Sports Business

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The GIST: Forbes recently released its list of the top paid athletes in this year’s WWC, ranging from $1.1M to $7.1M throughout the top 15. Nine of the top 10 play for the USWNT, signaling the vast opportunity for global investment in women’s soccer players internationally and the importance of fighting for equal pay.

The earnings: One noticeable trend is the majority of earnings come from off-the-field deals (i.e. not from pro soccer contracts). No. 1 Alex Morgan and and No. 2 Megan Rapinoe both make $6.3M from these sponsorships, while the top non-American, No. 3 Alexia Putellas from Spain, earns $3.2M off the field.

• Rounding out the top five is No. 4 Trinity Rodman with $2.3M total earnings ($800K on field, $1.5K off), and the three players tied for fifth — Crystal Dunn, Julie Ertz, and Sophia Smith — all make about twice as much off the pitch.

• The list of highest-paid male soccer players from 2023 sings a different tune. Although superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s off-the-field total almost doubled his on-the-field earnings ($90M vs. $46M), new–MLSer Lionel Messi earned the same for both ($65M), and No. 3 Kylian Mbappé saw significantly more money on the pitch than off it ($100M vs. $20M).

The brands: With 27 sponsorship deals, Alex Morgan was the most endorsed female athlete of 2022 (more than any NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL or MLS player), with support from brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Google, Chipotle, and AT&T. Megan Rapinoe scored brand deals from companies like Samsung, BodyArmor, Hulu, Visa, Nike, and Victoria’s Secret.

The case for women athletes: Women’s sports fans put their money where their mouth is — a 2021 study showed they’re 25% more likely to buy sponsored products than men’s sports fans.

• In 2019, when Visa became an official USWNT partner, the company saw a 2,700% increase in brand engagement and affinity. Furthermore, USWNT jersey sponsor Nike notched a 500% increase in women’s jersey sales that same year.

• Women athletes tend to have better social engagement as well. In the NIL era, female student-athletes saw four times the total audience engagement and seven times more engagement per deal than their male counterparts. Top marks.

Zooming out: While the difference between men’s and women’s off-the-field earnings is substantial, brands should see it as less of a gap and more of an opportunity. The surface for brand activations and investments in women’s sports has barely been scratched in the U.S., and the sky's the limit globally. Next step: make the sky the point of view.

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.

As Disney continues to look for a strategic partner to take an equity stake in ESPN, the media conglomerate reportedly initiated preliminary talks with the NFL, NBA, and MLB recently.

• Disney CEO Bob Iger has made it clear the company will be open-minded about potential investment partners. Still, the idea of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or MLB head Rob Manfred having a say in ESPN content makes us shudder.

In response to the 2023 World Championships barring women from competing in the icosathlon, gender-equality ally Parity sponsored an “Ico For All” championship in Pittsburgh this past weekend, where men and women competed side-by-side in the event. Double decathlon for the double win.

On the heels of an impressive U.S. Women’s Open, last week’s Dana Open putt up another set of huge numbers. The final round on CBS delivered more than 1M viewers, a 212% increase YoY, making it the most-viewed non-major 2023 telecast so far, and the third most-viewed overall.

🇺🇸 The USWNT vs. Vietnam match averaged 5.26M viewers — including 11M Americans for all or part of it — and was the second most-watched group stage telecast on English-language TV.

⚽️ Apartments.com teamed up with Roku’s Women’s SportsZone to provide easier access to all 64 WWC matches. Upgrading.

👻 Snapchat announced its WWC activations, including themed Bitmoji outfits and a USWNT tracker lens to keep fans updated on match results.

🏎 Danica Patrick hosted the first-ever F1 broadcast aimed at kids, and the “kid show graphics” seemed to be enjoyed by all ages on social media.

👾 Following last week’s FC 24 reveal (EA Sports’ first post–FIFA football game), the gaming company is defending its decision to allow players to face women and men footballers against each other in its “Ultimate Team” mode.

📺 The Pac-12 conference still has no answer on a media rights deal one year after negotiations started. Cue the Titanic meme.

🏟 Bay FC will play home matches at PayPal Park during its 2024 inaugural season and invest more than $3M into a standalone facility for game days.

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