While there have been a myriad of “arguments” against investment in women’s sports, one that has managed to gain a level of acceptance is a spurious data-driven case. Essentially, the narrative suggests people (e.g., fans, media, sponsors) vote with their eyes, feet, and dollars and that those votes do not go to women’s sports.
In reality, the data shows that people have been voting for women’s sports with their eyes, feet, and dollars across multiple sports for several years.
In this context, “eyes” typically refer to media content. The fundamental question is: how many people are watching women’s sports?
The answer is that many people have been, are, and likely will continue to watch women’s sports. The 2023 NCAA Women’s Final Four is the latest and most tangible piece of evidence that support this.
The three games collectively saw viewership rise 66% YoY and a record 9.9 million fans tuned into LSU’s win over Iowa. For context, the NBA Finals averaged 12.4 million viewers in 2022.
But the NCAA Final Four is just one example of the growing viewership in women’s sports.
The WNBA has increased its average television audience from 205,000 fans/game in 2020 to 379,000/game in 2022. And English Women’s Super League games on Channel 4/Sky Sports consistently averaged over 200,000 viewers per game last season.
Fans can vote with their eyes on digital and social media platforms too.
Excel Analytics created its own NIL Platform to value NCAA athletes. It found that multiple female basketball players generated hundreds of millions of impressions in organic reach and sentiment scores (how positive or negative the conversation is about the athletes) that were on average 101% higher than companies on their own during specific NIL campaigns.
Fans have also been voting for women’s sports with their feet.
The National Women’s Soccer League set a new opening-week attendance record this season. More than 90,000 people attended games, a 48% YoY increase. The ’23 Women’s Final Four was sold out for all three games and the NCAA tournament regionals posted attendance records.
Corporate support is growing for women’s sports too. Barclays, Budweiser, and AT&T all announced new sponsorship related investments. Wilson made a substantial commitment to the WNBA for the launch of its 25th season in 2021, and earlier this year, Ally and Disney announced an “unprecedented media and collegiate collaboration” as part of their respective commitments to spend equally across men’s and women’s sports.
“There is a specific and tremendous synergy with partners that also have the same values as we do,” Cheri Kemp (VP, Athletes Unlimited) recently said on the Revenue Over Replacement podcast. “When those types of companies see us and understand what we stand for then it is totally refreshing for them too.”
Gatorade and Aspiration are among the brands supporting AU’s pro leagues.
Companies and investors are also betting on long-term enterprise value growth in women’s sports.
Five teams in India’s new women’s cricket league collectively sold for more than $572 million dollars. It was recently announced that Sixth Street is leading the ownership group making the largest investment in a NWSL team to date, one that includes a $53 million expansion fee and a $72 million commitment to the development of a training complex.
And just this past week, Premier Hockey Federation Commissioner Regan Carey said the North American hockey league had five different groups negotiating to buy existing or expansion franchises for between five and seven million dollars. It’s worth noting that none of groups are currently invested in women’s sports.
One reason that firms like Sixth Street are making investments in women’s sports is likely based on their data-driven thesis for growth investments.
Essentially, they believe these properties are undervalued because they are already popular and likely to be able to increasingly monetize that popularity.
Viacom18 is paying $116 million for the media rights to broadcast the women’s IPL cricket tournament. By comparison, the NWSL received a combined $5.5 million per year in media rights in 2022 and the NCAA currently receives $34 million per year for a package that includes the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
The NWSL, WNBA, and NCAA all have media rights deals that will soon come up for renewal. The data suggests that the value of those properties should increase substantially.
That would be the latest evidence in the data-driven case for investment in women’s sports.