2024 is going to be a record year for women's sports, at least technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2024/tmt-predictions-professional-womens-sports-revenue.html/#endnote-3″>according to a prediction by the business consulting firm Deloitte.
The company published studies predicting the future of several different topics, including artificial intelligence, telecommunications and media, and one of its predictions indicated that it expects elite women's sports to generate around $1.28 billion in revenue in 2024.
That projection is at least 300% higher than what the firm had originally projected for women's sports when they wrote about the topic in 2021.
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Sports expected to generate revenue are football and basketball, which will account for around 71% of total revenue. Leagues and competitions such as the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Women's Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour are expected to account for approximately one-third of total revenue.
Deloitte's forecast shows that 55% will be driven by commercial revenue, which includes sponsorships of teams, leagues, competitions and athletes. It predicts sponsorship renewals will rise similarly to the deal between Barclays and the Women's Super League, England's top soccer league, which doubled to $37 million when it was renewed from 2022.
The firm also predicts that several companies may begin to allocate their budgets to women's sports due to its rapid growth, similar to what fintech company Ally Financial did when it pledged to spend the same amount of paid media on men's and women's sports. by 2027.
Broadcasting is the second expected driver of the $1 billion revenue milestone.
Sports in general are about to find a middle ground between the reach and accessibility of free streaming versus pay TV or direct-to-consumer services. Women's sports are no exception, but there is still an expectation that upcoming broadcast rights renewals will increase.
An example in 2024 is the NCAA women's March Madness tournament. After the madness surrounding Iowa's Caitlin Clark and LSU's Angel Reese, which watched the championship game with an average of nearly 10 million viewers, the tournament is expected to cost around $100 million, according to a report from Front Office Sports. This would be almost triple their current deal, and that's taking into account that the tournament is currently tied with 29 other women's sports championships.
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The firm also said investment in women's sports teams should continue to grow, which could push the valuation of some teams to more than $100 million. Sports franchises across the board have seen their values rise rapidly and there appears to be investor appetite for women's sports. Some examples include the recently announced WNBA expansion team in San Francisco, which will be under the same ownership group as the NBA's Golden State Warriors.
The Deloitte study concludes by offering recommendations for the sports world at large on how to continue capitalizing on the league's growth. These recommendations include developing women's elite sport as “distinct from men's elite sport”, further developing women's talent at a young age and for the media to continue building the profile of female athletes.
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