[Pizza]

Playing devils advocate because I think I see what Simmons is trying to get at but he isn't choosing his words carefully.

I think what he's trying to imply is that it feels rather gimmicky.

Couldn't they do doubles curling? Two men or two women leagues? In my mind, that would make sense and would coincide with some of the benefits that the curlers would cite for this new league. It's just with this format, it has to be a male & female pairing.

With an explosive exposure of women participating into sports, boosted by recent gender equality movements, I can see why this is taking off. People in general are interested seeing women playing side by side with men as equals. Win Win for everybody including the IOC who gets more advertising $$ in their pockets

I get why it was created. Sometimes you can't get a whole team together and perhaps the creators intended this for couples who wanted some bonding time in a beer league

But here's the thing, you could turn any sport in to a mixed gender/co ed variation and have a separate league for it. Mixed doubles speed skating, Mixed gender Hockey, Mixed gender bobsled. Yes I know there's already mixed figure skating but if we're incorporating gender combination teams, why not have same gender figure skating? Two men pairings leagues and two women pairings leagues.