It’s payday
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
TGIF!
The Soccer Tournament is hitting the pitch for its third annual tournament this weekend. Last year, the international tourney featured a women’s bracket for the first time, which has now expanded from eight teams to 16. Newcomers include KC Current II, the local amateur affiliate team with top collegiate and high school talent. Current-ly obsessed.
Women’s sports
💸 It’s payday
The GIST: This week, data insights platform SponsorUnited (SU) shared new intel with The GIST about revenue generation in the WNBA and NWSL. After comparing revenue and existing deals, the findings illustrate the leagues’ immense YoY growth while still underlining the remaining gap when compared to men’s sports. Moving the needle.
The details: Using its AI–powered sponsorship transparency tool called SPND, SU found that in 2024, WNBA teams generated $76M in sponsorship revenue through 551 deals, while NWSL squads hauled in $75M through 445 deals. That’s an average deal size of $138K in the WNBA and $169K in the NWSL.
- Although the two leagues nearly brought in the same amount of revenue, the NWSL did it through significantly fewer deals by attracting heavier spenders such as Ally.
The growth: Last year, SU found WNBA teams averaged 42 deals, an 8% YoY boost and a 43% increase since 2022. The NWSL averaged 35 deals per team in 2023, a massive 22% YoY jump. And overall, both the WNBA and NWSL saw a 19% YoY increase in the number of deals last year.
- Of course, the sponsorships aren’t always even across teams: The Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics lead W teams with 65 deals each, a 71% and 51% YoY increase, respectively.
The context: While this marks exponential growth for the women’s game, the men’s side is growing too and benefits from a decades-long head start. In March, SU’s SPND platform calculated the average NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, or MLS team generates $51M in sponsorship revenue. While this is double their $26M average a decade ago, their progression was slower but more substantial compared to women’s leagues.
The takeaway: Men’s sports are a lucrative space for advertisers to reach broad audiences, but women’s sports provide a lower threshold for entry and outsized returns. Advertisers shelled out $244M to activate in women’s sports last year, a 139% YoY increase.
- While increased sponsorship revenue in these leagues shows where sponsors are allocating their spend, it also indicates where marketers are scouting out space to reach their intended audiences. Hopping on the bandwagon.
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🍺 AUSL partners with women’s sports bars through first-of-its-kind partnership
The new pro softball league — which tees off tomorrow — exclusively told The GIST that it’s launching the AU Women’s Sports Bar Alliance, the first formal partnership between a women’s sports league and the burgeoning network of women’s sports bars across the country. So far, sixteen bars are participating, including Portland’s The Sports Bra and newcomers in Chicago and Omaha.
- AUSL will host exclusive watch parties, offer patrons custom swag, and ensure AUSL games are broadcast in the bars all season long. Cheers to that.
💡 Rank + Rally facilitates NWSL merch orders through new dedicated warehouse
This week, retail brand Rank + Rally entered an intriguing partnership with the NWSL that entails dedicating a new 10K-square-foot warehouse in Chicago to fulfill NWSLShop.com orders. While we’ve seen companies like Amazon facilitate the logistics of hosting NWSL merch, lending IRL operations represents an interesting way a retail brand can partner with a sports league.
👀 NWSL introduces intraleague loans, financial assistance to expansion teams
The NWSL introduced the concept of intraleague loans yesterday, which allows NWSL players to be loaned internally to other teams (with player consent). Though the NWSL and MLS have sent players to international leagues in the past, the idea of an intraleague loan is fairly new.
- The NWSL also announced that since players moved to eliminate drafts, expansion teams in Denver and Boston will have access to $1M in allocation money to build their rosters.
🚗 Honda joins LA28 as a founding partner
Since Tokyo 2020, several Japanese sponsors have exited the Olympic and Paralympic Games — but not Honda. This week, the car manufacturer became an LA28 founding partner, the Olympic planning committee's first founding partner deal since 2021 as it has struggled to land big names.
- The committee is still hoping to secure $2.5B in domestic corporate sponsorship by 2028, which is harder after Toyota didn’t renew its $835M IOC deal.
✅ Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer told Sports Business Journal that the bank is expected to come very close to achieving its 50/50 Pledge this year and certainly will by 2026, a year ahead of schedule.
👟 Chicago Sky star Angel Reese debuted her first player-exclusive Reebok kicks after revealing her signature logo with the brand. Of course she has a shoe.
📺 South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley is joining the CBS Sports analyst roster as she heads a new WNBA pregame show.
🏒 The PWHL’s two expansion teams are already poaching top talent, with Sarah Nurse heading to PWHL Vancouver and Hilary Knight shipping off to PWHL Seattle. So much to process.
🧠 U.S. Olympians Laurie Hernandez, Skylar Diggins, and Chaunté Lowe collaborated with the Ad Council on national PSAs about mental health.
📱 Nike plans to launch “Toma El Juego,” a new street soccer platform catering to LA youth with tournaments and local experiences.
🥎 NCAA Women’s College World Series finalist Texas Tech spent $3.6M on its softball program in 2023–2024, a significant bump from the $1.7M the school spent five years earlier. Batter up.
Peep our squad’s MVPs (Most Valuable Picks):
👟 What to wear
The Nike x Veneda Carter Air Max Muse drop, launching soon and built for sporty fashionistas. Feminine, futuristic, and fierce.
💧 Who to learn about
This runner-turned-eco-inventor who replaced thousands of single-use race cups with reusable silicone ones. Saving the planet, one sip at a time.
⚾️ What to check out
Adidas’ mental health collab with NCAA baseball players and The Hidden Opponent. The “Together We Face” capsule is more than merch, it’s a message.
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