South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has been around women’s basketball long enough to see the growing pains of a young WNBA team slowly turning into a growing interest in the game at all levels.
“We might be bursting at the hands of the decision-makers in our game to allow us to be that,” said Staley, who led the Gamecocks to their second women’s title this year.
The popularity of women’s sports has increased slightly in the last few years, but 2022 marked a significant period as several sports saw an increase in viewership and ratings, sponsorship deals and coverage for the first time.
Last season’s WNBA regular season was the most watched since 2006. And there were many stories when the league was competing with the closing of the Phoenix Mercury center and Brittney Griner who won the Olympic gold medal twice and the retirement of one of the league’s most famous players in the Seattle Storm. point guard Sue Bird.
According to ESPN, which showed 25 games of the regular season and the entire postseason, the 2022 playoffs reached 456,000 viewers – up 22% over 2021’s postseason – making it the most watched WNBA postseason since 2007. WNBA, drew 456,000 viewers. the most since Diana Taurasi was at the top of the polls in 2004.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said her league and the women’s college game complement each other.
Engelbert said the NCAA Women’s Tournament, which had the most watched tournament in nearly 20 years, built the women’s game going into the WNBA season. Now he wants to see how far that growth can go.
“I was never satisfied,” Engelbert said. “My team was like, ‘Ask more.’ If you’re in hyper growth mode, that’s how you should do it.” We don’t rest. We should take advantage of the run if you have. … You have to keep pushing, too.
“We don’t have a lot of money and we are valued.”
The league has a contract with ESPN/ABC until 2025 where the company paid the WNBA $27 million in 2021 and $28 million last season. This amount increases by $1.5 million per season until it reaches $33 million in 2025.
On the collegiate level, division I football players continue to earn players in all other sports. But name, image and likeness (NIL) contracts have become a game-changer for female players, especially in non-money-making sports. NIL allows women to take advantage of a large social media following and earn sponsorships from brands like Champs and Adidas.
Olivia Dunne, a gymnast at LSU, has more than 8 million followers across all of her social media platforms, more than any other female athlete at the school. His endorsements include deals with clothing brands Vuori and American Eagle.
From July 2021 at the inception of the NIL to November, women’s sports took six of the top 10 highest-grossing sports with NIL fees, according to NIL technology and marketing company Opendorse.
“Student-athletes are using social media to build their audience, which is getting them interested and interested in their sport,” said Blake Lawrence, CEO at Opendorse. “The industry is feeding itself … the more marketable female athletes are, the more engaged their audience is, the more engaged the audience, the more marketable the athletes.
Women’s football also enjoyed a promotion in 2022.
The tournament has seen increased global revenue from sponsorship and broadcasting deals, according to a study by FIFA, the sport’s governing body. In the October report, the association noted that clubs reported a year-on-year increase in trade revenue of 33% – reflecting the growing interest from supporters; 77% of sports had a name sponsor in 2021, up from 66% last year.
This growth in style has been accompanied by unprecedented interest in the sport.
August’s friendly between the United States and England at Wembley sold out in one day and drew 78,000 fans. This happened after 88 years, 192 people watched England defeat Germany 2-1 in the finals of the European Championship. It was a great turnout for the European Championship, for both men and women.
“The number and types of different platforms that are showing women’s sports, not just women’s soccer, is a general indication that there is interest,” said Kate Markgraf, general manager of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
In the United States, the National Women’s Soccer League has seen its popularity grow amid allegations of abuse in the league.
In August, an independent investigation commissioned by US Soccer found that emotional abuse and misconduct in its pro game was systemic, affecting many teams, coaches and players.
However, the NWSL title game on Oct. 29 averaged 915,000 viewers on CBS in prime time, a league record.
As the sport gains international momentum ahead of next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, U.S., Markgraf hopes this year’s trend will continue for the foreseeable future, and wants the success and popularity of women’s soccer to have an impact on the fans themselves.
“When you go to a game and see it, it’s like, huh, and then you change,” he said. “And the more it happens, the more it rings. … That is the goal of U.S. soccer, to be one of the most prominent sports in our country.”
