Global revenues for women’s elite sport are projected to reach $1.3 billion for the first time in 2024, driven by rising attendances and television viewing figures. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and Women’s Ashes series highlighted this surge. Despite progress, women’s sports still face challenges in closing the gender gap and achieving equal pay, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, “Thematic Intelligence – Women in Sport 2024,” reveals that the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final between Spain and England was watched by 75,784 fans in Sydney, while the 2023 Women’s Ashes series drew in significant crowds. The commercial revenue is the biggest revenue driver for women’s sport currently.
Olivia Snooks, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The next few years are pivotal for women’s sport, with still much progress still to be made in terms of closing the gender gap. Gender stereotypes and institutional biases continue to hinder women in life and sport. Despite rising viewership and attendance, commercial growth lags behind. Women’s sports still trail men’s, which have had more time to develop substantial financial and commercial advantages.”
Women’s tennis stands as one of the most successful example of empowering female athletes, given that the sport has the smallest gulf between men and women. The US Open was the first sporting event in the world to offer equal prize money, and in 2023, the WTA announced that all combined 500 and 1,500- level events will offer equal prize money by 2027, and non-combined events will do so by 2033. Other sports have taken much longer to address the gender pay gap issue.
Snooks continues: “Unfortunately, no progress will be quick enough in terms of reaching equal pay between men and women. Until the women’s game matches the audience levels and sponsorship interest that the men’s game achieves, the women’s game, especially in soccer, will never match the men’s pay.”
The popularity of women’s college sport has never been higher in the US, with Caitlin Clark in particular drawing in record crowds in the WNBA. At the age of 22, Caitlin Clark has had a record-breaking basketball career. She was, at least partially, responsible for the fact that for the first time in history, the viewership numbers for the women’s March tournament crushed the viewership for the men’s tournament by millions.
Snooks concludes: “The fact that Caitilin Clark and her performance are generating greater audiences than the men’s game, college or pro, shows that there is a culture shift around women’s college basketball, which is the result of the collective actions of women in sport on the whole, building on the work of the previous generations. The “Caitlin Clark effect” is a small step forward in a much bigger issue.”
