didn't intend to offend.

The Portland Timbers chief operating officer knows that Portland sports fans are a quirky bunch who enjoy a good play on words almost as much as a good game.

So when a female marketing executive came to him with mock-ups for a T-shirt to promote the

, the organization's entry in the new National Women's Soccer League, he didn't think twice.

Ha.

A few dozen fans complained on Facebook, saying the shirts inappropriately sexualized the Thorns and women athletes in general. Golub quickly pulled them.

"We were surprised. Yes. Definitely," he said. "You know, we've honestly never had a conversation, 'Do we do things differently because they're men or women?' We were just thinking about soccer."

Portland Thorns

The Portland Thorns’ home opener is at 2 p.m. Sunday at Jeld-Wen Field. (Radio on KUFO 970)

For more about the team go to

The Feelin' Thorny fiasco illustrates a larger challenge facing Golub and anyone who markets women's sports, including the athletes themselves. For teams and leagues to succeed, they must attract the broadest fan base, including men, of course. For athletes to achieve lasting financial success, they must build their own individual brands, using whatever skills and personal attributes will help them stand out. Even the savviest and best-intentioned promoters can fall in the gap between smart marketing and sex discrimination.

*****



Marketing any product is all about telling stories, about crafting a compelling narrative that will make consumers want to buy what you're selling. Appearance, sex appeal and charisma are among myriad factors that can turn an athlete -- or any public entertainer -- into a media star.

"As a society, we judge everyone based on appearance to a certain degree, whether it's a teacher or a scientist or a football player," said

, a sports marketing consultant who has worked for the New York Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers, the U.S. Tennis Association and the Women's Tennis Association. "You can't just be an athlete anymore. You can't just worry about the impression you give on the field."

That's true for men and women.

"David Beckham makes our criticisms of Anna Kournikova seem hollow," said

, who runs the

Yet historically, sex appeal has been a larger part of marketing women's sports than men's. Playing off a player's physical attributes is a way to reach casual fans, something crucial for network producers desperate to justify the billions of dollars they spend on the rights to broadcast major sporting events and league executives struggling to gain a foothold in an oversaturated sports marketplace.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings were a great story when they won their gold medals, but that's not the only reason NBC sports gave women's beach volleyball such a high profile at last summer's Olympics.

In 2004, FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested "more feminine clothes" for women's soccer kits as a way to increase interest in the sport.

"They could, for example, have tighter shorts," he said.

Packaging female athletes as sex objects -- or playing with sexual innuendo in the marketing of women's sports -- is also a way to fight any underlying discomfort some fans might feel at the notion of women competing with the same sweaty intensity as men.

LeBron James and Dwayne Wade can wear pink shoes without anyone suggesting they're gay. You'll rarely see a high-profile woman athlete in public without makeup. Some women's tennis stars play in freshly painted nails and a healthy dash of mascara, eyeliner and lip-gloss.

"There's this notion that it's important to present a hetero-sexualized image of female athletes," said Kerrie Kauer, who studies gender politics and sports at

. "It's 'I want to prove I'm strong and assertive, but not a lesbian.'"

The pressure to come off as either family friendly or sexually compelling has eased somewhat 40 years after

, the federal law prohibiting discrimination in education. A generation of young men has grown up competing alongside women.

"I don't feel like that's an issue," said agent Dan Levy, whose clients include soccer stars Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe and the

. "Everybody wants to look good, but when you play at that level, whether you're male or female, you're busy trying to stay at the top of the game."

These days, Levy said, the pressure is to create a brand all your own. Male athletes in the big four sports -- football, baseball, basketball and hockey -- earn big money for their work on the field. Other athletes, including most female stars and many male Olympians, achieve financial security only through endorsements.

"If I'm a great player for the

, marketing is for ego and fun and play money," Levy said. "For us, it's all about selling all day, every day."

Social media allows athletes in niche sports to reach potential fans more directly, and between Olympic games or World Cup tournaments. Advertisers look at statistics such as the number of Twitter followers or Facebook fans a star has when deciding who can best pitch their product.

But athletes must work hard to cut through the white noise of everyone else's constant branding efforts. That can lead some to portray themselves in a way that's good for their personal brand but potentially detrimental to their sport or other female athletes.

Danica Patrick's TV ads for GoDaddy.com don't exactly rebut the notion of female athletes as sex objects rather than skilled professionals. Lindsay Vonn received almost as much press within the United States for announcing that she's dating Tiger Woods as for any of her four World Cup championships. It's no coincidence that the first woman the UFC chose to put its marketing muscle behind was

, a heck of a fighter who also talks openly about having frequent sex before matches to boost her testosterone level.

"As athletes are able to develop their own brands, you see more and more of them figuring out that what's good for them isn't necessarily what's good for the team or the league," Favorito said.

Or young girls looking for role models.

*****



Five years ago,

reps wanted U.S. track star

to be the face of ads touting the research that company engineers put into designing women's apparel –studying the arches of women runners' feet, for example. The campaign would come with a catchy slogan, "Nike Objectifies Women," and posters designed for shock value: Nike wanted Fleshman to pose naked.

"I was really scared when I sent the email telling them the problems I had with it," said Fleshman, a middle- and long-distance runner. "Every woman, including professional athletes, wants to feel beautiful and is flattered when other people see her that way. But I just kept thinking 'What do I want hanging on the walls of girls who are just starting to run?'"

To her surprise, Nike listened and modified the campaign. The

"There is pressure to worry about your appearance, especially when you're starting out," Fleshman said. "It takes a lot of work and a lot of thought to make sure you're being portrayed in a way that fits with what you value."

Sports teams and would-be stars must walk a fine line, being aware of the realities of modern marketing but sensitive enough not to alienate the fans most likely to buy season tickets.

That explains why Golub and Timbers execs thought those T-shirts were a good idea -- and why they pulled them. Though they don't necessarily agree with the criticism.

"David Beckham poses in his boxer shorts," Golub, a former Trail Blazers executive, said last week of the brouhaha before shifting to a more conciliatory tone. "I saw the humor and irreverence in it, as did most people. But I understand some of the basis for the complaints."

Besides, the Timbers and Thorns got the best of both worlds: The stir allowed team executives to show that they're listening to fans, who've bought more than 7,000 season tickets, far more than any other

team. It also garnered them far more free press than a start-up women's soccer team would usually receive, even in soccer-mad Stumptown.

-- Anna Griffin