The University of Mississippi women’s basketball coach blames the campus and community for low attendance at his team’s games, saying locals need to catch up with “the rest of the world” and support women’s sports. said.
Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Yolett McPhee-McKeown made some scathing remarks during a recent press conference, hinting that the team should have more fans at games.
The topic of the program’s revenue initially appeared to be brought up by Mississippi State sports reporter and author Chase Parham, who noted that both Ole Miss’ men’s and women’s teams posted deficits in fiscal year 2023.
Parham said the university’s football program earned more than $12 million, while the baseball program brought in just $166,126. At the same time, men’s basketball lost more than his $3.6 million, and the women’s program was even more in the red, losing more than $8 million.
McPhee-McKeown, nicknamed Coach Yeo, expressed displeasure at the response.
“Someone tried to tell a story as if what we were doing was all in vain,” McPhee-McKeown was quoted as saying. out kick. “We’re not wasted. That just makes me angry. And when I go out and see the fans, it makes me angry that the fans are coming out and we can’t have Club Red come out. Because it doesn’t come out.”
Attendance for the Ole Miss-Florida game was reportedly 2,450, and Coach Yo was quick to blame the low attendance on the local community and the school’s campus in Oxford, Mississippi.
“If you’re paying attention to the landscape of women’s sports, there’s no question that women’s sports are on the upswing. From viewership numbers to talent levels to investment to NIL areas to programming…our time… Now,” McPhee-McQuinn declared. “Women’s basketball has a legitimate place in the sports world.”
Coach Yeo reiterated the need for the community to “catch up” with a “world” that is clearly embracing women’s sport.
“What I’m trying to get the Oxford community to do is catch up, because the rest of the world has woken up to the fact that women’s sport is legitimate and it’s real,” she continued. . “We can’t allow people to make it seem like what we’re doing isn’t important.”
The coach then complained that there was no reason the team shouldn’t draw an average of 5,000 fans per game.
McPhee-McKeown later took a liking to her. X account He said the team’s explanation of finances was “weak and had no context at all.”
She also called Reporter Parham’s article “clickbait” [sic]. ”
McPhee-McKeown went on to say that he “couldn’t put a dollar out there” for the women’s team. defend her comments About the school community. She also described herself as a “defender of women’s sports.”
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