Revenue from major women’s sports should cross the $1 billion threshold in 2024, marking a three-fold spike from just three years ago, according to leading consulting and accounting firm.
“Women’s elite sports” — which includes professional leagues around the world and high-level amateur competitions such as NCAA Division I events and the Olympics — is on target to generate $1.28 billion in expected revenue this upcoming year, Deloitte researchers said in a report released this week, outlining various 2024 financial predictions.
The $1.28 billion total still pales in comparison to revenues generated by men’s sports.
For example, the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package — representing just one sport in one country on one platform — was recently sold to YouTube for $14 billion over seven years.
But compared to a similar took at worldwide women’s sports revenue in 2021, the $1.28 billion total marks a three-fold spike, signaling the increasingly high floor and potential lofty ceiling of women’s sports as a consumer product, Deloitte researchers said.
“The total number is interesting, the fact it’s over $1 billion for the first time — but I think the 300% number is the real story,” Deloitte’s Global and U.S. Sports Practice Leader Pete Giorgio told NBC News on Wednesday.
“I’d love that number to be a lot bigger and I think it’s going to continue to grow.”
This past year’s national semifinals and final of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament drew unprecedented interest as fans tuned into to watch national player of the year Caitlin Clark, undefeated South Carolina and eventual champion LSU.
The National Women’s Soccer League recently agreed to an expanded TV package that’ll be worth $240 million over four years with matches to be shown on CBS, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports.
The new Professional Women’s Hockey League — with teams in New York, Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa — is set to launch next month.
“There’s something here,” Giorgio said. “The capital markets agree, the investors agree, you’re seeing it in terms of money flowing into this space.”