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Global revenues for women\u2019s elite sport will top \u00a31billion for the first time in 2024, finance company Deloitte predicts.<\/p>\n
Rapidly increasing attendances and television viewing figures across different sports, coupled with more lucrative commercial and broadcast deals, sees Deloitte\u2019s TMT Predictions report (technology, media and telecommunications) predict global revenues of 1.28billion US dollars (\u00a31.03bn).<\/p>\n
Commercial revenue contributes 55 per cent of that total, backed up by broadcast deals and matchday income.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Haskel, insights lead for Deloitte\u2019s Sports Business Group, said: \u201cWe wrote a prediction in 2021 and the revenues that were generated, from 2021 to now, is over 300 per cent higher. So you can see over the past few years there has been an incredible amount of growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of popularity in terms of viewership, attendances etc. That\u2019s showing it\u2019s also a great business decision to invest in and support women\u2019s sport \u2013 that\u2019s what I think that billion dollars shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
This summer\u2019s Fifa Women\u2019s World Cup final between Spain and England was watched by 75,784 in Sydney, with attendances at the tournament averaging nearly 31,000.<\/p>\n
Over 86,000 watched hosts Australia beat India to win the women\u2019s T20 Cricket World Cup in 2019 while last year\u2019s Ashes drew significant crowds to English Test grounds including Lord\u2019s and Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n
Football\u2019s Women\u2019s Super League \u2013 which on Tuesday announced a new governing body also covering the Championship \u2013 has increasingly staged games at men\u2019s Premier League grounds, with Arsenal hoping to sell out the Emirates Stadium next Sunday against Chelsea.<\/p>\n
The NWSL and basketball\u2019s WNBA have led the way in the United States, helping establish football with the largest share of Deloitte\u2019s projection at 555m dollars (\u00a3436.7m) followed by basketball with 354m dollars (\u00a3278.5m). Tennis comes next with the WTA Tour competing on an equal footing to the men\u2019s ATP Tour.<\/p>\n
Haskel continued: \u201cBecause women\u2019s sport is in this nascent phase, there\u2019s this \u2018test and learn\u2019 culture where you can trial playing a certain amount of games at the main stadium or increasing and decreasing ticket prices \u2013 that matchday environment is only going to get better because the data will be there to show what fans want.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatchday and broadcast (income) are going to continue to grow but commercial is really that biggest lever for women\u2019s sports right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to see women\u2019s-only commercial deals, but also percentages of full club deals being attributed to the women\u2019s team so that value is starting to become more apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a lower-cost entry point but there is potential for very high reward, as well as opportunities for different sponsors that could enter women\u2019s sport because of the demographic or the marketing message.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commercial expansion is not without risk, as demonstrated by the controversial European Super League proposal in men\u2019s football and the over-saturation of the global cricket calendar.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s football finds itself at the other end of the process, with the Champions League qualifying structure coming under scrutiny after the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Juventus and Wolfsburg missed out.<\/p>\n
Haskel said: \u201cI think one of the benefits is women\u2019s sport can learn from the mistakes of men\u2019s sport but change paths and be a bit more agile because of how early on in the cycle they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery female sports organisation right now is looking at, what are the governance structures that need to be in place to make sure that as women\u2019s sport continues to grow, it maintains financial sustainability.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe at first the structure was set up to mimic what the men\u2019s side used to do but now women\u2019s sport, as its own distinct product, can carve its own path and its own structure.\u201d<\/p>\n