Women’s elite sports: Breaking the billion-dollar barrier

As an indicator of the potential in, and momentum behind, women’s elite sports, Deloitte expects valuations for teams and leagues to continue to rise, with several teams’ values predicted to exceed US$100 million in 2024. The allure for investors could be the opportunity to buy into a growing sector for a modest outlay relative to other elite sports properties. Spending by new and established investors is likely to fund increased professionalization and commercialization across women’s elite sports, which in turn could lead to more spectacular playing performances, increased spectator interest, and thus potentially higher returns on investment. The experience of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was a testament to the continuing improvement in the technical capability of the players, coaches, and referees. As one example of the increasing prowess of female athletes, in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, England’s Chloe Kelly’s penalty kick peaked at 111 km/h, a speed higher than every kick speed recorded in the 2022-2023 men’s England Premier League season.¹

Surpassing the billion-dollar revenue milestone is expected to be significant, especially given the turbulence of recent years for elite sports. In 2024, women’s elite sports should continue to bask in the multi-faceted success of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup which generated more than US$570 million in revenue.² Women’s elite sport is developing swiftly in stature, but is also still nascent, with many of the major leagues only established in the last decade, and many territories yet to establish a mainstream culture around women’s elite sports.

Revenues: breaking down the billion dollars

The three main revenue categories for women’s and men’s elite sports are the same (matchday, broadcast, and commercial), but at this stage of the evolution of women’s sports, it’s commercial revenues that represent the largest share, according to Deloitte’s analysis. In the men’s game, revenue generated from the sale of broadcast rights is the primary contributor.³

Commercial: the major driver of revenue growth

Deloitte expects commercial income to have the biggest impact on revenues for women’s elite sport in the near term. Commercial includes club sponsorship and partnership arrangements; central sponsorship revenue, retail, and merchandising sales; licensing; and all other non-matchday or broadcast revenues.

Sponsorships

The value of sponsorship in women’s elite sport is likely to grow rapidly in 2024, encouraged by impressive recent evidence of returns on investment.

According to one study, for every dollar spent by a corporate sponsor in women’s sports, more than seven dollars is generated in “customer value for that organization.”⁴ Some sponsors of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) reported up to 400% return in media value on their investment.⁵ Between 2019 and 2023, the LPGA doubled the number of active brands on its sponsorship roster, and the number of sponsors passed 1,000 for the first time in June 2023.  

Sponsors of women’s sports organizations and athletes are often attracted by the chance to associate their brands with themes of female strength, empowerment, and gender parity, among other factors. The UK’s Women’s Sport Trust found that 29% of consumers think more favorably of companies or brands that support women’s sport through their sponsorship, 12% higher than for campaigns supporting men’s sport.⁶

Sponsorship of leagues: renewals at higher values

In 2024, we expect league sponsorships to be renewed at higher values. This would follow the example of Barclays and the Football Association (FA) Women’s Super League (WSL), the premier English women’s football (soccer) league, which doubled to £30 million (US$ 37 million) upon renewal for 2022–2025.⁷ The new sponsorship additionally included the Women’s Championship (second-tier league) and support for the FA Girls’ Football School Partnership.⁸

Club and team sponsorship: the era of unbundling

In 2024, we expect to see growth in standalone sponsorship deals for women’s teams, especially in women’s football (soccer). Historically, and more commonly in Europe, these were typically bundled with their affiliated men’s team. This can make it difficult to quantify the specific financial value of the women’s team.

The unbundling of rights will likely galvanize investment and brand activation into women’s teams. As of 2023, just seven of the top-tier Deloitte (UK) Football Money League clubs negotiated the shirt sponsor of the women’s side separately.⁹ The main sponsor for 38% of all global professional women’s football clubs is for the women’s team only, and a quarter of all kit sponsors are only for the women’s team.¹⁰ We expect the proportion of women’s only agreements to increase in 2024 and in the medium term. The optimal timing for unbundling varies by club, with key considerations such as club size, fan preferences, partner attributes and scale of commercial arrangement.

Opportunities for women’s club partnerships are continuing to develop. In September 2023, Manchester City Women named baby gear brand, Joie, as the first stadium naming rights sponsor of a WSL club.¹¹ In October 2023, Arsenal FC Women debuted their away kit, in collaboration with Adidas and Stella McCartney, distinct from their men’s counterparts.¹² As the sport professionalizes, this may create new and specific sponsorship opportunities unique to the women’s game.

Competition sponsorship: over US$300 million for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and possibly more in 2027

We expect sponsorship revenues for the 2027 Women’s World Cup cycle to outperform the 2023 event, as FIFA and global brands are likely to have more developed sponsorship strategies dedicated to women’s football and new commercial partners looking to leverage the opportunity.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup saw FIFA unbundle the commercial rights to the competition for the first time, netting US$308m in sponsorship revenue and fulfilling its entire sponsorship inventory for the tournament.¹³ Under a new commercial partnership structure allowing brands to sign sponsorship deals specifically for women’s football, FIFA secured 30 partners for the tournament, a 150% increase on the 2019 edition.¹⁴

Athlete sponsorship: Women athletes can command millions of dollars per year

Individual sponsorship in women’s elite sport is likely to remain a key income source for athletes, with many likely to generate millions of dollars in sponsorship revenue in the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Alex Morgan, a US Women’s National Team and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) star, earned US$6.3 million in off-field earnings in 2022.¹⁵ Her playing salary was US$800,000.

Leah Williamson, captain of the England Lionesses during their European Championships win, became the first female football player to partner with Italian fashion house, Gucci.¹⁶

As the visibility of women’s sports rises, sponsorships should become more valuable, driving further professionalization.

Shift in sports sponsorship spend to women’s sports

We expect some companies to rebalance their sponsorship spending more towards women’s sports. For example, in 2022, Ally Financial, a digital financial services company headquartered in the United States pledged to spend equally in paid media across men’s and women’s sports by 2027.

As the NWSL’s title sponsor, Ally has collaborated with media companies to increase the league’s visibility. Ally’s increased advertising spend with TV network CBS was contingent on the 2022 NWSL championship game being shown in a prime-time broadcast slot for the first time.¹⁷ The Portland Thorns’ win over the Kansas City Current generated a record audience of 915,000, a 71% year-over-year increase on the 2021 final.¹⁸

Broadcast: visibility, viability, and consistency

The number two revenue stream in women’s elite sports in 2024 is forecast to be broadcast revenue.

Women’s sport is currently balancing the benefits of free-to-air (FTA) transmission, which offers greater visibility, versus the higher fees, but lower addressable audience via pay TV.

In the 2023/2024 season, UEFA Women’s Champions League matches will be mostly paywalled following two seasons of free-to-view games on DAZN’s YouTube channel.¹⁹ Several major broadcast deals in major women’s sports leagues will be renewed in the near term (figure 2), expected to deliver significant uplifts on the value of previous deals. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) March Madness women’s basketball tournament in the United States, will reportedly be worth a standalone value of over US$100 million versus the current US$34 million contract (expiring August 2024) which includes all 29 women’s sports championships.²⁰

The profile of the NCAA tournament can have a significant impact on both the perception of women’s basketball and the valuation of the tournament’s stars in the United States. Following the 2023 tournament, Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Angel Reece (Louisiana State University) both agreed to major sponsorship deals.²³ The increased profile should bolster sponsorship values for female athletes and boost matchday revenues: Iowa women’s basketball sold out the entire 2023/24 season with more than 15,000 tickets sold compared to only 6,500 tickets sold in the 2022/23 season.²⁴

Making viewing habitual: increasing consumption between the peaks

A focus in 2024 and the following years will likely be to make viewing habitual, rather than occasional. In recent years, women’s elite sports have enjoyed ratings that rank among the most watched programs in some markets, but these are mostly for finals and semi-finals.

Deloitte expects that in 2024, women’s elite sports will continue to be given more prime time slots, becoming easier to find for both casual and avid fans. Roku, the streaming company, introduced the Women’s Sports Zone in 2023, a new centralized in-app location for US users to access live women’s sports content.²⁵

Matchday: women’s sports moving to the main stadiums

Matchday revenues are forecast to be the third-largest source of revenue in 2024.

The increasing use of major stadiums to host matches will allow more fans to experience women’s elite sport firsthand, leading to increased attendance and in turn, greater matchday revenue. Higher ticket prices, from a low base, should also have a marked impact on income. In 2024, it’s likely that very high attendance (more than 60,000) will be achieved for certain marquee matches, with records likely to be broken, as they were in both 2022 and 2023 (figure 3).

As momentum builds, investment and valuations continue to grow

Deloitte expects women’s elite sports team valuations to continue rising in 2024, with further clubs exceeding the US$100 million threshold. Investment models are creating new channels for investment, including private equity funds which have supported the recent growth in values of men’s elite sports teams. However, the club structures in Europe, with women’s teams often attached to men’s, may make independent valuations more complex in the short term.

Deloitte expects the most significant deals to be in the United States and Europe, as was the case in 2023.

The ownership group of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors have reportedly agreed to pay a league-record $50 million expansion fee to bring a WNBA team to California’s Bay Area, the league announced in October 2023.³⁹ This is the first expansion of the league in more than a decade.⁴⁰

In April 2023, Sixth Street Partners committed US$125 million to the new women’s soccer club Bay FC.⁴¹ This included a US$53 million expansion fee, paid to enlarge the size of the league. The expansion fee is ten times that paid in 2020 when Los Angeles and San Diego joined the league. Angel City FC, the Los Angeles franchise, has grown to be valued at more than US$100 million in April 2021.⁴² With additional expansion teams on the horizon for the NWSL, the next cohort of clubs is likely to attract record-breaking valuations.

Investor appetite has also spread to Europe, where investment in women’s elite football clubs is more complex due to the affiliation with men’s teams. In May 2023, Michele Kang, who acquired the NWSL’s Washington Spirit in 2022,⁴³ announced her intent to acquire a 52% stake in eight-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winners Olympique Lyonnais Feminin.⁴⁴ This transaction created the first global, multi-club ownership model dedicated to women’s soccer and fueled a discussion about valuing a women’s team separately from their male counterparts, that will likely continue into 2024.

In 2023, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced a strategic partnership with CVC Capital Partners (CVC) to accelerate the growth of women’s tennis.⁴⁵ This agreement will include CVC acting as a catalyst to drive growth in the sport by providing increased access to the sport, the Tour’s brands, and building athlete profiles.

There may be no major women’s cricket deals in 2024, but in 2023, season one of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) saw five teams sold for a cumulative US$572 million.⁴⁶ Fifteen years ago, at the inaugural season of the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL), eight franchises were bought for approximately US$724 million.⁴⁷ The average team value for the WPL auction was higher than for the men’s, at US$114 million for WPL versus US$90.5 million for IPL.⁴⁸

Celebrity ownership

A common theme across global sport, including the NWSL in the United States, is celebrity ownership groups. Celebrity ownership raises the profile of leagues and clubs, and in turn, increases the commercial appeal of these properties. Angel City FC’s owners include entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, actresses Jennifer Garner and Natalie Portman, and athletes Mia Hamm and Serena Williams. Kansas City Current’s ownership group includes NFL Superbowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany Mahomes. Former NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade joined the ownership group of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky in July 2023.⁴⁹ Kevin Durant, a current NBA player, contributed to a US$30 million capital raise for Athletes Unlimited, a women’s sports league run by and for the athletes.⁵⁰ We expect this trend to continue in the near term, with additional celebrities in entertainment, sport, and fashion industries entering women’s sports ownership conglomerates.

Women’s sports focused investment

The introduction of dedicated investment funds for women’s sports sets up further opportunities to grow women’s elite sport. The Monarch Collective and Mercury 13 are both female-led, US$100 million funds that will invest solely in women’s sports properties. The Monarch Collective made its first investment in the NWSL’s Boston expansion franchise in September 2023.⁵¹ Mercury 13 plans to make its first investment in Lewes FC, an English FA Women’s Championship club known for its gender equality practices.⁵²

The virtuous circle of investment

More investment is likely to lead to better teams and a better product, which in turn often becomes more valuable (figure 4).

The bottom line

The impending billion-dollar milestone should be celebrated, but women’s sports—at elite and grassroots levels—should be nurtured and invested in, both in 2024 and in the years to come. In the near term, our recommendations for women’s elite sport to achieve its potential include the following considerations:

Women’s elite sport should be developed as a product distinct from men’s elite sport. Women’s sports should not simply duplicate men’s sports, but rather adapt and innovate to suit athletes and fans. In this nascent phase, women’s sports can test new technologies, activations, and partnerships. It can forge its own path.

Develop the pipeline of talent. As women’s elite sports become more visible, young girls will likely be inspired to participate. From school to the major stage, the industry should lower barriers to entry for young women. Increased visibility and investment in grassroots programs can provide girls with the opportunity to engage with sport, build confidence from a young age, and increase social connection by playing sport with others. Expanding the image of what female athletes look like, using inclusive imagery and storytelling to create a wide range of role models, could inspire higher participation rates by girls and women. One country that has committed to its pipeline is Australia, which used it’s cohosting of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup to announce a A$200 million (US$ 128 million) program to “promote equal access, build more suitable facilities, and support grassroots initiatives to get women and girls to engage, stay, and participate in sport throughout their lives.”⁵⁵ Girls who grow up playing sports can become more engaged sports fans as an adult, creating an additional incentive for leagues, governing bodies, and countries to invest in the pipeline.

Protect athletes, reduce injuries. The rapid professionalization of women’s sports has led to increased intensity, frequency of training, and reduced recovery time between each match. Since 2021, at least 87 players in eight of the world’s top women’s football (soccer) leagues have torn their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL).⁵⁶ More investment in research and women-specific medical staff should be considered to understand female athletes’ specific needs with regards to injury prevention. There’s still much progress to be made: According to the third edition of FIFA’s Women’s Benchmarking Report, under half of the more than 200 football clubs surveyed employed a sports scientist, psychologist, nutritionist, and massage therapist.⁵⁷

Raise all profiles, nurture legends. To attract new fans and increase participation, organizations should focus on telling female athletes’ stories outside of the pitch, court, and field of play. Digital platforms, particularly streaming sites and social media platforms, can play a role in engaging fans outside of major events. Increasing the awareness and viewing of women’s sports depends on growing the media coverage of women’s leagues, teams, and athletes. Online distribution is likely to be critical.

Grow the infrastructure for women’s teams. Women’s teams are often confined to minor stadiums that can be difficult to get to through public transit. They often share practice facilities and have antiquated medical rooms. Investment into modern facilities will likely bolster performance and product. As the infrastructure in women’s elite sports improves, it is expected that so too will the on-field or on-court product, further incentivizing fan engagement.

Share the success. The top clubs in each league and the top leagues in each country are thriving. But this may put them out of reach of other leagues and teams. The top four revenue-generating clubs in the WSL (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United) accounted for 70% of the leagues’ revenue, among a league with 12 clubs.⁵⁸ This polarization within the leagues often extends to the availability of support and medical staff, investment in facilities, and other important aspects that allow athletes to perform at the highest level.

At the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, there were signs of a diversification in success:

• Spain won for the first time, beating England’s Lionesses who themselves had reached the finals for the first time.⁵⁹ 
• Colombia became the first South American country to qualify for the quarterfinals since 2011.⁶⁰
• Morocco’s FIFA Women’s World Cup debut was a first for any Arab country.⁶¹
• Jamaica’s team, which crowdsourced to help fund its trip to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup⁶² reached the knockout stages for the first time and was the first Caribbean country to make it to the Round of 16. The team held traditional powerhouses France and Brazil to goalless draws.

Women leaders in sport. Women hold the minority of management, coaching, and ownership positions within the sports industry.⁶³ The proportion of women in executive, decision-making positions within sport lags progress made in other industries. In coaching and scouting, more opportunities for women to learn and participate should occur to ensure more diversity at the top levels of the sport. In July 2023, Washington Spirit announced its inaugural Coaching Mentorship program to help elevate and support female coaches in its region, the first program of its kind to create access for the next generation of female coaches.⁶⁴

Consistency is key. Record-breaking spikes in viewership and attendance, although impressive, are likely needed to prove reliable for major changes to be made in broadcast valuations and stadium considerations.