• Home
  • Politics
  • Health
  • World
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
What's Hot

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

May 29, 2025

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Saturday, May 31
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
  • Home
  • Politics

    Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man

    October 24, 2023

    Woman makes disturbing discovery after her boyfriend chases away home intruder who stabbed him

    October 24, 2023

    Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly support Israel’s war on Hamas, but younger Americans defend Hamas

    October 24, 2023

    Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut off engines midflight on Alaska Airlines

    October 23, 2023

    Leaked audio of Shelia Jackson Lee abusively cursing staffer

    October 22, 2023
  • Health

    Disparities In Cataract Care Are A Sorry Sight

    October 16, 2023

    Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand

    October 16, 2023

    Long-term steroid use should be a last resort

    October 16, 2023

    Rite Aid Files For Bankruptcy With More ‘Underperforming Stores’ To Close

    October 16, 2023

    Who’s Still Dying From Complications Related To Covid-19?

    October 16, 2023
  • World

    New York Democrat Dan Goldman Accuses ‘Conservatives in the South’ of Holding Rallies with ‘Swastikas’

    October 13, 2023

    IDF Ret. Major General Describes Rushing to Save Son, Granddaughter During Hamas Invasion

    October 13, 2023

    Black Lives Matter Group Deletes Tweet Showing Support for Hamas 

    October 13, 2023

    AOC Denounces NYC Rally Cheering Hamas Terrorism: ‘Unacceptable’

    October 13, 2023

    L.A. Prosecutors Call Out Soros-Backed Gascón for Silence on Israel

    October 13, 2023
  • Business

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

    May 29, 2025

    ‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

    May 29, 2025

    DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

    May 28, 2025

    John Deere Announces $20 Billion Plan To Build Up American Manufacturing

    May 28, 2025

    EV Startup Promised To Cut China Ties — Then Reportedly Shared US Data Anyway

    May 27, 2025
  • Finance

    Ending China’s De Minimis Exception Brings 3 Benefits for Americans

    April 17, 2025

    The Trump Tariff Shock Should Push Indonesia to Reform Its Economy

    April 17, 2025

    Tariff Talks an Opportunity to Reinvigorate the Japan-US Alliance

    April 17, 2025

    How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War

    April 16, 2025

    The US Flip-flop Over H20 Chip Restrictions 

    April 16, 2025
  • Tech

    Cruz Confronts Zuckerberg on Pointless Warning for Child Porn Searches

    February 2, 2024

    FTX Abandons Plans to Relaunch Crypto Exchange, Commits to Full Repayment of Customers and Creditors

    February 2, 2024

    Elon Musk Proposes Tesla Reincorporates in Texas After Delaware Judge Voids Pay Package

    February 2, 2024

    Tesla’s Elon Musk Tops Disney’s Bob Iger as Most Overrated Chief Executive

    February 2, 2024

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Grew $84 Billion in 2023 as Pedophiles Target Children on Facebook, Instagram

    February 2, 2024
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
Home»Sports»Women’s Sports Are Raking in Investments. The Final Four Shows Why.
Sports

Women’s Sports Are Raking in Investments. The Final Four Shows Why.

April 1, 2023No Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Women’s Sports Are Raking in Investments. The Final Four Shows Why.
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

I’d waited all season for this. Watching from courtside during the Seattle regional last weekend, I finally learned what the Caitlin Clark experience is all about. Dagger 3-pointers, of course. But also one-hand passes streaked to every corner of the court. Slithering dribble-drives past stunned defenders. And more rebounds and sprinting layups than I could count.

During Iowa’s 97-83 win over powerhouse Louisville in the round of 8, Clark dominated: 41 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds.

“It felt pretty powerful,” Clark said after the game, smiling slyly.

Powerful.

That’s what the women’s game is right now. The popularity of a sport often rises on the strength of story, on narratives that propel the game forward and compel us to watch. This year’s N.C.A.A. tournament is loaded with them, along with the talent and high stakes that give those narratives meaning.

Clark followed up her performance with another 41-point game in the Final Four to hand South Carolina its first loss of the season. This week Clark was named national player of the year, supplanting South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, the 6-foot-5 forward who has produced plenty of memorable moments while leading her team to three straight Final Fours and the 2022 national championship.

On Sunday, Clark and Iowa enter the national championship game to face Louisiana State, the exciting No. 3-seed with the do-it-all forward Angel Reese and a fiery, pink-boa-wearing coach, Kim Mulkey, whose outfits would make Elton John swoon.

The power of the women’s game for narrative and high-stakes, compelling play has been there for years. But it hasn’t always been presented with proper attention. Women’s basketball has been part of a $34 million broadcast contract bundling all N.C.A.A. championships other than football and men’s basketball in the same deal.

See also  18-Year-Old High School Star Athlete Dies After Collapsing at Practice

Change could soon be on the way: This week, as the N.C.A.A. closed in on a decision about its next broadcast contract, several women’s coaches argued that it is high time for the association to sell the rights to the women’s tournament separately, potentially providing a financial windfall in the range of $81 million to $112 million per year, by one estimate.

“It should happen,” said Dawn Staley, South Carolina’s superlative head coach. “We’re at that place where we’re in high demand. I do believe women’s basketball can stand on its own and be a huge revenue-producing sport that could do, to a certain extent, what men’s basketball has done.”

After finally beginning to have their tournament games broadcast and streamed as artfully as their male counterparts, the popularity of women’s college basketball is surging.

Attendance is up, way up, at this year’s N.C.A.A. tournament.

So are broadcast ratings. Iowa’s regional final with Louisville collected an eye-popping 2.49 million viewers, larger than any of this season’s N.B.A. games on ESPN. The audience for round of 16 games rose 73 percent compared to last season and set a record for total minutes watched.

But this is about more than basketball and sports within the confines of the United States. What we’re witnessing during March Madness is symbolic of a steady shift in the popularity of women’s sports throughout much of the world.

“This isn’t just a moment,” said Cheryl Cooky, a Purdue professor who studies the gender divide in sports. “It’s more than that. It’s the cumulative effect of a decades-long struggle for equality and recognition. We’re at this kind of tipping point of a new era, and the momentum is so great that it cannot be stopped.”

See also  'Cheers' Reunion: Cast Honor Kirstie Alley, Reflect on Show's End

Starting in the 1970s, tennis was the first professional women’s sport to receive wide-scale acceptance and produce multimillion dollar wealth for its players.

Then along came the W.N.B.A. in the 1990s. Over the last 20 years it has bloomed from a start-up to a league with so-called superteams and recognizable stars.

Other sports have the same aspirations, and are gaining steam.

It’s the National Women’s Soccer League, laying a firm foundation for women’s professional soccer in the United States.

It’s 87,000 fans, jamming London’s Wembley Stadium last July for the Women’s European Championship final between England and Germany, a record for the men’s and women’s tournament. It’s 25,000 in the house at Newcastle United last year for a fourth-tier game in the English women’s professional league.

When New Zealand’s women’s rugby team made the World Cup final in 2022, it played before a sellout home crowd of 40,000, doubling the previous finals record.

Female boxers and mixed martial artists were a popular sideshow in the not-too-distant past. These days they are often the show.

I could go on, but you get the point. Investors sure do, and they’re coming armed with cash, the lifeblood of any sport trying to gain favor with fans.

Right now, a clutch of cities — Nashville; Oakland, Calif.; and Toronto to name three — are hoping for new W.N.B.A. franchises, buoyed, perhaps, by the recent valuation of the Seattle Storm at a league-record $151 million.

In India, broadcast rights for premier league cricket games recently sold for roughly $117 million.

Betting on women’s sports is a new frontier in sports investing, according to Kara Nortman, a Los Angeles-based venture capitalist whose company, Monarch Collective, focuses on buttressing women’s sports with game-changing investment dollars.

See also  Jim Harbaugh's Lawyer Issues Statement Amid Sign-Stealing Accusations

“When I decided to focus on sports, I asked myself initially, ‘Should it be all sports or women’s?’” said Nortman, a co-founder of Angel City Football Club, Los Angeles’s N.W.S.L. team, which averaged a league-leading 19,000 fans last year in its inaugural season.

“I came to this realization — plenty of people invest in men’s sports. It’s harder to have an impact there from a dollar standpoint. But in women’s sports, there’s a huge financial and cultural opportunity to make a difference, drive returns, and get people to pay attention.”

With the national championship game at hand, they are paying attention now, fans new to the women’s game and longtime die-hards, together engrossed by a powerful new chapter in an unfolding story.

final Investments Raking Shows Sports Womens
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

How Chinese Investments Are Reshaping Africa’s Steel Industry

April 7, 2025

Gold Plot Auction Heightens Focus on Chinese Investments in Uzbekistan

March 3, 2025

More Companies Looking To Quietly Roll Back DEI Efforts Under Trump, Survey Shows

February 26, 2025

101 International Women’s Day Quotes for Inspiration, Motivation and Empowerment

February 6, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

‘Buchecha’ wants to rely on more than just his jiu-jitsu against ‘Reug Reug’

July 21, 2023

JPMorgan Asset Says Markets Are Right to Bet Fed Cuts Are Coming

May 17, 2023

Tornado damage at Pfizer’s North Carolina plant was mostly at warehouse, CEO says

July 22, 2023

Lights Out in Pakistan as Energy-saving Move Backfires

March 9, 2023
Don't Miss

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

Business May 29, 2025

Consumers’ Research issued a “Woke Alert” on Thursday warning American shoppers that three European companies…

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025

John Deere Announces $20 Billion Plan To Build Up American Manufacturing

May 28, 2025
About
About

This is your World, Tech, Health, Entertainment and Sports website. We provide the latest breaking news straight from the News industry.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Categories
  • Business (4,136)
  • Entertainment (4,220)
  • Finance (3,202)
  • Health (1,938)
  • Lifestyle (1,645)
  • Politics (3,084)
  • Sports (4,036)
  • Tech (2,006)
  • Uncategorized (4)
  • World (3,944)
Our Picks

Republican Congressman Calls For General Mark Milley To Be ‘Hung’

September 25, 2023

Defense Leaders Paint Cheery Picture on Ukraine After Pentagon Leaks

April 24, 2023

German regulator to send special monitor to Deutsche Bank, Handelsblatt reports

October 2, 2023
Popular Posts

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

May 29, 2025

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025
© 2025 Patriotnownews.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.