Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, drives to the basket against Atlanta Dream guard Destanni Henderson, #33, during a WNBA preseason game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 9, 2024.
Brian Spurlock | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
The fervor and passion surrounding women's sports isn't going away, said Jessica Berman, commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League. It's only going to grow.
“We've finally gotten to the point where it's not a question of whether this is a moment and it's going to pass or whether it's going to stand the test of time, because it's not just an isolated set of circumstances that have been successful, like a sport or a league or an event,” Berman said during the CNBC x Boardroom sports business event Game Plan on Tuesday.
Berman noted that women's sports used to make up only about 5% of sports media coverage and now account for closer to 15%, showing a pattern of success across all leagues and athletes. And those leagues are sharing best practices so all women's sports can get a boost.
“We're trying to grow our share of the pie; there's no fighting over our little slice of the pie,” he said.
And fans aren’t the only ones taking note. Sara Gotfredson, founder of Trailblazing Sports Group, said Tuesday that there’s a strong business case for brands to get involved early in up-and-coming leagues like the NWSL and the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Gotfredson noted that female sports fans “are fans in a different way” and are more engaged “from a brand partner perspective” than those who follow men's sports and male athletes. She mentioned brands like Google, Allied bank and AT&T as leaders in the space who see the value in building equity with fledgling women's sports leagues.
“The percentage of brands investing in women's sports is still small,” she said. “It continues to grow.”
WNBA Los Angeles Sparks forward Cameron Brink has been endorsed by several brands including New Balance, Urban Decay and Legal Zoom.
“Although my [WNBA] “The contract may not be as high as what I make off the court, it's just how I show up in the space and what I love to do,” he said during Tuesday's panel. “My success on the court leads to success off the court.”
Both Brink and USC women's basketball star JuJu Watkins agreed that fans need to be able to access more women's sports games, with Brink saying that we need to “continue to showcase them and make them easier to watch.” Brink said that right now, fans have to “jump through a lot of hoops” to watch games featuring female athletes.
Gotfredson also noted that there needs to be more coverage of these leagues on linear television, as well as podcasts, YouTube shows and other media.
However, Berman said women's leagues have a lot of catching up to do. The NWSL, she noted, is only 13 years old and only recently became independent from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
“Men's sports have been around for hundreds of years and have decades of experience,” Berman said. “You can't catch up on 100 years.”
