English Manchester Home Stadium Filled with Spectators... Is the Era of 'Women's Sports' Coming?

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] On the 6th, the opening match of the '2022 European Women's Football Championship' was held at Old Trafford, the home stadium of Manchester United. England defeated Austria 1-0 and won, and British media expressed expectations that they could win the championship. On that day, 68,871 fans, the highest attendance in the history of the Women's Euro, gathered at Old Trafford. In the UK alone, 4.5 million people watched the opening match on TV. The final of this tournament will be held at Wembley Stadium, the largest stadium in the UK with a capacity of 90,000 seats, and tickets have already been sold out.

The British economic weekly The Economist recently reported that investors and broadcasters are paying attention to women's sports. According to the report on the 24th (local time), the Women's Cricket World Cup held in the Netherlands in March and April recorded its highest viewership ever, and the women's version of the world's most prestigious cycling race, the Tour de France Femmes, was revived after 30 years, with a race held on the 24th.

The Economist cited an anonymous analyst saying that until a few years ago, investment in women's football was considered a duty to avoid criticism, but this situation is changing, and as the number of viewers increases, corresponding investments are being made. Although women's professional sports have lagged significantly behind men's in terms of prize money and viewership, they have begun to show growth in recent years.

In fact, some advertisers have evaluated that investing in women's sports is better than expensive men's games. Patrick Massey, head of the UK and Europe at Portas Consulting, said that women's football in Europe is expected to grow faster than any other sport and will have more fans than other men's sports by 2030.

According to data compiled by the Women's Sports Trust, a women's organization established in 2012, TV viewership of women's sports in the UK in the first quarter of this year increased by about 50% compared to 2019, before COVID-19. The prize money for this year's Women's Euro is $16 million (about 21 billion KRW), double that of 2017.

The viewership of the US Women's Basketball Association (WNBA) also increased by 50% last year compared to the previous year, and in February, the WNBA secured $75 million in funding, the largest amount ever for women's sports. This funding included participation from former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, and Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Lindsey Douglas, an analyst at media research company Nielsen, analyzed that one of the biggest changes is that rights holders such as UEFA, FIFA, and World Rugby are now selling sponsorship rights for women's sports events separately rather than bundling them with men's sports events, allowing buyers and sellers to accurately assess their value.

The Economist stated, "Investors do not expect the gap between women's and men's sports to close," but added, "However, they see many opportunities as women's sports grow." It also added, "Rather than imitating men's leagues mainly established in the 20th century, providing women's sports with the opportunity to experiment with 21st-century-style leagues could be one idea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.