
The new site, redesigned by San
Francisco State University students, went "live" last December.
"The
female fan is a largely ignored market," Ricco says, noting the number of visits
to her site. "That is primarily because the traditional media and the sports
industry has no experience in targeting that market."
Others have tried.
The NFL tried NFLforHer.com and Sports Illustrated tried Sports Illustrated for
Women, both aimed at the female fan, both failed.
"I think they didn't
make it because there was too much "fluff" and not enough nitty-gritty sports
stuff. After all, do you see health tips for men in Sports
Illustrated?
FemmeFan.com is geared at providing that
"nitty-gritty".
Information Contact:
Ivette Ricco, President Femmefan,
Inc.
510-691-1601
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb265747.htm