Today’s guest columnist is Cameron Wagner, CEO of Elevate Sports Ventures, to represent the brand.
When the South Carolina Gamecocks won the 2022 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, I cheered with such intensity that you would never believe that my loyalty lay in another Carolina. The first game of Angel City FC against San Diego Wave FC was in my calendar months in advance, and all plans were rejected for an event that must be seen. Women’s sport moves me, inspires me and brings meaning to my work.
Professionally, I am much more cautious about my celebrations, acknowledging that despite how far we have come, we have a long way to go. When I learned that this year’s final of the NCAA Women’s Tournament has attracted more spectators than any other college basketball game on ESPN (men or women) since 2008 and that the Angel City FC game against San Diego Wave FC NVSL gathered an audience that can compare to the MLS game on ESPN, I checked and rechecked the statistics because I knew the cynics would question them. Women’s sports are still vulnerable to those who doubt, and when such moments appear, they are seen as anomalies.
How can we overcome this? In my opinion, there are two issues that are most detrimental to the development of women’s sports that we, as an industry, need to address.
One crisis away
One of the realities that worries women the most is that the crisis can quickly ruin years of progress. While men’s leagues are going through storms with little impact on ratings, broadcasting contracts and player compensation, women’s organizations do not have that luxury, especially not when facing deeper systemic problems that could put the league, team or governing body in danger of extinction . We saw that at USA Gymnastics, NVSL and NCAA, where athletes applied a “go public and go out loud” approach, because there seemed to be no other option. Echoes of this approach can damage delicate partnerships and broadcasting relationships and can have a potential generational impact on the youth system.
The answer is clear: transparent communication processes, ongoing partner commitments, ubiquitous operational strategy and thoughtful choreography between players, teams, leagues, broadcast partners and more. The great steps taken by the President of the American Football Association, Cindy Parlow Cowen, and her focus on the institutional stability of athletes through transparency cannot be prematurely forgotten or hailed as just a positive moment- that is the basis of any future success. This foundation must and can be strong in the future in order to cope with difficult periods.
Everyone who has invested in this ecosystem is in charge of driving the long-term sustainability of women’s sport in this new model. While athletes themselves are extremely resilient, we need to create an equally resilient infrastructure that will surround them that is constantly evolving to withstand crises. This not only requires great leadership, but also requires financial sustainability and stability, which leads to another issue.
An elusive approach
I often thought that as a fan of women’s sports, you should come up with instructions for use. Is not easy to. Every point of engagement, from watching a game to buying goods to reading about athletes to going to a live event, requires hard work like detectives. This may require purchasing additional streaming services or fighting with click bait to read about your favorite player. Barriers for fans to consume and participate in most women’s sporting events ensure that growth will be marginal. In a few examples where barriers have been removed, the data indicates high interest, viewership, engagement rates and a desire for more, but many distribution channels simply do not allow this - yet.
How do we achieve a more consistent, equitable approach? I believe that the fastest way is for the key actors in women’s sports to stop moving one after the other and start moving at the same time.
Critical actors are leagues, teams, media rights holders, editorial media and sponsors. Note that I did not tell the fans, because this is not their problem to solve. The challenge is that these six stakeholders rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to come to the table at the same time with the specific purpose of making a plan that can be implemented. In fact, many times these entities are in ongoing negotiations or waiting for others to take the first step to pave a smooth road before embarking on the road.
So let’s blow up the old model of sponsorship summits and instead gather stakeholders for commitment summits where we come out with a plan that can dramatically raise the women’s sports league to the next level, as well as commercial summits where all parties meet to identify opportunities, efficiency and solutions to give the public access to the world’s best athletes. This begins with the willingness of the broadcasting partner to give women’s sport the time and coverage that the data shows it deserves. In the US, girls make up 43% of high school athletes, but according to HIVE AI, there were 3.5 times more male sports programs than for women in 2021.
Next steps
Once we are committed to making women’s sport widely available on a high-range network, at a consistent time, with significant cross-promotion, we have a catalyst for other stakeholders to move together. This would include:
- Strengthening leagues with the ability to achieve larger and more integrated partnerships that place additional support and funding where they are most needed: player safety, event operations, fair compensation models, league staff and increased marketing efforts for further growth.
- Teams give priority to partnerships and sponsorships that encourage investment in facilities, compensation for players and team staff, critical player services, state-of-the-art equipment, marketing support and community integration.
- Long-term, more integrated sponsor commitments, including on-air broadcast support with branded features, fully integrated marketing support, and dedicated brand media representing sports and players.
- Daily editorial reporting by sports media on women’s sports, including highlights, stories that build rivalry, and articles about players that build emotional connections with fans.
- Instilling confidence in players that leagues, teams, media and sponsors give a long-term commitment to them and the sport, leading to a renewed willingness to partner with leagues and teams around sport-building initiatives.
Although in principle some stakeholders have already committed to this commitment, the key to accelerating the growth of women’s sport is for all stakeholders to take calculated, interdependent action at the same time and to a greater extent, reducing the risk or suspicion that any stakeholder may have.
If we unite as an industry to do that, we remove the fragility that hindered women’s sports, empowering us to shift the focus to the most important stakeholder of all - the fans.
Wagner is responsible for developing and leading the global vertical for Elevate Sports Venture brand consulting, bringing 25 years of experience in marketing, sponsorship and partnership management on behalf of Fortune 500 companies such as Procter & Gamble, Google and Visa.