When most people picture a fan at a football match, they picture a man. And, chances are, they picture the players on that imaginary field as men too. But such automatic assumptions are crumbling.
Viewership and attendance records in women’s sport are being broken worldwide – in football. Basketball. Cycling. Even outside of women’s sport, women have gone from around 8% of F1’s viewership in 2017 to 41% today. 2024’s Superbowl saw the highest proportion of female viewership ever at 47.5%.
Many sports are rapidly approaching viewership gender parity. We are living in what could be called a golden age to be a female sports fan. However, the industry has seen golden ages come and go before – behind the scenes, investment remains muted and approaches cautious.
What lies behind this reluctance? Is this time different? And could a better understanding of female fandom help avoid the mistakes of the past and unlock unparalleled growth?
Sports, and most of the structures that surround them, were almost exclusively created to cater to men. Everything from game rules to stadium food to broadcast coverage have their historical roots in male consumption patterns and habits. Even a game like netball, designed for women, was created to be a version of basketball more appropriate to ‘female etiquette’. This background continues to cast a long shadow: it wasn’t until 2012 that we saw women compete in every sport on offer at the Olympics.
The implications of this history are clear in the diminished stature of women’s sport. But beyond that, it has also created certain invisible paradigms and assumptions around what a sports fan looks like and acts like. These have grown to form a default, unisex understanding of sports fandom.
However, there is a growing body of evidence that women don’t participate in fandom in the same way that men do. What that means for the sports industry is that it hasn’t failed to engage female fans because they don’t exist — it’s failed because it doesn’t understand how to reach them.
Many recognise the possible untapped value in female sports fandom. After all, women are the biggest and highest-spending consumer segment in the world. However, this potential has long been doubted for two reasons.
Firstly, female engagement with sport remains stubbornly below that of men, leading to a belief that women are inherently a less receptive audience. Men watch more sport, play more sport, and spend more on sport than women. They somehow even find time to watch more women’s sport than women. Explanations for this point to entrenched biological or sociocultural reasons.
Secondly, the potential value of female fans is seen as contingent on the success of women’s sport. The thinking goes like so – if women have teams and leagues of equal stature to cheer for, they will show similar levels of engagement and spend. However, women’s sport has demonstrated many ‘false dawns’ – spikes of interest that supposedly heralded the start of a new era, only for engagement to ebb away again.
Classic examples include the collapse of the Women’s United Soccer Association in 2003, the sharp decline of the Women’s Australian Football League (AFLW) since 2017, and the collapse of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) in 2019. Countless other leagues have struggled to stay afloat and turn a profit.
This historic lack of commercial returns is used to justify existing stereotypes that women fail to ‘show up’ in the way men do. In turn, it’s led to a long-standing reluctance to seriously court female fans or invest in women’s sport.
Take the Women’s World Cup. In 2023, sponsorship clocked in at $300M, just 18% of the amount raised for the Men’s World Cup in 2022. However, event viewership reached 2 billion, 40% of the total for the Men’s World Cup (and often hitting over 50-60% in higher-income markets.) The level of investment would have been more appropriate ten years ago, highlighting the investment lag and high level of caution on display.
When analysing a shortfall in demand, the fault is almost inevitably in the proposition – not the customer. Women don’t shop or consume media the same way men do, and strategies to market to them differ significantly in other industries. Why should sport be an exception to the rule?
Women consuming less sport may well be down to male demand patterns having shaped the default viewer experience, and the difficulty women’s sport has in being granted equal billing. These two factors go a long way to explaining the ‘boom and bust’ pattern of female fandom, where interest converges around major events only to dissipate from a lack of appropriate follow-up.
Certain developments are painting a picture that suggests that women’s fandom can be tapped into more reliably–with some already beginning to reap the rewards.
1) Broadcast visibility and streaming options
After the Women’s Soccer League in the UK moved onto BBC/Sky from a pay channel in 2021, 7.9m new viewers sampled games in the opening weeks—proof that discoverability changes behaviour. New watchers demonstrate sticky demand, too. 43% of new female viewers who watched the Women’s World Cup in 2023 went on to watch more events even weeks and months down the line.
Half the world away, the Women’s Asia Cup, a major women’s cricket tournament, has seen explosive growth in viewership, rising 126% between 2022 and 2024. Its availability and promotion on streaming platforms creates a level of accessibility that flips the script – women’s sport need no longer compete for primetime slots or schedule itself during undesirable times.
2) Women ownership and tailored venues
Historically, women’s teams have often been created as appendages of men’s teams – meaning budget decisions, sponsorship negotiations, and stadium operations are generally handled by the same executive team as the men’s side. This can lead to a lack of focused development, deprioritisation, or even extreme situations where the women’s team is cut because of financial difficulties in the men’s team.
Examples like Angel City FC in the US (also with majority female-led ownership) that are unattached to a male side show the potential difference, as they lead the US National Women’s Soccer League in commercial performance. Kansas City Current, also a new franchise in the NWSL, opened the world’s first purpose-built women’s pro stadium in 2024 – leading to the sold out tickets for every game and the best revenue results in the league.
Women’s sport is even carving its own niche in other areas – take The Sports Bra, the world’s first sports bar dedicated only to women’s sport. Founded in 2022 by Jenny Nguyen and already opening franchises in multiple cities, it stands as a strong indicator that demand is strong enough to support periphery businsess. It’s also attracted backing from Alexis Ohanian (who is also currently investing in a womens-only athletic meet.)
3) Inclusive, lifestyle brand partnerships
Teams such as Aston Martin in F1 have capitalised on the growing female interest by introducing partnerships with beauty and wellness brands like Glaize and Elemis. These collaborations signal an understanding that fan engagement can be multi-dimensional — combining the sport with lifestyle elements that resonate culturally.
Interactive paddock experiences and behind-the-scenes tours are being packaged alongside these partnerships, letting fans step inside the culture of the sport rather than simply watching it from the grandstand – recognising a desire for a different fan experience. These are then shared across social media, transforming the F1 weekend into something far more glamorous.
To find out, we put out a survey to some of the most passionate female sports fans in The Sense Network. From fans of things you would expect, like tennis and football, through the ones you might not, like cave diving and Hyrox, we found a number of distinctive themes that marked female fandom out from the conventional understanding.
Fandom is very often viewed as having a tribalistic aspect. Yet few of our respondents spoke of their passion or support for particular teams. Instead, they more often talked in broader terms about their love of particular sports as a whole.
“Personally, I think that women are more relaxed about their fandom and willing to “share” it across different teams and sports. There are of course diehard female fans who love and follow their team without exception, but most of the people I know just love sport generally.“
Emily, UK
The suggestion here is that women are more ‘omnivorous’ in their consumption of sport, and potentially more receptive to cross-sport collaborations. It also suggests that women are less invested in the ups and downs of particular teams, meaning teams may not be the most effective organisation method to reach female fans.
“My team losing is not going to put me in a mood or ruin my life. It seems like the outcomes have power over men, whereas I just enjoy watching anyway.”
Sam, USA
This difference in attitude is backed up by other research. In football, perhaps the most traditionally tribal sport, 34% of fans say they support no particular club vs 20% of men. Additionally, 41% support more than one team vs 24% of men.
While football was the cited sport overall (most respondents were sourced from Europe), fans of individual sports surprisingly outnumbered those of team sports. And, of this group, many chose to highlight their appreciation for individual player narratives over all other factors.
“I love to follow the cycling classics – The Tour, La Vuelta etc. To me it’s almost like a theatrical experience. I follow the riders through it, the hardship, the challenges and eventually the winning – or losing. I love getting to know these great sportsmen and women.”
Astrid, Denmark
Corroborating this, research has shown that women engage far more with behind-the-scenes storytelling and content showing player backgrounds. For example, F1 is one sport where female viewership has exploded in recent years – 3/4 new fans are women – and it is likely not a coincidence that so much F1 coverage has placed stories front and centre. Similar strategies have been applied by the NFL, which increased female viewership almost 10% in the 2023-2024 season.
For sports with an attendance component, rivalries between teams and in/out-group dynamics help create strong bonds between male fans. For our survey’s hockey, rugby and football fans, however, unwelcoming behaviour represented a blocker on attendance, and a primary motivator for attending women’s games instead.
“Women’s games attract a friendly and inclusive crowd while men’s matches are much more aggressive and hostile due to behaviour of the fans.”
Polly, UK
Outside of games, multiple respondents stressed the value of sport as something that brought friends and family together. A commonly repeated factor behind their fandom was also inspiration and motivation – elsewhere, research has shown 45% of women vs 36% of men cite inspiration as an important aspect of sport.
“I love the sound of baseball. It’s something I can have on while I’m working or doing whatever. And yes, I share it with some fan friends. We have dedicated text threads/social groups etc. Many of them I met years ago at games.”
Chris, USA
Several also mentioned being part of communities and engaging on social media – believing that differentiated them from male fans that they knew. While coverage of women’s sport on mainstream TV languishes at around 4-5%, overall coverage has risen to 15% in recent years driven by social media and streaming services.
“In my opinion, women sports fans are more active digitally. I always try to catch up on social media with what’s happening and what other fans are commenting. I think that male football fans rely more on TV and radio.”
Mariola, UK
Some of these preferences may shape women’s sport into something clearly distinct from men’s sport. But they also have an instructive influence on growth opportunities in sport right now.
If you’re looking to connect with female sports fans, whether you’re a team, a sponsor, a broadcaster, a merchandiser – or none of the above, we can help you identify growth opportunities and understand the cultural differences that separate it from the male orthodoxy in sport.
Here are just a few of our speculations about how sport could develop where women’s fandom is given equal consideration:
Could stadiums become more family friendly from the ground up with altered layouts, more toilets, and the ability to bring larger bags?
Could coverage benefit from having more focus on storylines than stats? Docuseries and behind-the-scenes interviews have driven previously unseen levels of female engagement.
Women’s sport has struggled with week-in, week-out match attendance. So what if leagues didn’t exist? And women’s matches took place at festival-like events with multiple teams?
With individual stories as a key draw, rather than players being locked into contracts and teams changing slowly, what if teams were re-drafted on an annual or biannual basis?
Sports clothing is typically limited by a team-focused lens, but there is a world beyond beanies and scarves. Could clothing brands make more lifestyle or fashion-forward apparel?
When community and the ‘day out’ matters most, why not have sporting events that merge genres, through collaborations with music or food festivals?
Brands appealing to male consumers are over-indexed in sports advertising. There is significant space for ethical, sustainable, and wellness-focused brands to find an audience.
Register your interest in a future webinar on sport and female fandom.
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