Today’s guest column is from WNBA and Athletes Unlimited basketball player Lexie Brown.
I remember the first time I saw someone wearing my WNBA jersey, when I was playing for the Connecticut Sun my rookie year. Unfortunately for that incredible fan of mine, I was traded to the Minnesota Lynx the very next season. That was the first time I was introduced to the enduring issue of merchandise availability and production of women’s sports apparel and jerseys.
We are in the middle of a women’s sports renaissance, and the WNBA is front and center. Players’ social media accounts are blowing up, fans are filling our arenas, and seemingly every week another TV viewership record is set. I actually attended Game 3 of the 2023 WNBA Finals in New York and was blown away at the energy in Barclays. It was the perfect way to complete a historic season that was the most-watched in 20 years.
There is no question that our loyal fans have been supporting us diligently and consistently—we see that every game day when we have an arena full of women’s basketball fans—but the merchandise supply is still not yet meeting the demand.
A report conducted by Klarna and Sports Innovation Lab showed that the women’s sports merchandise market is worth an estimated $4 billion per year. The time is now to act on this exponential growth period, but there is a lot of money being left on the table. I am told far too often that our jerseys and merchandise are almost impossible to buy. It is a frustrating cycle that is being made obvious because of the increased visibility of women’s basketball. The same way you can’t support something you can’t see, which was long a problem for the women’s game, you can’t purchase something that’s not available to be bought.
The recent success and improved visibility of the game is something to be celebrated; however, inequity still is extremely prevalent, with only 9% of sponsorship dollars allocated to women’s sports. Outside of the chronic need for more marketing and sponsorship dollars, there must also be an increase in the overall investment into women’s sports on and off the court.
I recently read a quote from Robert Müller von Vultejus, chief growth officer at Sportfive, stating that there is no comparable force on the women’s side to a LeBron James and his reach. I do not disagree with his statement, but my issue lies in the fact that the people making these decisions and allocating these dollars tend to use a very extreme example of success to discuss the lack of parity in the sponsorship space. It’s an unfair way to view the growth of women’s sports, and quite frankly a cop-out when it comes to addressing why it has taken this long to invest in women and women’s sports.
In a landmark agreement, the WNBA recently renewed partnerships with The Walt Disney Company, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal. This is a testament to the demand and interest from women’s basketball fans globally. With 40% of the world’s athletes being women, only 15% of sports media is granted to them.
It is vitally important that not only are women athletes celebrated for their athletic prowess, but also compensated for their personalities and marketability. It makes a difference when we turn on the television or scroll through our phones and we see ourselves being represented.
One of my favorite things about sports is seeing a player’s or team’s story, their high and lows, and ultimately their success through their work ethic. Too often in the past, those stories have been exclusively shown through a male lens for male consumption. The 2024 Paris Olympics was the ultimate example of how much things have changed, with 50% of the Olympians being women.
The demand for women athletes to be the faces and ambassadors for companies and products has reached an all-time high, and the ceiling seems to be infinite. The era of proclaiming that “women’s sports are coming” is over. Women’s sports have arrived. Now, the goods must follow.
Lexie Brown is a professional basketball player for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and Athletes Unlimited. She is the current chairwoman of the AU pro basketball player executive committee.
