The world’s first stadium purpose-built for a women’s sports franchise opened in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday, March 16th as the new home of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current.
The venue, which was first announced in 2021, serves as another reminder of the surge women’s sports has seen in recent years. Deloitte estimates that in 2024, women’s elite sports will generate more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time – a 300% increase from 2021, and a study by SponsorUnited found that the number of sponsorship deals in women’s professional sports has increased by more than 22 percent year-over-year.
In 2023 alone, several records were set in women’s sports.
The FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup reportedly generated the most revenue in tournament history and was the most attended event in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
With the addition of two more teams in 2024, the NWSL signed the largest broadcasting deal in women’s sports in 2023 and set a league attendance record.
The WNBA’s New York Liberty hosted the largest crowd for a game in league history for Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at Barclays Center.
Perhaps the most significant women’s sports record that was broken in 2023 was when the University of Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team set a world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event.
Hosted in Memorial Stadium, the school’s football stadium, Volleyball Day in Nebraska attracted 92,003 fans, surpassing the previous world record of 91,648 fans set at a soccer match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg in 2022.
The support of women’s sports turned into a greater outcome than just an attendance record for the University. “The ripple effect is tremendous,” said Doug Ewald, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Associate AD at the University of Nebraska. “The economic impact for a typical home Saturday football weekend is $12 million to $13 million. For this event, the economic impact to the city of Lincoln, the state of Nebraska, was over $10 million.”
The social value of the day by itself added another $2 million, Ewald added. “To this day, it still keeps on giving.”
The attendance record landed on the anniversary of a major milestone in women’s sports. “When we set this up, it was really a celebration of 50 years of Title IX,” said Ewald. Title IX protects students from sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. “Let’s be honest. There’s not a better way to celebrate our women here in Nebraska – and across the entire country – but to set a world record.”
The excitement around women’s sports was evident during Volleyball Day in Nebraska, and it’s equally as pronounced in the Kansas City Current’s new stadium investment.
“As the first stadium purpose-built for a professional women’s sports team, CPKC Stadium is a proof of concept in many ways,” said Chris Long, co-owner of the Current. “It will prove how investment and stadium ownership is the key to success for women’s sports. It provides the revenue streams needed to reinvest in players and the fan experience. We are the first, but we won’t be the last.”
The Current’s stadium isn’t alone positioning women’s sports for a strong 2024.
Globally, the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will feature an equal number of male and female athletes for the first time ever. Additionally, two new women’s professional sports leagues, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWSL) and the Pro Volleyball Federation, already launched in January. The latter set an attendance record for women’s professional volleyball in its first match.
From world records to landmark stadiums, the surge of women’s sports isn’t slowing in 2024.