Iowa Women’s guard Caitlin Clark is the best college basketball player of all time.
From her captain-like leadership on and off the court to her record-breaking heroics, Clark has become the face of a sports industry looking to make a turnaround.
Throughout sports history, the women’s side has always played second fiddle to the men’s. Lower rating numbers, less popularity, less exposure, the whole nine yards.
However, recent events have shown an incredible uptick in the acknowledgment of women’s sports.
Clark has brought national news coverage to NCAA Women’s basketball with her incredible shot-taking ability as well as her natural instinct to take over the game at any given moment.
The second round of the NCAA Women’s March Madness tournament this year averaged 812.000 viewers, which is up a whopping 108% since last year’s games.
Another historic milestone was set when Iowa hosted a preseason basketball game outdoors, drawing an incredible 55,000 fans.
Clark’s Buckeyes faced off against Louisiana State University in the NCAA Final last season, in a match where 10 million people tuned in. You guessed it, another viewership record.
Photo by: Badgers Wire.
With players like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese dominating college basketball, the formation of a women’s exclusive hockey league, and the largest crowd for a women’s sports event ever, history is in the making.
Basketball isn’t the only sport gaining traction on the women’s side of sports, however. Surprisingly enough, the PWHL, Professional Women’s Hockey League, has taken the hockey world by storm, and NHL fans are loving the addition of this league.
This is a second attempt at a women’s hockey league. The NWHL, National Women’s Hockey League, was the maiden voyage which eventually went belly up.
Despite past failures, the PWHL looks to be strong and is charging full steam ahead. The first game of the recently added competition took place on January 5, where New York took down Toronto by a final score of 4-0.
This game recorded an average of 879,000 viewers and reached a remarkable peak total of 2.9 million viewers, an outstanding feat for a brand-new league in their very first outing.
As previously mentioned, this surge of viewership in women’s sports is taking place within multiple leagues. Just last summer, Nebraska and Omaha women’s volleyball faced off at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The match between the 2 sides drew over 92,000 fans, which is the largest crowd to ever attend a women’s sports event.
With all the hype surrounding women’s college and pro sports alike, history is set to be made.
It is projected that women’s elite sports will bring in over $1 billion in revenue this year, a 300% increase from the 2021 evaluation.
This is a remarkable accomplishment by the women’s sports industry as a whole, further proving that women’s sports matter just as much as men’s do.
American skiing legend and part-owner of the women’s soccer team Utah Royals had this to say about the rise of women’s sports throughout the world: “It’s not a moment. It’s a movement, and it’s going to continue on and we’re going to continue to get more support”.