Women’s sport is good for business

WHY DO women’s sports receive less than 1% of sponsorship investments and less than 10% of media coverage compared to men’s sports?

That’s a question tackled by The Formula for Real Change: A Focus on Women’s Sports, hosted by Rita Ferro, president, Disney Advertising, and featuring the legendary basketball player Dawn Staley.

Ferro started with some thought-provoking statistics: Today, girl’s participation in US high school sports is nearly 12 times higher than it was in 1972 but it is still nowhere near the figure for male sports. By the age of 14 girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys, “Disney has made a commitment to inclusive storytelling as a business imperative to make sure that we are amplifying and being bullish on women’s sports,” Ferro said. ESPN has 33,000 hours of women’s sports across the platform.

The NCAA women’s basketball tournament this year saw a 53% growth in revenue, year-on-year, and it was the highest rated NCAA women’s final in history.

“And across women’s sports our revenue is up 23% which means it’s good for business. When brands come in it pays off for them,” she said. One of the early pioneers of professional basketball for women was Dawn Staley, a three-times Olympic Gold medalist, and now a top coach, currently at the University of Carolina.

Joining Ferro on the Debussy stage, Staley talked about her rise from humble beginnings in the Philadelphia projects to sporting stardom.

“I’m the youngest of five so everything in our household was competitive. We had one bathroom and seven people so you had to be able to be fast to get in there. I was a lot different to most girls my age. I was super, super competitive and I needed an outlet so I chose sports,” she said.

Staley is now the highest paid coach in women’s college basketball having signed a seven-year contract in 2021 for $22.4m.

“I do think we’re moving in the right direction. We are in a position where we are in high demand — we just need people to continue to embrace our sports because the future is incredibly bright,” Staley said.