IT is no longer a vanity play for big corporates to get behind women’s sports.
No, women’s sport at the elite level is becoming big business. And investors are seeing genuine bang for their buck.
In the United States, the National Women’s Soccer League recently announced that an investment group would pay $53 million to form a team in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s not about optics, or even equality, this is an investment firm whose purpose is to make money for shareholders.
They’ve run the numbers and like the odds.
The $53 million price tag for the team is a far cry from the $2 million that could have bought you a team a year ago. Talk about growth.
Which brings us to what has happened in Australia over the past few weeks.
Australia’s stunning 4-0 FIFA Women’s World Cup victory over Canada on Monday night rated 2.3 million on Channel Seven, the Matildas’ biggest audience of the tournament so far.
In raw numbers, it was almost three times larger TV viewership than the thrilling conclusion of The Ashes Test series on Channel Nine, which was running at the exact same time.
These stunning numbers came on the back of 50,000 packing Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on a Friday night a few weeks back to watch the Matildas play a pre-tournament friendly against France, far exceeding the crowd at the MCG for an AFL Friday night footy game.
What middle-aged sports-loving Aussie bloke would have thought any of this was possible?
The answers are relatively simple.
It comes down to a choice of what the wider audience finds more entertaining. And what they are more emotionally engaged in.
And, right now, the Matildas are the headline act in a sports-mad country, relegating The Ashes and even, gasp, Collingwood off the back pages.
This World Cup has shown the Matildas bring gravitas to women’s sport. They are the water cooler talk in offices and work sites, between men and women alike.
Sam Kerr, Hayley Raso, Caitlin Foord and Katrina Gorry are now not just heroes of young soccer-mad girls, they are fast becoming household names.
Sponsors will be knocking down their doors. The big money typically reserved for the blokes will come their way. Why? Because they are marketable.
All of this is fantastic and hopefully another step towards equity in sport, understanding that there is still a long, long way to go.
In the crowd on Monday night was my cousin’s daughter. She is soccer mad, just like her dad, and they watch every Matildas game together, no matter what time of day or night.
The camera found her and there she was on national TV decked out in her Aussie colors.
What an inspiring moment for kids like her to be part of a packed Melbourne stadium watching elite women’s sport.
It’s where dreams begin, just as watching men’s footy and cricket was for me growing up. Now, girls see it, too. They don’t see women’s soccer as playing second fiddle to men’s sport, no, it is the biggest show in town and this is their normal.
The media has a big part to play in all of this.
Exposure and great storytelling is key to creating hype and emotional engagement.
The Matildas are currently on the front and back pages, leading the nightly TV news, and guess what, people are reading and watching.
So when the World Cup ends, the coverage of women’s sport can’t go back to what it has been at a national level.
The media can’t assume the audience isn’t there. It is.
In Mildura on Saturday night, the Mildura Heat men’s and women’s teams will play off in their respective semi-finals.
The Sunraysia Daily sports team, headed up by Matt Taylor and Mitch Rodd, have long prided themselves on balanced coverage when it comes to men’s and women’s sports, and there is no greater example of this than with their coverage of our Big V teams.
Our coverage of other women’s sports, such as netball, is also comprehensive.
Yes, we do that out of a sense of balance and fairness, but also because online figures regularly show a story on women’s sport outperforming a story about the boys.
The numbers don’t lie. Women’s sport is good for business. And, bit by bit, Australia is waking up to that.
Go Matildas.
