There’s a saying that records are meant to be broken.
If so, 2023 should be remembered as a record-breaking year. The shattering occurred not only on courts, marathon courses, and racetracks, but also off the field and around matches.
F1 driver maestro Max Verstappen won all but three of the season’s 22 grands prix, Lionel Messi set MLS on fire and Jenni Hermoso set records after leading Spain to the Women’s World Cup title. Corrected: She said she didn’t want to be kissed The president of the Spanish federation gave a congratulatory address at the trophy ceremony.
Fans followed these 2023 headliners, achieving record attendance and viewership and record broadcast deals.
Nowhere has this progress been more evident than in women’s sports. More than 92,000 fans packed into the University of Nebraska’s football stadium to watch a women’s college volleyball game, setting a world record for the largest attendance for a women’s sporting event.
A record 1,997,824 fans attended the 64 matches of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, averaging around 31,000 per game, nearly 10,000 more than the average attendance for the 2019 tournament in France. And the Women’s International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup in South Africa became the most-watched women’s cricket event, with 192 million hours of viewers.
Will these blockbuster events lead to more fans consistently filling the stands?
“Every shift in consciousness in society starts with a bolt of lightning in a bottle,” says Daniel Wang, a psychology professor at Kentucky’s Murray State University who studies sports fandom. “We won’t know until months or years from now.”
Growth is steadily progressing, with the number of women’s professional soccer and basketball teams increasing, franchise valuations soaring, sponsorship contracts increasing, and competition intensifying. In November, consulting firm Deloitte released a report predicting that revenue from women’s elite sports will exceed $1 billion in 2024, up 300% from 2021 projections, citing the Women’s World Cup as a catalyst. did.
“I don’t think this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Sam Kerr, Australia’s captain and one of the world’s top players, said after his team lost to England in the World Cup semi-finals. The Australian team, known as the Matildas, played in front of a capacity crowd of 75,784 in Sydney. “It’s been proven that if you bring this product to a trade show, people will come out and support it.”
The battered U.S. team lost in the round of 16, but that left room for other teams to rise. Underdog Colombia advanced to the quarterfinals, Jamaica’s Reggae Girls defeated powerful Brazil, and England’s Lionesses gained national attention by advancing to the finals.
Spain’s jubilant victory made international news for weeks, but it was not primarily due to the talent of the players. Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed star player Hermoso during a medal ceremony, publicly displaying sexist behavior that players have reportedly endured for years within the federation. . Under political pressure, he eventually resigned. The federation had sacked head coach Jorge Virda a few weeks earlier.
It was a stark reminder that despite record advances by female athletes, men still dominate executive positions, sidelines and airwaves in sports.
In October, a new study on women’s sports demonstrated this.
According to Wasserman Collective, a research think tank that studies women’s sports, the proportion of women’s sports media coverage in the United States increased from about 5% in 2018 to 15% by 2022.
Taking into account new digital news sites, streaming options, sports leagues, and social media, the study estimates that share will approach 20% by 2025.
“In a record-breaking year and a year of such momentum, the impact this reset of numbers will have on us is that layoffs will continue to be significant. I think it’s going to be much more difficult.” interview. “So, do we still have a long way to go? Yes. Do we need more inventory? Yes, but not 4% anymore.”
The volleyball match in the heartland of the United States highlights that the majority of competitive opportunities for women still exist at the U.S. college level.
In Lincoln, Nebraska, where the University of Nebraska has won five national championships, women’s volleyball appears to be more popular than football. At least that was Aug. 30, when Nebraska broke attendance records for women’s sporting events.
A few weeks later, the University of Iowa women’s basketball team, led by current Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year Caitlin Clark, held an outdoor preseason game at the football stadium that drew a record 55,646 fans.
Clark, a sharp-shooting guard with tremendous range, led the University of Iowa to the 2023 Women’s NCAA Division I Championship Game, where they lost to Louisiana State University. The game drew 9.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN2, setting a record for an NCAA women’s basketball game.
The momentum in women’s basketball carried over into the WNBA season. Players set numerous scoring records during the expanded regular season, and the Las Vegas Aces defeated the New York Liberty to become the first WNBA franchise in 21 years to win back-to-back championships.
Taylor Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce generated big crowds in the NFL, and while college football prepared for conference realignment, another women’s pro team won a title. .
Gotham FC, a team from New Jersey and New York that finished last in the National Women’s Soccer League in 2022, defeated Seattle’s OL Reign 2-1 to win the championship in early November.
OL Reign’s international superstar Megan Rapinoe ruptured her Achilles tendon in the first few minutes, ending her pioneering career. Spain’s Esther González’s header was the winning goal. Gotham forward Midge Peirce, who won the Most Valuable Player award with two assists, drew gender criticism after posting a celebratory photo of herself smoking a cigar on Instagram.
“Women are very rebellious about the way they live their lives,” Brian Moritz, a sports journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York, said in an interview. “It’s like, ‘I’m doing what I’m supposed to do.’ I’m awesome. We’re awesome.”
There may not be a shortage of viewers next year either. In the largest broadcast deal for a women’s domestic league, the NWSL has signed a four-year television rights deal worth $240 million with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports.
Of course, that’s small change compared to the money flowing out of Saudi Arabia. A Saudi sovereign wealth fund has taken over majority ownership of the country’s top four clubs, including Al Nasr, who signed Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi rejected an offer from Saudi Arabia and transferred his talent to MLS side Inter Miami for a reported annual salary of $50 million to $60 million, including signing bonus and team stock. Messimania quickly rocked the league. He scored a goal in his Miami debut.
His pink No. 10 jersey quickly became the most popular sports item in the world. In October, Messi won his record eighth Ballon d’Or.
Another athlete turned domination into a routine. Red Bull’s Dutch F1 driver Verstappen recorded 10 consecutive wins on his way to a record 19 wins out of 22 races.
And in the marathon, Kenyan men used their talent and new shoe technology to inch closer to the magical two-hour mark. Kelvin Kiptum broke his world record by 34 seconds at the Chicago Games in October, finishing in 2 hours and 35 seconds.
In Berlin in September, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa broke the women’s marathon record by more than two minutes with a time of 2:11:53.
A real prologue to Paris. There, the 2024 Summer Olympics are expected to include as many female athletes as men for the first time. If we aim for 2023, the record may go down.