Photo courtesy of Hampton University via Flickr.
Women’s elite and professional sports are projected to make over $1 billion in revenue in 2024.
By Genevieve Zahner ’26
Sports Editor
Women’s elite sports are expected to bring in about $1.28 billion in profit next year, according to a report by Deloitte Insights. This number still seems minuscule compared to the profit of men’s sports, especially considering that in 2022, the Dallas Cowboys alone brought in over $1 billion dollars. However, the profit is a 300% jump from 2021, NBC News reported.
Revenue levels in women’s athletics have often been overshadowed by the immense profit brought in by men’s sports organizations such as the National Basketball Association or the National Football League. However, 2024 is expected to bring in a lofty profit of over $1 billion dollars for women’s elite athletics, which includes professional organizations as well as high-level amateur competitions, namely Division I collegiate sports and the Olympics, according to NBC News.
Collegiate players such as Angel Reese of Louisiana State University, Caitlin Clark of Iowa State University and Paige Bueckers of the University of Connecticut have been dominating the basketball court, bringing much notoriety and interest in women’s sports in recent years. The Women’s National Basketball Association more than doubled their number of viewers of the league finals in October from 2022-2023 in a game between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, as NBC News reported.
Additionally, women’s professional sports have been growing in visibility, with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team growing in popularity and viewership. A new league for women’s professional ice hockey is set to begin in January as well, bringing more opportunities to watch women’s sports, according to NBC News.
Despite the success women’s sports seem to have garnered with the masses, they are still severely underrepresented in media, making up only 5.4% of airtime for all televised sports. Investment in women’s sports is the difference between a profitable entertainment industry with growing viewership and one that fails, according to a Forbes article. Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies women’s sports media coverage, believes that women’s sports are overlooked because of the immense quantity and quality of men’s sports coverage, which is covered daily both in the off-season and the regular season.
Cooky also recounted the issues that minimal coverage causes outside of profit margin, such as the lack of role models for young girls, meaning less incentive for young girls to be interested in sports. Additionally, less media coverage for women’s sports also means less coverage of their activism and philanthropy efforts, a movement often forgotten by the constant coverage of men’s sports. This lack of coverage on the efforts made by female athletes, and specifically female athletes of color, silences the pushes towards racial and gender equality made by women in sports, Cookey explained in an article by Purdue University.
In the same article, Cooky pointed to Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 as an example of how women’s activism in sports has been overlooked. The intense popularity of the NFL, as well as the extensive media coverage, painted Kaepernick’s stand as the beginning of racial activism in sports, despite the previous work of female athletes of color.
Reuters reported that women’s basketball and soccer will bring in the most revenue for next year, accounting for about 71% of the total global revenue for women’s sports. Commercial deals by the leagues and individual teams would rake in about 55% of the total revenue gained from media, and broadcasting would bring about 27%. Also, in 2024, women’s sports will be given additional prime-time broadcasting slots, which will make these events much easier for viewers to find and watch than they have been in the past.
Deloitte Insights reported that the biggest geographic contributors are expected to be North America, which is projected to bring in $670 million, or 52% of the revenue, and Europe, which is expected to bring in $181 million. The two most valuable sports are predicted to be soccer and basketball, bringing in $555 million and $354 million, respectively. Competitions that are participated in on a global scale, such as the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour and the Women’s Tennis Association Tour, are expected to garner $425 million of the total revenue.
In addition to the revenue generated, the value of teams and leagues is predicted to rise, with several team’s values expected to increase to over $100 million next year. This increase in value, combined with the increase in generated profit, is expected to bring allure to more investors, which will aid in funding and commercialization, as shown in the Deloitte Insights report.
Overall, this increase in profit generation for women’s sports as a whole is leading the organizations toward more opportunities to bolster their viewership and opportunities.