Sports Industry Group on #IWD
We were thrilled to see Sue Anstiss writing for Sports Industry Group on International Women’s Day…
There’s no doubt that 2022 will be a massive year for the progress of women’s sport as the UK builds on the 33 million watching domestic women’s sport in 2021, as highlighted by recent Women’s Sport Trust research. Major global events always have a big impact on the profile of women’s sport, and this year is packed with the highest quality competition across a wide range of sports.
The Winter Paralympics and ICC Cricket World Cup are currently underway, the UEFA Euros, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and Tour de France Femmes are on the horizon in July, and we round off the year with Rugby World Cups in union and league in October and November.
The exposure that these global events bring sits alongside the extraordinary growth we’re witnessing in domestic events, with The Six Nations, Netball Super League, The Hundred and FA Women’s Super League all receiving increased exposure in 2022, and the potential to reach new viewers through free to air broadcast and streaming.
And whilst audience and visibility are key, it’s investment and funding that women’s sport needs if this growth is to accelerate to where it should be after decades of neglect.
That’s why, along with long term sponsors such as Barclays and Vitality, it’s been fantastic to see new brands like TikTok, Lego, Zwift, Pandora, Arnold Clarke, LinkedIn and Starling Bank moving into women’s sport in recent months.
Forward thinking brands and their agencies are recognising women's sport sits outside a traditional media buy, assessed by metrics of spectator numbers and viewing figures. An association with women's sports brings with it positive attributes around gender equality and social justice, reflecting that a brand is progressive and innovative. In many cases it also provides access to a more engaged, digitally astute fan base.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Break the Bias’, so it’s timely that the gender bias around prize money for female sport has been making news in recent weeks.
Along with the US National Women’s Team finally reaching a settlement in their Equal Pay Lawsuit, a vocal campaign calling out the enormous disparity for the FA Cup prize money (where the prize pool for the women’s tournament was an unbelievable 1.6% of the men’s) resulted in the FA announcing a ‘significant’ increase will take place next year. With the actual numbers not yet released, it will be interesting to see what constitutes ‘significant’ in terms of redressing the historical imbalance that saw this year’s winning women’s team take home £25,000 in comparison to £1.8M for the winning men’s side.
Women’s sport is like any business – it needs consistent investment if it’s to flourish and grow, something that men’s sport has enjoyed for over a hundred years. Having first been banned, and then receiving paltry investment for decades, it’s little wonder that women’s sport doesn’t yet attract the audience of men’s.
History shows that sports leagues often don't make significant profits in their first 25 years - it takes time to build a fan base. Women’s sport is moving fast, but without investment to redress historical inequality it will forever remain in the shadow of men’s sport. Here’s to the broadcasters, sponsors and rights holders who are doing so much to #BreakTheBias and help others to see the massive potential for women’s sport in 2022 and beyond.
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