Sport is beloved by many across the world. It is not just a passion but a business. What are the opportunities to get involved and why should people invest in women’s sports?
There is a unique business opportunity in women’s sports. Usually, there is a massive amount of money needed to enter any men’s sports and receive a good return. This is not the case for women’s sports, it is seen as something not worth investing in and just generally not as good. There is clear evidence that this is just not true.
I think that we can all agree that women’s soccer and men’s soccer are going to be different because the people playing are different. This does not mean that it is any less entertaining during the final of a major tournament going into overtime. The quality, training, and sacrifice are the same for all players. If anything, women must sacrifice more to get to the top level due to the lack of infrastructure.
Why is investing a good idea?
The growth of women’s soccer has been like nothing else. In the past few years, it has been clear that if you put the big games in the big stadiums the fans will come. The Women’s European Championship game was held at a sold-out Wembley stadium. The Barcelona Women’s team has sold out the Camp Nou stadium several times in the last few years. Arsenal Women sold out the Emirates Stadium in London for the first time just this year during their Champions League semi-final game against Wolfsburg.
If you look at the major European teams, you can see that those who have backed their women’s teams have performed the best. They can attract the best players from around the world and have the most commercial potential. There has been a buzz around women’s soccer ever since the World Cup in 2019. Now is the time to invest and capitalize before the full potential is discovered.
Equal investment over equal pay
There are a lot of people out there who think that this is just women shouting about getting the same amount of money as men. This is simply not true. All the players understand that they do not bring in as much revenue as the men to earn the same wages. What they are asking for is the opportunity to be treated like the men’s teams in terms of basic needs.
Some of the things that are being asked for are as simple as having a full-time physical therapist to help treat injuries. Some bigger things include better accommodations and better travel to help aid recovery and keep performance at the highest level. The most extreme is to have some of the absurd amount of prize money in men’s tournaments reallocated to the women.
What is happening right now
The Women’s World Cup is just around the corner in Australia and New Zealand. There have been issues with FIFA (Fédération Internationale De Football Association) not accepting offers for broadcasters to gain streaming rights to all games. The reasoning is that the offers have been too low. Now just weeks away from the beginning of a major international tournament there is a threat of a world cup blackout in certain countries.
I understand why broadcasters may not want to pay as much because the time difference is going to mean that the games are not going to be played at prime time. This is no excuse for the broadcasters to not pay FIFA what the streaming rights are worth.
This is an exceptional time of growth, and it is only going to get better. This is going to be the largest and most competitive Women’s World Cup to date. Now is not the time to block viewership. Now is the perfect time to invest, put your money where your mouth is, and make sure that fans have the opportunity to watch this historic event.