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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major gains in television viewing and attendance at women’s sports in 2024 will give way to expansion in 2025 as start-ups and established leagues alike look to take advantage of the surging interest, industry leaders and experts say.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North America’s top-flight National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) both saw record viewing figures.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fans in the UK devoted more time than ever to watching the Women’s Super League (WSL), and television ratings soared for Women’s Premier League cricket in its second season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deep-pocketed investors took notice, and growth will be the theme for 2025 as the WNBA welcomes its first new franchise since 2008 when the Golden State Valkyries begin play next year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WNBA, which is also preparing for two more teams in 2026 in Portland and Toronto, had its most-watched regular season with 1.2 million average viewers on ESPN, according to the broadcaster, while an average of 1.6 million watched the Finals, the biggest audience in 25 years.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Record-smashing university career</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The league had enjoyed steady growth in recent years but the surge was helped along by a compelling rookie class led by Caitlin Clark, whose record-smashing university career was a watershed moment for women’s sport in the US.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clark will hope her extraordinary star power will help in her joint bid to bring an NWSL team to Cincinnati, as the women’s soccer league considers three contenders, including Denver and Cleveland, for a fresh expansion franchise.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2491096\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AFP__20241021__galvin-westhamu241020_npQWP__v1__HighRes__WestHamUnitedVArsenalBarcla-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1872\" /> <em>Viviane Asseyi of West Ham United (middle) challenges Kyra Cooney-Cross of Arsenal Women, who is backed up by teammate Emily Fox during the Barclays FA Women's Super League soccer match at The Chigwell Construction Stadium In Dagenham, England, on 20 October 2024. (Photo: Action Foto Sport / NurPhoto / via AFP)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The league had an average viewership of 967,900 for this year’s championship, up 18% from 2023, the NWSL said, and is preparing to expand to 15 members when a Boston team joins in 2026.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The value of NWSL and WNBA teams is expected to grow by at least $1.6-billion over the next three years, according to research released late last month by The Collective, sports and entertainment agency Wasserman’s women’s division.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The women’s sports industry is an incredibly valuable and rapidly growing sector,” The Collective Managing Director Thayer Lavielle said in a statement.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“WNBA and NWSL teams are leading the charge but this growth is not limited to these leagues — it’s about the growth of the entire women’s sports ecosystem.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Double-digit growth</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey this year of more than 400 industry leaders showed 85% expected double-digit growth for women’s sports revenues in the next three to five years, with soccer, basketball and rugby in particular getting a boost from major events.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The climate has been appealing for new outfits too, as the Premier Lacrosse League last month announced a women’s league that will debut next year, and the six-team Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) plans to begin in 2026.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WPBL was approached by dozens of potential owners in the week after it announced its launch in October, according to Keith Stein, co-founder of the league with pioneer Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Over 40% of Major League Baseball fans are women, and women’s professional sports – even women’s collegiate sports – have never been more recognised by the public than today,” Siegal told Reuters.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s a perfect time to take a game that women have been loving for centuries and give them a chance not just to play, but also be in leadership positions.” </span><b>Reuters/DM</b>",
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Viviane Asseyi of West Ham United (middle) challenges Kyra Cooney-Cross of Arsenal Women, who is backed up by teammate Emily Fox during the Barclays FA Women's Super League soccer match at The Chigwell Construction Stadium In Dagenham, England, on 20 October 2024. (Photo: Action Foto Sport / NurPhoto / via AFP)