Women on the Rise in Hoops

We all know the old adage “sports is a business” right? Well if sports were a business I am currently buying stock in women's basketball. For years the WNBA and NCAAW have been looked at as sports that are propped up by their male counterparts. However, just recently there have been signs that women’s basketball is ballooning in popularity. Now, I may be biased due to the fact that I have a daughter who is interested in sports and coach girl’s basketball myself, but there are shifts in the landscape that can’t be ignored.

I began to take more interest in the growth of the women’s game after the untimely death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and talented daughter Gianna. Bryant was a vocal proponent of uplifting women in sports through his Mamba Sports Foundation, which listed one of its missions as “providing funding for programs that offer equal opportunities for young women in sports”. Kobe was by no means a hands-off supporter either, he regularly attended WNBA games with his daughter and spoke about his favorite players in interviews with Jimmy Kimmel and CNN. While many fans of the NBA love to poke fun at girls playing basketball, I think we can all agree that if Kobe respected the sport that we can as well.

Now let's dive into some numbers that may surprise some who don’t follow the women's side of the sport. Throughout the 2023 NCAAW tournament viewership was up across the board and shattered all previous records. The Elite Eight matchups averaged 2.2 million viewers per game, comparable to the most watched NBA regular season games on ESPN. The hype only increased as the tournament went on, with viewership doubling to 4.5 million for the Final Four matchups featuring LSU, Virginia Tech, Iowa and reigning champion South Carolina. Going into the Championship game fans were already anticipating a massive game between high-scoring LSU and Iowa featuring stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clarke and it did not disappoint. The game ended with LSU securing their first Championship victory while setting the Championship scoring record during the 102-86 win, all while setting another record with 12.6 million fans watching on television. For the first time the NCAAW Chamionship put up numbers which competed with the Men’s championship, which drew a record low of approximately 14.7 million viewers.

This doesn’t appear to be fluke either as major players in the sports industry are taking notice and opening their wallets. Coming off a massive 2022 WNBA season Sabrina Ionescu, a mentee of Kobe Bryant, inked a signature shoe deal with Nike worth $24 million. The investment has paid off for Nike as many girls in youth basketball are now wearing the Sabrina 1’s across many age levels. Even more recently NCAA stars Paige Buekers, Angel Reese and Cailtin Clark are expanding their NIL endorsement portfolios with Gatorade, Nike, State Farm, BioSteel and Stephen Curry’s SC30 brand shelling out big money to reach fans of the women’s game. These deals have vaulted them into the top 50 of all NIL earners, with Angel Reese reaching the 9th overall spot ahead of Texas QB Quinn Ewers. All of this growth is expected to roll over to the WNBA as the fans of the college stars follow their favorite players to the next level. Women’s basketball is done waiting around for scraps to fall from the men’s plate, they’re demanding a place at the same table.

John Siebels is the owner of Springhill Sports Cards, he collects and sells sports cards on Ebay, you can find him on Instagram and his Ebay store here