'Resurgence of WAGs': Sport researchers say spouses of athletes growing in popularity
EDMONTON — A new business in a historic downtown Edmonton building is generating some major buzz.
Article content
Several social media influencers recently walked a red carpet leading into Bar Trove and the Trove Living furniture showroom for a media tour ahead of its June 6 opening. They ate oysters and sipped cocktails as a DJ played music and security guards stood outside.
Article content
Article content
The woman behind the venture, seen at the event clad in a glittery pink dress, is Lauren Kyle McDavid, the wife of Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
Article content
Article content
'To have this star's wife putting money into our city and investing in our city is really special,' said Quinn Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Edmonton Downtown Business Association and a former sports reporter.
Article content
'Everything is kind of buzzing now in downtown.'
Article content
Kyle McDavid was not immediately available for an interview, but she is one of several modern WAGs — an acronym for wives and girlfriends — making names for themselves.
Article content
Judy Liao, who teaches sociology of sport and gender studies at the University of Alberta, says the buzz Kyle McDavid's business has been getting online shows how much of an interest people take in the lives of athletes' significant others.
Article content
During the COVID-19 pandemic, sports wives saw their social media followers go up as they began posting more, Liao says. The popular streaming service Netflix has also created shows following the lives of WAGs in recent years.
Article content
Article content
'The resurgence of WAGs is really because of social media.'
Article content
Article content
'(Soccer star) David Beckham is a key person to think about in this phenomenon because his wife is Posh Spice,' she says, referring to British singer Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls.
Article content
'After they started dating, they officially entered their pop culture celebrity status. Posh Spice was already a celebrity. They became so iconic, recognizable, so visible, it becomes not just about soccer or football anymore.'
Article content
'It was the modern fairy tale. The story is so enticing,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Edmonton Journal
13 minutes ago
- Edmonton Journal
Tom Mayenknecht: Stanley Cup and NBA finals roar out of the gate
That's exactly what we saw Wednesday in the 4-3 overtime win by the hometown Edmonton Oilers over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and Thursday in the 111-110 jaw-dropper that the Indiana Pacers laid on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Indiana overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter to completely change the tone and tenor of the NBA Finals, beginning with the surge in viewers that happened in the final 12 minutes. The OCT became the first NBA team in 28 post-seasons to lose a game in which they led in the last three minutes of regulation time by seven or more points. Game 1 of the NBA Finals saw Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers outdo MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander — the Canadian from Hamilton, Ontario. The track record this season for Gilgeous Alexander and the Thunder has been to rebound nicely from their rare losses and that could happen here, but make no mistake that there is now no more room for error by the Thunder, a consistently dominant team all year and one anchored by the professional poise of SGA.
Vancouver Sun
21 minutes ago
- Vancouver Sun
Tom Mayenknecht: Stanley Cup and NBA finals roar out of the gate
If the opening games in the NHL Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals are of any indication, then hockey and basketball fans are in for a real treat over the next two weeks. Game 1 for each delivered plenty on the entertainment meter, setting the stage for big world of mouth and heavy social media traffic going into their respective Game 2. Overtime games and one-point buzzer beaters result in the television ratings spikes that are pure joy to broadcast programmers, national sponsors, merchandisers, licensees and sports bars and restaurants across North America. That's exactly what we saw Wednesday in the 4-3 overtime win by the hometown Edmonton Oilers over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and Thursday in the 111-110 jaw-dropper that the Indiana Pacers laid on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Indiana overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter to completely change the tone and tenor of the NBA Finals, beginning with the surge in viewers that happened in the final 12 minutes. The OCT became the first NBA team in 28 post-seasons to lose a game in which they led in the last three minutes of regulation time by seven or more points. Game 1 of the NBA Finals saw Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers outdo MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander — the Canadian from Hamilton, Ontario. The track record this season for Gilgeous Alexander and the Thunder has been to rebound nicely from their rare losses and that could happen here, but make no mistake that there is now no more room for error by the Thunder, a consistently dominant team all year and one anchored by the professional poise of SGA. The biggest bull market may be lining up for Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers , who could become the first Canadian-based team to win the Stanley Cup in the 32 years since the Montreal Canadiens did so in 1993. The single biggest beneficiary would be the personal legacy of McDavid, already one of the stars of Canada's win at the Four Nations Face-Off in February. He needs a Cup to cement his status as an all-time great, in much the same way stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin have done over the past 40 years. It's one thing for Major League Baseball to have two of its franchises — the Tampa Bay Rays and the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics — playing in minor league ballparks or spring league venues seating about 10,000 fans. It's quite another thing for the Miami Marlins to be drawing flies to their much larger ballpark in South Florida. Television images of the Marlins playing at home are not worthy of the major league designation. They're the antithesis of what you want to attract new fans, especially when stadium employees outnumber paying customers. Those three clubs are the cellar dwellers when it comes to MLB attendance numbers as the baseball season approaches its midway mark. Playing at Steinbrenner Field — the Grapefruit League home of the New York Yankees — the Rays are drawing an average of 9,855 per game while the Athletics are averaging 10,005 in Sacramento. Yet the Marlins' average of 11,648 fans per game — which is less than one-quarter the attendance of the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers (50,250) — is the most embarrassing of all given their stadium capacity of 37,422 at LoanDepot Park. Think of it this way: the Marlins need to play more than four games to match a single night's turnstile count at Dodger Stadium. Tom Mayenknecht is the host of The Sport Market on Sportsnet 650 on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Vancouver-based sport business commentator and principal in Emblematica Brand Builders provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Mayenknecht at: .
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
AP PHOTOS: David Beckham to be awarded a knighthood by King Charles
London, ENGLAND (AP) — David Beckham, the former England soccer captain who has been an ambassador for the U.N. children's fund for two decades, is to receive a knighthood in next week's honors list from King Charles III, according to U.K. media reports Friday. Without citing sources, the BBC said Beckham is set to receive further recognition both for his soccer career, and his contributions to British society. ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
