A record number of basketball fans filled arenas to watch the rookie seasons of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese unfold. Simone Biles captivated the world at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Coco Gauff made women’s tennis history.
This is part of a pivotal year for women in sport, financially and culturally, and after growing popularity and reach in recent years, women’s football is more valuable than ever.
“(Clark) just moved the global movement of women in sports forward,” said softball great and Olympic gold medalist Jennie Finch. “And what a pleasure to be able to watch her grow.”
Consulting firm Deloitte estimated in November 2023 that women’s sports would generate more than $1 billion in global revenue this year for the first time, which the company said was up about 300% from its latest estimate of 2021. Viewership and corporate sponsorships have soared. major factors.
The WNBA signed a historic 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC in July valued at around $200 million, a jump from the current $60 million. Players are hopeful that higher salaries and a greater share of revenue could be on the horizon as parity, star power and competition within the WNBA continue to grow.
The WNBA had its most-watched regular season in 24 years and its best attendance in 22 seasons, and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a recent State of the League address that players are getting a lot more marketing deals, making them household names. . That includes Las Vegas star A’ja Wilson, who had one of the most dominant seasons in WNBA history, and Clark, who set numerous rookie records.
The decisive Game 5 of the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx averaged 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 3.3 million, making it the game of the Most watched WNBA in 25 years.
“We gained popularity, popularity, media rights and everything else,” said Amira Rose Davis, a sports historian and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“This period is one of rapid acceleration,” Davis continued. “Where all this growth seems to be accelerating, where deals are getting bigger and bigger, where visibility is expanding. »
Clark, the Indiana guard, became a phenom while playing at Iowa, capitalized on the foundations laid by basketball stars such as Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker and Wilson, and boosted the visibility of the women’s basketball.
Ticket sales for Indiana Fever games increased 182% in 2024 compared to the previous season. The Fever also broke the attendance record of 13,398 set by the Liberty in 1998 with approximately 16,084 tickets sold per game. And games featuring Clark and her on-court rival Reese of the Chicago Sky sparked debates on social media about basketball, race and culture.
“Something I always tried to do with myself was elevate myself and elevate the game,” said Finch, now an advisor for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. “And that’s what (Clark) and her teammates do. And just to be able to see her do that and how humbly she does it, and the impact of not only national women’s basketball, but women’s athletics around the world. It’s a dream.
While many view the WNBA as a model of success in women’s sports, the accomplishments of 2024 extend far beyond a single league or athlete.
Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis superstar, was this year the highest-paid female athlete in the world with $30.4 million in earnings, according to Sportico rankings. Gauff was unable to defend her 2023 US Open title, but finished her 2024 season with a WTA Finals title and a check for $4.8 million – the largest payout ever for a tennis event feminine, according to Sportico.
The Olympics achieved full gender parity for the first time among more than 11,000 men and women who competed in Paris this summer.
More than 34 million people across all NBC platforms in the United States watched Biles exorcise the demons of his surprising exit from the Tokyo games three years earlier. The 27-year-old shared a message of resilience and redemption as she added four gold medals to her tally. Almost everything she did in Paris made headlines: a response to social media trolls, a revelation about her mental health, a moment of triumph. His TikTok showing Team USA’s gold medals in team competition has over 139 million views.
“She became a symbol,” Davis said. “Whether you want to symbolize her as persistent, or talk about mental health or refusal, the politics of refusal. Or (if) you wanted to symbolize her as being a quitter – being everything you deplore about the country. Either way, both projections have it even higher.
And as Gauff and Biles skyrocketed, other women’s leagues took advantage of that visibility.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League attracted 392,259 fans during its inaugural regular season, highlighted by a record women’s hockey crowd of 21,105 at the NHL Canadiens Arena for a Montreal-Toronto game. The league also has sponsorship agreements with Scotiabank, Air Canada and Hyundai.
The PWHL’s strong first season has shown its organizers and players that there is an appetite for women’s sport, so much so that there are hopes of expanding from six to eight teams in 2025.
“For many of us who have been around hockey for so long, it’s emotional to think about the origins of the game and where we’ve come,” said Jayna Hefford, senior vice president of hockey. league hockey operations. “We spend a lot of time reading research and all these things that suggest the time is right and the fandom is here. And to be able to experience that and feel it in real time was pretty special.
Keith Stein and Justine Siegal also want to capitalize on the women’s sports landscape.
Siegal, a former baseball player and coach, teamed up with Stein, a lawyer and businessman, to create the Women’s Pro Baseball League, which last month announced plans to launch in 2026 as a circuit of six teams for female players. It will be the first women’s professional league since the disbandment of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1954.
“Leagues like the WNBA and the (National) Women’s Soccer League have done the heavy lifting,” Stein said. “And they are partly responsible for the moment we are currently experiencing where women’s sport is a phenomenon.
“I think there is, in some ways, a lot more momentum behind the development of women’s professional sports leagues than there is for men’s.”
