Lehmann isn’t an outlier. Women’s sports activities are rising in recognition and worth. Better but, that development is now not dependent upon quadrennial occasions just like the Olympics or World Cups (although, as this yr’s event will possible show, they definitely assist). Investors, who’ve lengthy been on the sidelines of ladies’s sports activities, shouldn’t wait to money in.Though girls athletes haven’t but reached the moneyed heights of males — prime male World Cup stars have far bigger Instagram followings and media worth — the expansion potential is bigger for them than it’s for his or her male counterparts.For instance, within the US, the worth of ladies’s skilled soccer franchises have elevated greater than 10-fold lately. In Los Angeles, the Angel City FC crew possession group paid a $2 million payment to hitch the National Women’s Soccer League in 2020; in April, a bunch led by non-public fairness agency Sixth Street dedicated to a document $53 million enlargement payment to position a NWSL crew in San Francisco.This needs to be a welcome signal to extra buyers, however they must confront some points. Among different difficulties, males’s crew sports activities are nicely established as media properties and revel in prime tv viewing slots — akin to Saturday and Sunday afternoons within the autumn for school {and professional} soccer — that ladies’s sports activities can’t hope to problem (for now).Even leagues with followings and TV offers — such because the Women’s National Basketball Association — have had inconsistent schedules that make it tough to grow to be appointment viewing à la Monday Night Football. (That’s lastly altering with an everyday Friday night time recreation for the WNBA this season.)The barrier extends past dwell broadcasts of video games. In 2019, solely 5.4% of televised sports activities information and highlights have been dedicated to girls’s sports activities. For years, these casual blackouts froze girls’s sports activities into area of interest occasions.

Yet during the last half-decade, a confluence of things has begun to shift this gendered subject. First, a youthful era of sports activities followers is embracing the social activism that comes together with girls’s sports activities. “Women’s sport inherently stands for something, such as #MeToo, gender equality,” explains Kirsten Sibbit-Johnston, an affiliate director on the London-based Sports Consultancy, the place she works with sports activities rights holders and buyers. “The current success of women’s soccer in the US stems from the players being such great advocates and fighting for something, making a stand.”

Second, due to the expansion of streaming, on-line highlights and social media, girls’s sports activities have grow to be extra accessible than ever, driving development in fandom — and activism. A social media person who adopted Megan Rapinoe for her LGBTQ advocacy may determine to concentrate to her goal-scoring capabilities this month, too (earlier than she retires on the finish of the yr).

That’s good for the enterprise of ladies’s sports activities. In 2021, one survey discovered that fifty% of ladies’s sports activities followers ”strongly agree” that sponsors ought to search ”to make the world a greater place.” Just 20% of followers of males’s sports activities expressed the identical sentiment. That dedication, particularly to gender fairness, drives media rights and different offers. For instance, in 2022, sponsorships for girls’s sports activities grew 20% year-over-year worldwide. This yr, in maybe essentially the most notable deal, Ally Financial Inc. made a multimillion-dollar advert purchase throughout ESPN properties that may ship 90% of the cash to girls’s sports activities.

It’s not charity. Justin Nicolette, director of public relations for Ally’s sports activities and leisure division, just lately defined the purchase to Fast Company: “People are so driven to support the brands that are supporting women’s sports.”The numbers don’t lie. Viewership for the 2022 WNBA playoffs was up 22% over 2021; this yr, the National Collegiate Athletics Association Women’s Final Four semifinals averaged 4.5 million tv viewers, a 32% enhance over 2022. Last summer season, an exhibition between the US and English girls’s groups offered out in a day, drawing 78,000 followers to Wembley Stadium.

Inevitably, larger fan numbers and engagement are driving up the worth of ladies’s sports activities leagues and franchises. In February, the WNBA’s Seattle Storm offered a 14% stake within the crew at a $151 million valuation — greater than 10 occasions the prior document for a WNBA crew. It’s not simply US sports activities, both: In India, 5 new girls’s cricket crew franchises have been just lately offered at public sale for a mixed $572.4 million.

For now, main males’s sports activities are value extra. National Football League, National Basketball Association and English Premier League franchises presently promote for billions. But regardless of spectacular development over the a long time, NBA franchises aren’t going to develop 10-fold over the subsequent 5 years, or 50. Women’s sports activities are already doing it. This yr’s Women’s World Cup is a reminder of simply how culturally related and profitable they’ve grow to be. For buyers eager to get a chunk of the worldwide sports activities market, the perfect alternative is now in entrance of them.More From Bloomberg Opinion:

• If Shohei Ohtani Gets $600 Million, He Should Thank Satchel Paige: Stephen Mihm

• Will AI in Baseball Become the Next Moneyball?: Adam Minter

• Can Satya Nadella Sell Cricket in America?: Bobby Ghosh

This column doesn’t essentially mirror the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its homeowners.

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist protecting Asia, know-how and the surroundings. He is writer, most just lately, of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.”

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