By Catherine Gray
For decades, women’s sports were treated as a niche market—something worthy of support, but not necessarily something investors viewed as a serious financial opportunity. That narrative is changing quickly. Women’s sports are becoming one of the most compelling growth stories in sports, media, entertainment, and consumer culture. Audiences are expanding. Franchise valuations are rising. Brands are increasing their investments. Media coverage is growing. And perhaps most importantly, investors are beginning to recognize that women’s sports are not simply the “female version” of an existing market. They are an emerging asset class with the potential to build an entirely new sports economy.
The Numbers Are Getting Harder to Ignore
The growth of women’s sports is no longer anecdotal.
Deloitte projects that global revenues from women’s elite sports will reach at least $3 billion in 2026, up from approximately $2.4 billion in 2025. That represents projected growth of roughly 340% since 2022. And we are seeing growth across multiple revenue streams. Commercial revenue—including sponsorships, partnerships, and merchandise—is expected to generate approximately $1.4 billion in 2026. Matchday revenue is projected to reach $911 million, while broadcast revenue is expected to climb to $765 million. Those numbers tell us something important: Women’s sports are moving beyond visibility and into monetization.
The Audience Is Already Here
One of the biggest misconceptions about women’s sports has been the idea that the audience still needs to be created. The audience already exists. Nielsen reports that 122.5 million people in the United States are fans of women’s sports, and 52% of the U.S. population is interested in women’s sports. Viewers watched approximately 46 billion minutes of women’s sports in 2025, representing 71% growth since 2022. The WNBA offers another example. Nielsen reported that its U.S. fanbase increased more than 31% within two years, reaching 46.9 million people, while 2024 regular-season viewership rose 201%. This isn’t a market waiting for consumers to arrive. It is a market where infrastructure, capital, and business models are racing to catch up with consumer demand.
Investors Should Think Beyond the Teams
When we talk about investing in women’s sports, the most obvious opportunities are professional teams and leagues, but some believe the real opportunity is much larger. Think about everything that surrounds an athlete, team, or league: media companies, training facilities, sports technology, athlete performance and recovery, merchandise, ticketing platforms, sports data, fan communities, youth sports, creator platforms, hospitality and live experiences, health and wellness, content production, and athlete-led brands. Women’s sports have the potential to create an entire ecosystem of companies serving athletes, fans, brands, teams, and leagues. For investors accustomed to looking at emerging industries, that ecosystem should be particularly interesting because some of the greatest returns in a growing market are not always generated by the most obvious asset. They are often created by the infrastructure, technology, services, and platforms that make the entire market possible.
Women Athletes Are Becoming Media Companies
There is another shift investors should be watching closely: athletes are building businesses and audiences independent of their leagues. Social media has fundamentally changed the economics of being an athlete. A player is no longer simply an employee of a team. She can simultaneously be an athlete, creator, founder, investor, spokesperson, and media brand. That creates entirely new revenue opportunities. Athletes can launch companies, build direct relationships with fans, create media properties, develop product lines and enter partnerships without relying exclusively on traditional sports media.For investors, that means the opportunity isn’t only investing in women’s sports. It can also mean investing alongside women athletes and in the companies they create.
The Valuation Story Is Changing
The market is already beginning to price women’s sports differently.
Forbes reported in late 2025 that 25 women’s sports teams had reached nine-figure valuations, collectively worth approximately $5.6 billion. The New York Liberty alone was estimated to be worth $400 million. That kind of appreciation attracts attention. It also creates a familiar investment question: What happens when institutional capital recognizes an opportunity before the broader market fully matures? We have watched this happen in technology, media, real estate, and emerging consumer categories. Women’s sports may be entering a similar moment.
This Is More Than a Sponsorship Opportunity
For years, many corporations approached women’s sports primarily through sponsorship or corporate social responsibility. Those investments mattered. They helped provide visibility and resources when the market desperately needed both. But the next chapter should be different. The conversation is moving from: “How can we support women’s sports?” To: “Where are the investment opportunities within women’s sports?” Those are very different questions. The second question requires examining revenue, intellectual property, distribution, customer acquisition, infrastructure, valuations, and scalability. In other words, it requires treating women’s sports like a business.
Women Investors Have an Opportunity to Lead
I am particularly excited about what this moment could mean for women investors. Women have historically been underrepresented on both sides of the investment table—as founders seeking capital and as investors deciding where capital goes. Women’s sports presents an opportunity to begin changing that dynamic while participating in one of the fastest-growing areas of sports, media, and culture. Imagine more women becoming team owners and taking meaningful equity positions in professional sports organizations. Imagine women-led venture funds investing in sports technology, media platforms, health and performance companies, and businesses designed specifically around the needs of female athletes and their fans. Imagine more female angel investors backing athlete-founded companies at the earliest stages and helping those businesses grow into nationally recognized brands. There is also an opportunity to rethink what ownership in sports can look like. We could see investment groups made up of women executives, entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, and investors coming together to acquire stakes in teams, leagues, media properties, and emerging sports businesses. The women who have supported these athletes, purchased tickets, watched games, bought merchandise, and helped build this movement can also have equity in the businesses benefiting from that growth.
That is the part of this conversation that excites me most. Women’s sports is not simply an opportunity for women to participate as fans, sponsors, or consumers. It is an opportunity to participate as investors, decision-makers, and owners. We shouldn’t simply be consumers of the growth happening in women’s sports. We can be owners of it.
The Next Frontier Is Already Here
There will undoubtedly be challenges. Rapid growth brings questions about valuations, profitability, player compensation, media rights, infrastructure, and sustainable business models.
Investors still need to do what good investors always do: conduct diligence, understand the economics, and distinguish genuine opportunities from hype. But dismissing women’s sports as a niche category now carries its own risk. Because while some investors are still asking whether women’s sports can become big business, other investors are already building businesses around it. The next great investment opportunity doesn’t always announce itself after the market has matured. Sometimes it appears while the market is still being built. And when it comes to women’s sports, we may be watching that moment unfold right now. This is not investment advice- however- with the greatest transfer of wealth in history to women, it’s time to consult with your wealth advisors and attorney to discuss how you want to utilize your money to build wealth while making an impact that can, in this case, catapult women’s sports into the stratosphere of boundless growth and opportunities. I recently heard about an opportunity to invest in a new professional women’s soccer league in Europe! It seems a lot of our pro US women players are investing in it. The future looks bright for women’s sports-especially if we as women support it on every level, including investing in it.
Catherine Gray
Executive Producer,
Show Her The Money
CEO/Founder, She Angel Investors
Keynote Speaker/ Author
Co-Founder-She Angels Foundation
Host Invest in Her Podcast
Watch my Ted talk here!
https://youtu.be/Ms-tROEeLn4