The Unprecedented and Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Professional Sports: A Closer Look

March 8, 2024

“WHEN YOU GIVE OUR ATHLETES A PLATFORM, THEY SHINE”

Leaders from three booming women’s pro leagues explain the challenges and triumphs driving them, and their sports, forward.

By Hayley McGoldrick

T
here’s a sense of momentum in women’s professional sports these days, an optimism that stretches across leagues and borders. Pinpointing exactly when it began, and where, is a book-length subject — but evidence of the strength and promise of women’s pro sports is everywhere around us, with fresh milestones arriving all the time.

The past year alone provides plenty of proof. Last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup saw nearly two million total fans take in the 64 matches played across 10 stadiums — an increase of more than half a million on the event’s previous record. The 2023 WNBA regular season, which wrapped up last September, reached more than 36 million total unique viewers across all American networks, the most since 2008 and up 27 per cent from 2022. The “Caitlin Clark Effect” is still sending ripples across college courts. The Iowa star’s historic scoring has led to larger audiences for women’s basketball than men’s, with Big Ten rightsholder Fox reporting an average viewership of 981,000 per game on the women’s side (compared to 946,000 on the men’s). And a few short weeks ago, on Feb. 16, the PWHL — which sold out more than a third of its games in the first half of its inaugural season — set a women’s hockey attendance record when a crowd of 19,285 gathered at Scotiabank Arena to watch Montreal take on Toronto in the “Battle on Bay Street.”

The growth hasn’t been limited to viewership and attendance numbers, either. The WNBA recently answered calls for expansion, awarding Golden State a team, and there are rumours a Toronto bid is in the works. Three months into the PWHL’s existence, the pro hockey league is already being asked about markets beyond its original six. And as the NWSL gains steam across U.S. markets, expanding to 14 teams for 2024, calls are getting louder for a Canadian-based league — with former national team player Diana Matheson preparing to launch Project 8 next year.

Women’s golf has seen a boom, too, with LPGA purses increasing from $1.5 million to $7 million in the last decade.

While athletes are obviously at the centre of this growth, and the spotlight it’s attracted, these leagues would not be enjoying their current success without the women in leadership roles who shape them and drive their sports forward.

Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, has been a trailblazer in women’s hockey for years, working to make a North American professional league a sustainable reality. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, a former director of athletics at Princeton University, has helped shape the organization into one that affords women in golf a new way to look at the game, seeing more than $95 million in total purses and events in 11 countries. And WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, a former Deloitte CEO who’s always had basketball in her DNA and played under Ann “Muffet” McGraw at Notre Dame, has leveraged her business background and love of the game to help her league reach new heights.

Sportsnet recently gathered insights from Engelbert, Hefford, and Marcoux Samaan to better understand the business of women’s professional sports in an evolving landscape — and the challenges and triumphs driving these leaders, and their leagues, forward.

[Editor’s note: Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.]

Hefford, right, walks out arm-in-arm with tennis legend and PWHL board member Billie Jean King to drop the ceremonial faceoff at the first ever PWHL game.

SPORTSNET: When you first stepped into your role, what was something you thought your sport was already doing well that you wanted to build on?

HEFFORD: The PWHPA [which bought out the rival Premier Hockey Federation before forming the PWHL] was focused on the players and their stories. We always want to be advocates for our players, as they are the most valuable asset. We will continue to put them at the forefront of what we do.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: When I arrived, I saw a mantra painted on the wall at headquarters that reads: “Act Like a Founder.” It’s an ethos that we continue to instill into all of our teammates, players, caddies, and volunteers. Every day we do our best to grow our game, our tour, and our organization, and to have a positive impact on others. That is the culture at the LPGA.

ENGELBERT: I think the league was already remarkably diverse, progressive, and inclusive, and I think we’ve been able to advance that even more. The WNBA has held the top position in the Racial and Gender Report Card studies since its inaugural season, and this is the 18^th consecutive year the league has received at least an “A” for its overall race, gender, and combined grades.

“Women’s sports fans have had to work really hard to watch and follow; the general sports fan doesn’t do that much work. We need to continue to make it easy to find us and be visible as often as possible.”

What was something you felt was missing or needed more help?

MARCOUX SAMAAN: Infrastructure and investment. Like with any business, you have to have a strong infrastructure and an ability to invest in the future. For the first time in history, we have a marketing department focused on growing our fan base and viewership. We’ve added staff to our sales and partnerships team to be able to identify the best possible brands with which to partner. We’re acquiring technology resources and strategies to better know and understand our fans. We’re focused on providing the resources and environment our players need to reach their peak performance.

ENGELBERT: A well-defined strategy was missing that the whole team could identify with and execute against. I like to communicate things in threes, so we came up with three pillars of the strategy. We were going to: 1) think player-first in everything we did; 2) keep in mind a goal of stakeholder success; and 3) enhance the fan experience. Then we raised capital, so we could hire the right capabilities to transform and grow the league. And now, as we further identify and develop our priorities, we are focused on building household names, creating rivalries, and making it easier to be and become a WNBA fan.

HEFFORD: When I stepped into the role in the CWHL [the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which ceased operations in 2019 and was a precursor to the PWHL], I realized quickly that the current business model was not something that would support professionalism at the highest level. We needed to find a way to be sustainable and revenue-generating over time.

When you first started your career in sports, did you picture women’s sports at the place they are now? What did you see as the biggest roadblocks?

MARCOUX SAMAAN: I think the biggest roadblock in the past (and still, to a lesser degree, today) was that women’s sports were not valued enough by society, so there was significant underinvestment. Women athletes were not celebrated in the same way men were. Television coverage and media coverage for women’s sports made it impossible to grow. Women’s sports have been viewed as “the other” and “secondary” for a long time. That is definitely changing. We’re celebrating our 75^th anniversary next season, so we feel we have a responsibility to lead. We’re seeing the outputs of that investment already — media consumption and engagement numbers are up and so are total prize funds on the LPGA (70 per cent in three years, as a matter of fact). Overall revenue is up significantly, and we are growing, but we still don’t have all the inputs we need to take the next huge leap.

HEFFORD: I always dreamed we could be here, but for a long time it was difficult to predict when we could get here. The acceleration of demand for women’s sport in the past few years has been really exciting and encouraging. The biggest roadblock, to me, has always been visibility. When you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist for many. Women’s sports fans have had to work really hard to watch and follow; the general sports fan doesn’t do that much work. We need to continue to make it easy to find us and be visible as often as possible.

ENGELBERT: We all know there is more room for growth and more work to be done for women’s sports to reach its full potential. For example, in recent years, less than five per cent of sports media coverage was dedicated to women’s sports and roughly one per cent of corporate spending on sports was dedicated to women’s sports. Part of our transformation is moving the needle on these statistics.

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan in San Francisco.

What are the roadblocks still keeping women’s sports from reaching their full potential?

ENGELBERT: A challenge women’s sports has had to face for a long time: The underinvestment in women’s sports overall and the undervaluation of women’s sports in terms of media rights and our assets. Network media rights deals for women’s sports versus men’s sports are drastically different. [According to a 2023 Wasserman study,] 90 per cent of partnership dollars are directed to men athletes, men earn 21 times more playing salary than women athletes, and 82 per cent of women athletes’ average compensation comes from endorsement income. Compare it to the fan engagement, viewership, [and] investment we’re seeing, we know we have to find a way to right-side these numbers.

HEFFORD: Visibility is still a roadblock — prime broadcast windows and consistent airtime is costly. The research has proven time and again that the demand is here for women’s sports, and the rates of growth are incredible. It’s still a challenge to get people to invest in women’s sports the way we do in men’s sports, despite the opportunity for significant returns.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: We’re constantly working on increasing the exposure of our athletes, particularly [among] younger, female, and more diverse audiences. We’re also working very intentionally to grow the number of girls and women playing golf. Girls under 18 are currently the fastest-growing segment of the golfing population — today, they represent 38 per cent of junior golfers. On top of that, thanks to programs like LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, 28 per cent of the junior participants in golf are girls of colour.

“Every day, every minute, with the PWHL is like a playoff game — the stakes are so high, the decisions need to be quick and smart and correct.”

What has been one of the most rewarding moments for you in your current position?

HEFFORD: The launch of the PWHL [on] Jan. 1, 2024. There were many years that led us to that moment. It has been amazing to see so many former players and former teammates who are all so excited about where the game is. Knowing now that there are young girls who won’t know a world without professional women’s hockey is something that makes our entire team proud.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: Seeing our athletes shine in the biggest moments, watching their emotion and seeing their passion. I grew up a hockey and soccer player, and I always celebrated passionately. Their passion energizes me and lets me know that we are on the right path. Patty Tavatanakit, our 2021 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year, [recently] picked up her second career LPGA Tour win in her home country of Thailand. Seeing her emotions, her joy, that makes it all worth it.

ENGELBERT: Coming in as commissioner and helping negotiate a landmark CBA that made significant strides in the area of player experience, particularly with significant increases to players’ cash compensation and the implementation of new, progressive family planning benefits.

Do you find there is an empowering element to helping grow the game as a woman in such a pivotal role?

MARCOUX SAMAAN: We are an organization founded by women for women. That, in and of itself, is empowering and inspiring. One of the other differences in running a women’s professional sports organization is that not only are we providing world-class opportunities for our athletes and entertaining fans, male and female, through tremendous sports competitions, but we are also helping solve a societal problem. We are pushing to show the world, and young girls in particular, that they can do anything in this world and that they deserve to be valued and compensated commensurate with their talent. This is a big responsibility that we take very seriously.

ENGELBERT: It’s empowering to have raised capital, deploying it to grow the league, so that future generations of girls will have more opportunities to play professional basketball.

HEFFORD: There are a number of empowering elements, and they are reinforced, if not heightened, every time I look at the families at our games: the mothers and fathers with their daughters and sons. The men wearing PWHL jerseys, the older people with smiles on their faces because they have a top pro hockey league to access, enjoy at affordable prices, and simply celebrate that the PWHL exists. And I see the appreciation on the faces of the players, too — they know the opportunity this league is providing, and they understand the responsibility it places on their shoulders to move the game forward in meaningful ways.

Reflecting on your time in your role, is there anything you wish you could have done differently?

HEFFORD: We aren’t allowed the luxury of regret, and things move so quickly in this league that we don’t have time to second-guess ourselves or our teammates. We have to be right with the first guess every time, and I find that challenge a motivator of the highest order. Every day, every minute, with the PWHL is like a playoff game — the stakes are so high, the decisions need to be quick and smart and correct. We know we’re going to make mistakes, but we’re in these positions because people trust us to make a lot more smart decisions than questionable ones. Our eyes, at all times, look forward, not back.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: My travel schedule the first year I was here let me know in a personal way how important it was for us to geographically streamline our tournament schedule and to focus on our players’ overall performance environment. Our players fly all over the world, so it was important for us to create a schedule that included geographic clusters wherever possible. We did better at that this year, but we’re still working on creating a schedule that allows our athletes to reach peak potential.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert participates in a post-game panel during Inspiring Woman’s Night in Dallas.

What is a big-picture goal you want to achieve in your time as commissioner?

ENGELBERT: To right-side media rights valuations for the WNBA and women’s sports. They have been undervalued for far too long. Also, to expand the league to more teams, giving more young basketball players the ability to make their dreams of playing professional basketball a reality.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: Our mission statement is simple but ambitious. We want to be the global leader in women’s professional golf and to use our unique platform to empower, inspire, and advance opportunities for girls and women, on and off the golf course. To get us there, we need to transform the LPGA by creating a world-renowned global sports and entertainment property that showcases the very best female athletes, achieves pay equity in sports, creates unparalleled fan experiences, delivers tangible benefits to partners, and intentionally grows opportunities for women and girls through golf.

HEFFORD: We are in the unique situation of being a startup league, so our goals are really to set the foundation for a sustainable professional league that is known for its competitiveness, its parity, and depth of talent. This is the league that will live on beyond any of us involved now and we are determined to set it up for long-term success. We have legacies to uphold and advance.

“When you give our athletes a platform, they shine. We just need more of those platforms.”

We see a lot of crossover opportunities between women’s leagues and with men’s leagues as well. Do you find these crossovers bring new eyes to your sport?

HEFFORD: We have felt incredible support from the NHL (and AHL). Moving as quickly as we did to launch this league would not have been possible without the support of these leagues. We didn’t have to re-invent the wheel in many cases. The NHL has years of experience that are incredibly helpful to us, and I hope they see us as partners to bring in new demographics of hockey fans. It’s been a great relationship so far, and we intend to continue to work closely with them.

MARCOUX SAMAAN: We’ve gotten strong support from the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, the USGA, the PGA of America, the R&A, Augusta, and so many other golf organizations. In fact, the USGA, the R&A, and the PGA of America are important partners in three of our major championships and have helped lead the charge in pushing prize funds to new heights. When you give our athletes a platform, they shine. We just need more of those platforms. Capitalizing on the exposure the men already get because of decades of investment and resources is a huge opportunity for us.

ENGELBERT: We are blessed to have a brother league in the NBA that is responsible for launching the WNBA off the 1996 Olympics. There are owners of NBA teams who also own WNBA teams, investors in the WNBA who are NBA owners, and we see how many NBA players are out there supporting the league and supporting players by attending games and engaging on social media.

All of it is great for the WNBA and helps bring in new fans to the sport. The WNBA had a major presence at NBA All-Star over the last two years…. And the Steph [Curry] vs. Sabrina [Ionescu] three-point event was a huge success that many people in the media and fans on social platforms believed was a major highlight of the weekend.

Looking ahead five years, what place do you hope your league is at?

MARCOUX SAMAAN: In five years, I’d very much like to see us getting much closer to pay equity with the men, having our women have the resources they need to live a life of joy and vigour and peak performance for longer and more sustainable periods of time, and for us to see a large increase in the young girls and women who are benefiting from this great game.

ENGELBERT: My biggest priority is the valuation of our teams and our media rights. Eventually, success would be having an economic model that allows all WNBA teams to be able to support increased player pay, better travel — because we always get compared to men’s professional leagues that have been around 50 to 75 years longer than we have. That is what I was brought into the W to do, and I want to continue the upward trajectory we are on.

HEFFORD: I hope in five years that we have outgrown all our venues, that the demand continues to grow across other markets and we are looking towards expansion. I hope we have a media deal in place that ensures brand visibility globally for all our games. I also hope that we have figured out a way to build or adopt a system or league for players who are not on current rosters to develop.

Additional Credits

Header illustration by Jenn Woodall. Photos by Frank Gunn/CP; Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP; Rebecca SLezak/The Dallas Morning News via AP.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the world of professional sports. Women’s sports have been gaining more attention and recognition than ever before, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down. From soccer to basketball to tennis, female athletes are making their mark on the sports world in a big way.

One of the driving forces behind this rise in women’s professional sports is the increased visibility and coverage that these athletes are receiving. With the rise of social media and streaming platforms, fans are able to follow their favorite female athletes more closely than ever before. This increased exposure has helped to showcase the incredible talent and skill that these women possess, challenging the outdated notion that women’s sports are somehow inferior to men’s.

Another key factor in the rise of women’s professional sports is the growing support and investment from sponsors and organizations. Major brands are recognizing the value of aligning themselves with female athletes and are investing in partnerships and endorsements that help to elevate these athletes and their sports. This increased financial support has allowed female athletes to train and compete at the highest levels, further raising the profile of women’s sports.

Additionally, the success of women’s professional sports can also be attributed to the dedication and hard work of the athletes themselves. These women have overcome countless obstacles and challenges to reach the top of their respective sports, and their determination and resilience serve as an inspiration to fans around the world. Whether it’s breaking records, winning championships, or advocating for gender equality in sports, female athletes are proving that they belong on the same stage as their male counterparts.

As we look ahead to the future of women’s professional sports, it’s clear that the momentum is only going to continue to grow. With more support, investment, and recognition than ever before, female athletes are poised to take their sports to new heights and inspire a new generation of young girls to pursue their athletic dreams. The unprecedented rise of women’s professional sports is a testament to the incredible talent and dedication of these athletes, and it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.