Women's sports are booming. Why now?

CBC

11 hours ago

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In July 2020, about five months into the global pandemic, 144 WNBA players gathered in Bradenton, Fla., to play a 22-game condensed season in empty arenas.
Inside the "Wubble," a campus-style isolation zone at IMG Academy created as a work-around to social distancing guidelines, athletes took daily COVID tests, shared villas with teammates, and traded in family time for nearly three months of elite basketball.
On the court, Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings led the league in scoring with 22.8 points per game, Las Vegas Ace centre A'ja Wilson was named MVP, and the Seattle Storm swept the Aces 3-0 in the championship series.
However, what happened off the court proved just as significant in the league's emergence.
When the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement surged following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, WNBA players were among the first professional athletes to make a public stand, filling social media platforms with their messages of support for Floyd.
And when Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler, a Republican senator, objected to their message, the players pushed back, publicly supporting her opponent in the November election, which she ultimately lost. A few months later, she sold her stake in the franchise.
Women's sports aren't just having a moment, they're having a movement
9 minutes ago
Duration 2:37
The WNBA players were suddenly front and centre, and with major program gaps brought on by the pandemic, WNBA games and social justice initiatives were broadcast on major sports broadcast channels such as ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, CBS Sports Network, and even platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
With both the NBA and WNBA playing in empty arenas, where the echo of squeaking sneakers bounced off the walls, there seemed a more fair comparison to be made between the two leagues.
"We were looking at a court with no fans around it, the game was central to it," Ann Pegoraro, chair of Sport Management at the University of Guelph said. "They saw them [the NBA and WNBA] as equal, and I think that put them on some equal footing."
The equation had changed, and not just for women's basketball. The rise across all women's sports has been steadily gaining momentum in recent years. From soccer, to hockey, to volleyball, women's sports are experiencing a record-shattering surge like never before.
Since then, two new pro leagues have launched in Canada, emerging superstars like Caitlin Clarke have captured global audiences, and money has flowed. Lots of money. The lifeblood of any professional sport, male or female, and until now, something the women's pro leagues have struggled to attract.
"No moment in history has been what it is now with women's basketball, women's soccer, women's hockey, women's cricket, and there's the data now around the world, it has just never been there before," said Diana Matheson, founder of the Northern Super League (NSL).
Three years after the Wubble summer, WNBA viewership grew by 170 per cent, indicative that the times really are changing.
Attractive investment option
When asked if launching the first women's pro soccer league in Canada would have been possible 10, even five years ago, Matheson, a former senior women's national team star, responded without hesitation, "No."
"To be honest, Canada is a very conservative country when it comes to investing in ourselves. It seems to be something I've learned a lot about doing this," she said. "And it's not just women's sport, it's across the board."
Prior to April 2025, Canada was one of just two countries — Haiti is the other — which competed in the 2023 Women's World Cup which didn't have its own professional women's league.
So when the NSL, launched its inaugural season this April and 14,000 fans were in Vancouver's BC Place stadium, it was historic.
The eight-team league is owned by Matheson's company Project 8 Sports, Inc. and is already set to add its ninth franchise team next season.
"It's been three years since we started Project 8. We could see what was happening in women's sport already at that time and what was going to happen," she said. "The acceleration of that growth during those three years, I think, surprised everyone."
There has been a 53 per cent increase in attendance at women's soccer games in the U.S. since 2019, heavily influenced by the Women's World Cup and equal pay movement pushed forward by U.S. senior women's soccer team.
It was common to hear that women's sport doesn't make money, that no one watches women's sport. It wasn't treated like a business.
"I didn't have any of the numbers that tell the sponsors that actually, our fan base in women's sport engages more with women's support sponsors, they're more loyal, they have a higher spend," she said. "It was common to hear that women's sport doesn't make money, that no one watches women's sport. It wasn't treated like a business."
Just over a year ahead of the NSL's launch, the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) began its inaugural season.
When the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) folded in 2019, more then 200 pro hockey players across North America and Europe came together to push for better wages, health care, and overall support as athletes.
For four years, players competed in what was called the Dream Gap Tour, making monthly trips to North American cities to compete in community rinks in practice jerseys, awaiting better opportunities.
When the PWHL formed in 2023, a player's association was created in tandem, and a binding collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was put in place ahead of the league's first game.
"The true investment in our league and in our players is something that is huge," said Erin Ambrose, who plays for the Montreal Victoire. "No women's league has ever had a CBA before the first puck [drop]. To have that happen I think is setting a new precedent for female sports."
Ambrose said she never thought having a three-year contract with benefits, like a housing stipend, would be possible.
"It's still very much surreal," she said.
The PWHL found quick success, attracting a million fans to both regular and playoff games in its second season, according to the league.
The demand for Toronto Scepters tickets was so high in its inaugural season that the team moved from the 2,600-seat Mattamy Centre to Coca Cola Coliseum, which seats more than 8,000 fans, in 2025.
Matheson said that while the NSL was already in the works before the PWHL, it helped to propel the NSL forward.
According to new data from RBC, which highlights the growing appeal of women's sports as a profitable investment opportunity in 2025, women's team valuations are expected to increase from $2.6 billion US in 2023 and 2024, to $4.3 billion in 2027.
In simple terms: women sporting franchises are being purchased for significantly less money than they end up earning, indicating their ripe opportunity for growth in the current sports ecosystem.
San Diego Wave FC, a team in the NWSL founded in 2021 just sold for 5,550 per cent return-on-investment for its founding owners. Meanwhile, the WNBA's expansion Golden State Valkyries were recently valued at $500 million, the most of any team, and 10 times what the owners paid just two years previous to join the league.
League One Volleyball, the indoor women's league which began its inaugural season in January and is backed by high-profile investors including actress Amy Schumer and NBA champion Jason Tatum, secured $60 million in funding in 2024.
So, what's driving the growth?
High-value sponsorship deals, audience metrics, and team performances, to name a few.
"We're seeing smart and different investors getting into women's sport. We're seeing Alexis, Ohanian and Serena Williams knowing where to put their money," said Pegoraro. "Anybody who plays in the stock market, anybody who bets, they want that big return. Women's sports is the place they can get it now, and it's pretty well guaranteed."
Pegoraro adds that "now is the time to get in," and references a few of the savvy business moguls pouring money into the booming industry.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, purchased a stake in the heavily celebrity-backed Angel City FC, the L.A-based NWSL team now considered the most valuable women's soccer team globally at $280 million.
In 2022, American billionaire Michele Kang went on a spending spree, buying the NWSL's Washington Spirit for $35 million, the independent U.K. soccer club, London City Lionesses in 2023, as well as a majority stake in the French club Olympique Lyonnais Féminin in 2024.
"She made her money and she knows what she's doing, she's getting a return on her investment," Pegoraro said. "Men's leagues are at maturation league levels. They don't have any growth potential left. Sure, financially they still seem to grow, but their fan bases are pretty locked. They're not seeing exponential growth, whereas women, year over year, we're seeing exponential growth."
Marketing toward women
When the Toronto Tempo, Canada's first WNBA team, was revealed as an expansion team set to join the league in 2026, Sephora Canada was swift to jump on board as a major sponsor.
Allison Litzinger, Sephora's senior vice-president of marketing, said that having more women in leadership roles impacts where big brands invest their money.
"It influences not only what we invest in, but how and why we show up," she said. "More diverse perspectives bring greater awareness to areas that have long been undervalued. This allows us to make choices that are both culturally relevant and business-savvy."
In a 2024 report by sports data platform Relo Metrics, the WNBA generated a record $136 million in sponsor media value in 2024 from major brands like Nike, Gatorade, Booking.com, and Bumble, a woman-founded dating app.
As Litzinger points out, women's sports is no longer a "niche" place for brands to invest.
[Women's sports is] a less saturated space with passionate, engaged fans, and it creates real opportunity for brands to show up with authenticity and impact.
Meanwhile, in Canada, women are responsible for 75 to 80 per cent of consumer spending through purchasing power or influence, according to Business Development Canada.
And according to Lisa Ferkul, the chief revenue officer for the Toronto Tempo, the WNBA's fan base is 54 per cent women in Canada, data which influences which brands the team chooses to partner with and how they tailor their marketing strategies.
"That decision-making power comes from the fact that women are more engaged," Ferkul said. "If you look at the purchasing funnel, fans of women's sports are actually more aware of sponsors that support their favourite team, thus making them more likely to consider them for their next purchase need, and more likely to buy from them."
After women's sports generated an astronomical $1 billion in 2024, a recent report from Deloitte projects that the women's sports industry will be worth $2.35 billion this year.
"At its core, equity is just good business. Brands are always looking for white space — untapped areas where they can grow, differentiate, and build stronger connections," Litzinger said. "Women's sports offer exactly that. It's a less saturated space with passionate, engaged fans, and it creates real opportunity for brands to show up with authenticity and impact."
Litzinger says that for brands that regularly engage with women consumers, sponsoring women in sport is a natural alignment.
"It enables us to be present where consumers are increasingly more focused and to elevate visibility in meaningful ways," she says.
Top players in the league are also seeing bigger deals than ever before, like Clarke's eight-year, $28-million contract with Nike, or L.A. Sparks forward Cameron Brink, who is expected to be making a high six-figure income through endorsements.
According to Ferkul, women athletes are more accessible to fans, creating a ripe business opportunity to sponsor them.
"Fans can get closer at the tournaments. They're more accessible to sponsors and to the media, and that creates a special bond and connection. That makes them more attractive to all those stakeholders," she said.
With the Toronto Tempo just under one year out from its inaugural season, Ferkul only sees a bright future for women's sports and their continued financial growth.
"It's really a movement. Billie Jean King says that. Our owner, Larry Tannenbaum, says that. And I will use it, because we're starting to prove that investing in women's sports is good business," she said. "I think it's just a matter of time when brands will be spending their marketing dollars equally on women as they do on men."
What's next?
Chloe Primenaro, an 18-year-old PWHL-hopeful who plays for the University of Minnesota, is waking up to a new dawn for women's hockey.
When Primenaro enters the draft in three years time, she'll have a level of opportunity that her role model, Montreal Victoire centre Marie-Philip Poulin, could have only dreamed.
"I remember, always from a young age, wanting to play with Team Canada and to go to the Olympics, and now with the PWHL, obviously, that's a goal of mine," Primenaro said. "Just knowing that there's something awaiting after college is awesome."
With strong investors and player support in place, the only obstacle standing between Primenaro and a professional sports career should be the one male athletes face: fighting tooth and nail against the world's greatest athletes for a roster spot.
Like anything, there's still room for growth: Ambrose hopes to see player wages improve at a yearly increase of more than three per cent in the PWHL. Matheson says that all teams should have access to top-notch facilities located in city centres in order to build up the success of women's leagues.
But looking back on pre-pandemic times, when Clarke had not yet burst onto the scene, when women's sports news was buried deep into the daily news shuffle, and when gender parity at the Olympics wasn't yet possible, the progress is undeniable.
What happened in the Wubble in 2020 could have been just a blip in time, a fleeting, unprecedented moment that left as quickly as it came, like mask mandates and standing six feet part from one another.
But from the mouths of athletes, to team owners, to league-launchers, one thing is for sure: women's sports are not just having a moment, they're starting a movement.