{"id":279305,"date":"2020-12-21T00:06:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T05:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=279305"},"modified":"2020-12-21T00:06:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T05:06:09","slug":"what-pro-sports-should-learn-from-resilient-women-athletes-post-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/21\/what-pro-sports-should-learn-from-resilient-women-athletes-post-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"What pro sports should learn from resilient women athletes post-pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Marketing has largely positioned women\u2019s sport as the \u201cright thing to do\u201d as opposed to an exciting investment opportunity, and fans are treated as monolithic. The resulting narrative has left the women\u2019s sport market both under-served and undervalued. (File Photo: Nicolas Hoizey\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elite women\u2019s sports are predicted to generate US$1 billion in revenue in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With just a fraction of the investment dollars and comparatively paltry marketing and promotional budgets compared to those allocated to men\u2019s sports, this is conceivably a conservative estimate. As sport emerges from the challenges imposed by COVID-19, women\u2019s sports are becoming a lucrative business opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe us? You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

Despite record-setting momentum, the sports industry has continued to ignore the economic viability of women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

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\nRead more:
\nWomen’s hockey has avid fans but needs a corporate cash infusion<\/a>
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Many decisions are still based on outdated assumptions. Marketing has largely positioned women\u2019s sport as the \u201cright thing to do\u201d as opposed to an exciting investment opportunity, and fans are treated as monolithic. The resulting narrative has left the women\u2019s sport market both under-served and undervalued.<\/p>\n

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Sports fans, however, are telling a different story.<\/p>\n

A Nielsen study<\/a> found that 84 per cent of general sports enthusiasts of all genders are interested in women\u2019s sport. If more women\u2019s sports were available to watch, 46 per cent of fans indicated they\u2019d tune in.<\/p>\n

Giving fans what they want<\/h2>\n

What happens when you give sports fans what they want? The 2019 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup drew 1.12 billion viewers<\/a>. Viewership for the WNBA this season was up 68 per cent<\/a>; media coverage of their championship finals increased 15 per cent.<\/p>\n

National Women\u2019s Soccer League (NWSL) viewership swelled 493 per cent for their 2020 Challenge Cup and 500 per cent year over year<\/a>, LPGA viewership increased 21 per cent and this year\u2019s U.S. Open tennis final between Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka averaged 2.1 million viewers on ESPN.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind this was during a time when many sports were competing simultaneously and ratings for the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL all declined significantly<\/a>. What\u2019s more, women athletes have also been at the forefront of advocacy for social<\/a> and political change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bottom line? Women are doing more with less.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re finding innovative solutions during these most challenging times. They\u2019re seizing the moment and exceeding expectations. They\u2019re putting on a master class in resilience \u2014 because for the past several decades, that\u2019s how they\u2019ve been conditioned to do business.<\/p>\n

The changing sport landscape<\/h2>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented disruption. While the sports sector adapts to these new and uncertain conditions, resilience as a coping mechanism is serving women\u2019s sports well.<\/p>\n

Through this lens, the distinguishing qualities of persistence, adaptability and agility are assets that women in sport have been fine-tuning for years. As the world of sport continues to mount its recovery efforts and the sports landscape evolves, we argue this innately gives women a leg up in the new normal.<\/p>\n

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Social Engagement Rates Across Professional Sports.<\/span>
\nWinsights x Zoomph<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And make no mistake. The sports landscape is in the midst of a revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gen Z<\/a> has rapidly become the most influential generational cohort, commanding US$3.2 trillion in purchasing power. This demographic has high expectations around diversity and inclusion and they are following sports in very different ways than their predecessors.<\/p>\n

With a preference for highlights on Instagram, they\u2019re more likely to follow an athlete than a team, and the role of sport in their social life has redefined their fandom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Layered on top of this, we know that women now control a third of the world\u2019s wealth, adding US$5 trillion to the wealth pool<\/a> globally every year. While traditional sport properties are struggling, women\u2019s sports have the flexibility to be nimble and adapt to the new, increasingly diverse sport environment.<\/p>\n

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Something to cheer about: breaking gender norms.<\/span>
\n(Twitter Marketing 2020)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re already seeing early evidence<\/a> of this, with a 468 per cent increase in tweet volume around representation and equality<\/a>. Advertising featuring women in sport is perceived as 148 per cent more empowering than similar ads with men.<\/p>\n

Twitter has also found sports ads featuring women held viewers\u2019 attention for an average of 6.5 seconds and drove 4.8 times higher ad recall than a control group. When women were featured in non-traditional gender roles, recall was 6.3 times higher.<\/p>\n

If we consider merchandise as a proxy for demand, a whole new series of supporting metrics emerge. Nike\u2019s 2019 U.S. Women\u2019s National Team home jersey became the No. 1 selling soccer jersey<\/a> ever, men\u2019s or women\u2019s. The WNBA\u2019s now-famed<\/a> orange hoodie has nine million impressions<\/a> on social media, 238,000 engagements and US$250,000 in social media value. According to the online retailer Fanatics, the orange hoodie was the best-selling item across its website in August.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pandemic disruptions<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re currently witnessing a continuous series of disruptions exposing the widening gaps in society accelerated by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In sport, these disruptions have exposed the weaknesses of the traditional sports model. As we look towards the future of sport, COVID-19 may well be the catalyst for change that women\u2019s sports have been waiting for.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Women in sport understand that success is not easy, convenient or comfortable because it never has been. They\u2019re accustomed to coming up with constructive solutions that showcase persistence.<\/p>\n

As the sports market reemerges in a post-pandemic world, women\u2019s sports may be strategically positioned to not only better adapt to the rapid changes brought about by COVID-19 \u2014 they may be better prepared to lead the way forward in the development of a new model for sport. The future may be unwritten, but the time to invest in it is now.\"The<\/p>\n

Katie Lebel<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University<\/a><\/em>; Ann Pegoraro<\/a>, Lang Chair in Sport Management, Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph<\/a><\/em>; Dunja Antunovic<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Sport Sociology, University of Minnesota<\/a><\/em>; Nancy Lough<\/a>, Professor of Educational Psychology & Higher Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas<\/a><\/em>, and Nicole M. LaVoi<\/a>, Director, Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, University of Minnesota<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elite women\u2019s sports are predicted to generate US$1 billion in revenue in 2021. With just a fraction of the investment …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports","mauthors-katie-lebel-ryerson-university","mauthors-ann-pegoraro-university-of-guelph","mauthors-dunja-antunovic-university-of-minnesota","mauthors-nancy-lough-university-of-nevada-las-vegas","mauthors-nicole-m-lavoi-university-of-minnesota","mauthors-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279308,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279305\/revisions\/279308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}