Everyone knows about men’s sports and the popularity it has, but what about women’s sports? Decades ago, women’s sports were a “joke” to many people, which meant there was no funding, sponsors, or even fans who would attend any women’s game.

According to Wonder, the average live attendance per game at the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was 2,600 in 2021, and the average per-game attendance (regular season) of the National Basketball Association was 17,184 for the 2021/2022 season. That’s a major difference in numbers.

In an article by TheConversation, they did a survey on 507 men on their thoughts about women’s football being on the rise. 68 percent of these male participants were overly misogynistic, calling the women useless, less competitive, and weaker. Even today at Rowan, everyone talks about the football team, but not many people talk about any women’s sports teams here. For example, whenever I’m scrolling through social media during the fall, all I see is people reposting that Rowan football is playing, but hardly any reposts about women’s soccer games.

In the inaugural season of the WNBA in 1997, surprisingly over 14,000 attended the New York Liberty beating the L.A Sparks. Back in 2024, the average attendance to a WNBA game was a little over 9,000. Taking it back to 1999, the United States hosted the 1999 Women’s World Cup, making it the third edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

According to ESPN, the United States Women’s National Team won against China in the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, CA, in front of over 90,000 fans, making it an iconic moment in women’s sports. Once Brandi Chastian, former USWNT player, scored the final penalty kick to make the United States win it all, an iconic photo was taken of her, shirtless. This photo is still talked about over 25 years later.

But what happened after that? Little by little, more people are starting to know big names in the women’s game; athletes like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and Candace Parker. When fans knew these stars were coming to town, attendance spiked. With everyone knowing who these athletes are, endorsement deals started to happen. Alex Morgan was the most endorsed female athlete of 2022 and had deals with Nike, Coca-Cola, Chipotle, etc. She also started to show up in commercials and ads on TV.

On August 30, 2023 I was in shock to hear that 92,003 fans showed up to see a college women’s volleyball match. The match was Nebraska vs Omaha.  The game had to be moved to the Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers football team due to the amount of people wanting to attend the game. This was marked as a new benchmark in women’s sports. 

In 2022, 91,553 fans attended El Clásico, Barcelona Femini vs Real Madrid in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. About three weeks later, that same record was broken by Barcelona again with 91,648 fans attending the Barcelona vs Wolfsburg game in the same tournament. Both of these games were played in the Camp Nou, in Barcelona, Spain. It brings me chills knowing that the sport is growing not just in the United States but globally. 

Last year, in the 2023-2024 NCAA women’s college basketball season, we witnessed one of the best seasons in NCAA basketball history.

Caitlin Clark. Need I say more? She broke record after record while attending the University of Iowa, which is a school that isn’t known for producing basketball talent, but her talent is raw. She can score with any shot from any angle. People started to hear about this nonsense going on and started to watch the games on TV to see if what they’re hearing is true. It was. After that, the Hawkeyes would start to sell out all of their home games.

It was Clark’s last season with the Hawkeyes, meaning that next season she will be playing in the WNBA. Every team wanted Clark because they knew it would benefit them not just play-wise but also marketing, attendance, and branding wise. Having a known player on your team can make your team and the league gain much more money.

At last, she got drafted to the Indiana Fever. When the tickets came out for the first game of the season for the Fever, tickets spiked compared to them last year.

According to ESPN, “At ticket platform SeakGeek, the average Fever resale price for home games is currently $182 — a 136% increase from 2023,” and, “The Las Vegas Aces recently moved their July 2 game against Indiana from Michelob ULTRA Arena to the larger T-Mobile Arena as a direct result of heightened demand for tickets, according to a team spokesman.”

One person can change the perspective of many people.

I’m glad women’s sports is gaining the popularity and respect it deserves. It’s not a joke anymore. It’s here and it’s happening right in front of us. Let’s start to value them and show the world what women’s sports truly is. There is still more yet to come, they’re just getting started.

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