POWER PLAY: PRO WOMEN'S TEAM SPORTS WILL NOT SUCCEED

OK everybody, it's safe to drink Pepsi again without fear of being branded as anti-American for forsaking Olympics sponsor Coca Cola, the Official Carbonated, Malted-Battery Acid Tasting Stuff of the Atlanta Games.

Now everybody can return to their normal lives and stop watching television, at least until the upcoming fall season on NBC, which Bob Costas assured us over and over again during the Games will be the network's best ever.

Like most Olympics, this year's Games were filled with triumphs, defeats and shameless marketing ploys.

However, I think McDonald's could have done better than its promotion "If the U.S. Wins, You Win." In that promotion, if the U.S. medaled in an event to which you held the corresponding game piece, you won prizes ranging from food to free liposuction and cholesterol screenings.

What they should have done is "If the U.S. Gets a Groin Injury, You Get a Groin Injury." In that game, if an American athlete was injured in an event to which you held the corresponding game piece, restaurant employees wielding lead pipes would come to your home and inflict the corresponding hurt unless you agreed to immediately purchase 500 Big Macs.

That would have provided a much greater incentive to eat at McDonald's. Tonya Harding could've served as spokesman.

Aside from sponsors (and, oh yeah, victorious athletes), a big winner at the Atlanta Games was women's athletics, which collectively garnered the biggest spotlight and most praise it's ever received.

There has since been much talk about women's sports becoming viable at the professional level. Two professional women's basketball leagues -- the American Basketball League and the Women's National Basketball League -- are slated to begin play within a year.

Without a doubt, women athletes have made tremendous gains.

A primary catalyst for this in the United States was Title IX of the 1972 Civil Rights Acts. Title IX requires all universities receiving federal funding to provide gender equity in athletic programs -- meaning equal funding, scholarships, equipment and facilities for men's and women's teams.

Instead of pushing women's squads aside like unwanted step-sisters -- forcing them to get by with poor and outdated equipment discarded by men's programs and denied equal numbers of athletic scholarships -- athletic departments have been forced to treat them more fairly and evenly.

Despite all of this, women's professional team sports will not thrive as they have at the college and international levels for two primary reasons.

First, there is a glut of professional sports leagues already. In addition to the Big Four of pro baseball, football, basketball and hockey, there area numerous other sports competing for limited sports-entertainment dollars. Outdoor and indoor soccer, in-line roller hockey and arena football are among the newcomers trying to gain a foothold.

Making the sports industry all the more competitive is that seasons run together these days instead of each laying claim to a particular time of year.

Baseball starts its preseason in February and the World Series ends in early November. Football gets under way in August. Basketball and hockey barely take breaks with seasons starting in October and marathon playoffs systems that don't provide champions until mid to late June.

The second reason women's sports will not turn a significant buck is that men spend the most money on sports. And most men won't pay to watch women compete or buy replica jerseys of female players and other related merchandise.

Nothing sexist about it. Most men don't think women shouldn't compete in sports; they just don't usually care when they do.

Women's athletics at the college and international level can thrive because they don't need to turn a profit.

In professional sports, profit is the only thing that matters.

Marc Powers is a member of the Southeast Missourian news staff.