She’ll be right
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
Hello!
Caitlin Clark has already left an indelible mark on basketball history, but the Hawkeyes want to ensure future fans will always remember her impact. This weekend, Iowa etched Clark’s name and number into its hardwood — right in the spot where she made the historic basket to take over the NCAA women’s basketball all-time scoring record. Let’s go, women.
NCAA women’s basketball
📈 Growing, growing, gone
The GIST: After a record-breaking women’s March Madness in 2023, the popularity of women’s college basketball — and namely aforementioned Iowa star Caitlin Clark — keeps on growing, but the NCAA is still playing catch up. The Big Ten women’s basketball tournament officially sold out this weekend, two whole weeks before the event tips off. Holding all the tickets.
The demand: For the first time, all seven sessions of the Big Ten’s women’s basketball tourney have sold out. The host venue, Minneapolis’ Target Center, boasts a 20K capacity, with over 109K fans expected to attend throughout the entire tournament.
- While Big Ten school Iowa is currently ranked No. 4 nationally, it tends to come first in TV ratings thanks to Clark. The Hawkeyes have broken two viewership records and have four of the six most-watched WBB games this season, all of which surpassed 1M viewers.
The disparity: Even though ticket demand is booming (with high price points), the NCAA hasn’t been able to accommodate the current demand. Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse will hold just under 20K fans for this year’s women’s Final Four tournament, while Glendale’s State Farm Stadium can host 73K for the men’s.
- And beyond venue capacity, the NCAA has held back the growth of the women’s game with scheduling conflicts and restrictive sponsorship rules. Boo.
The takeaway: There’s clearly massive demand for women’s college basketball, and the NCAA hasn’t fully met it under its present structure. But some change is happening this year — an improved ESPN deal and the addition of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament should hopefully be signals of even bigger things to come.
Women’s soccer
🇦🇺 She’ll be right
The GIST: The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) had a profound economic and social impact for host country Australia, according to a recent Football Australia report. Here are some key numbers from the Land Down Under.
🤝 $867.5M: The 2023 WWC’s economic impact on Australia, with an earlier FA report also indicating the tournament broke even for the first time ever thanks to $570M in revenue. Quite the statistic, considering international sporting events are often well-documented money pits due to infrastructure costs. Australia only had to rebuild one venue, so costs were low while hype was high.
📺 $1.82B: The media value generated by the Matildas, which was also declared Australia’s most valuable sports brand and its word of the year. No surprises here: 70% of Australia’s population tuned into the tourney, helping the Matildas’ semifinal match become the most-watched national broadcast in decades.
🌏 1.9M: The record attendance number for the tournament as it drew both local and global interest. About 86.7K of attendees were international visitors, providing additional tourism value for Australia. This popularity also carried into the A-League Women’s season, where games experienced a 123% jump in average attendance YoY and streaming viewership increased 120% YoY.
🏥 $212.5M: The decrease in Australian healthcare costs due to increased rates of physical activity, which the report ties directly to the WWC inspiring Australians to be more active. Keep it movin’.
💰 $261M: The amount of federal and state funds directed to FA’s Legacy ’23 program, which was created to facilitate grassroots soccer participation among women and girls. While most of it has been used to develop soccer-specific infrastructure, 33% of funds were allocated to other sports.
Together With The GIST
🎙️ Sound on
If you love The GIST’s newsletters, you’re going to love our twice-weekly podcast, The GIST of It. Hosted by besties Ellen Hyslop and Stephanie Rotz, it’s the women-produced and -hosted sports pod you’ve been waiting for. Talk about a golazo.
El and Steph dive into current sports topics and how they intersect with society and pop culture. They cover everything from season previews to calling out the sexist BS that’s rampant across the industry.
Join the conversation by subscribing to The GIST of It wherever you tune into podcasts. Happy listening.
🏛️ Federal judge says NCAA can’t enforce NIL rules
Last Friday, a federal judge granted the preliminary injunction sought by the attorneys general of Virginia and Tennessee to prevent the NCAA from enforcing any NIL restrictions. The initial suit, filed in late January, asserts the NCAA is violating antitrust law by preventing schools from using NIL as a “pay-for-play” recruiting tactic.
- Now that the NCAA can’t enforce these policies, April’s transfer portal will likely be affected. Athletic departments and media companies will be able to offer prospective athletes NIL deals in order to recruit them to a certain school, meaning the best of the best can be financially courted by universities willing to pay talent accordingly. May the best school win.
🏀 Athletes Unlimited (AU) announces full basketball broadcast schedule
After AU expanded its existing deal with ESPN, the pro sports enterprise announced the full broadcasting schedule for its upcoming 24-game basketball season last week. Eighteen free games will air on the WNBA App, ESPN+ will carry six exclusive matchups, 11 games will be available through Bally Sports, and local Dallas station KTXA-TV will air seven fixtures.
💸 Warner Bros. Discovery is the first major U.S. media conglomerate to generate a full-year profit from its streaming platform, despite a $400M Q4 net loss that prompted a 10% stock drop. Ouch.
🥒 Pickleball equipment brand JOOLA partnered with WNBA star Jewell Loyd to help promote the sport to a broader audience by featuring athletes from other sports.
⚽ Manchester City extended its sponsorship with Qualtrics as the English football club’s official experience management software partner.
👟 New Balance reported $6.5B in 2023 sales, a 23% YoY increase that was driven by brand activations, an uptick in online customers, and signature athletes like Coco Gauff.
🏟️ The March 3 WSL match between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will mark the first time an all-women grounds team will prepare the pitch at Emirates Stadium. We can do it.
Here’s what has GIST HQ buzzing:
🎨 What to follow
Art But Make it Sports on X. Laughs guaranteed.
🏈 What to watch
The Dynasty: New England Patriots. It’s a close, behind the scenes look at the NFL team everyone loves (or loves to hate) and their historic 20-year run during the Brady-Belichick-Kraft era.
💇 What to shop
Cécred. Beyoncé’s newly announced hair care line is up and running, featuring treatment that promises to moisturize, strengthen, and boost shine for all hair types and textures.
Today's email was brought to you by Aryanna Prasad and Briana Ekanem. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Editing by Lindsay Jost. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam and Lisa Minutillo. Ads by Lauren Tuiskula, Dee Lab, and Alexis Allison. Managing edits by Molly Potter and Ellen Hyslop.