A glam dunk

The GIST: The WNBA Finals are set, meaning the locations and dates are also finally locked in. New data from the W’s official online travel partner Booking.com illustrates a largely untapped opportunity for the travel sector to cash in on women’s sports fandom. Let’s fly.

The new data: Per Booking.com, U.S. traveler searches to upcoming WNBA Finals sites Phoenix and Las Vegas are spiking when the W is expected to be in town. For Phoenix, searches are up 103% YoY for October 8th to 10th and 166% YoY for October 15th, while searches for Las Vegas are up 67% YoY for October 3rd to 5th and 127% YoY for October 17th.

The previous data: Booking.com’s numbers aren’t the only ones showing how sports girlies are driving growth in the travel sports sector. While women’s soccer fans in particular are more likely to be aware of and trust travel brands than other women’s sports fans, W fans are making the trip too.

• In May, they were traveling 12% farther to attend games compared to the same time last year. A McKinsey report in August estimated 70% of women’s sports fans plan to spend more to attend sporting events, and an April Expedia study found that younger generations are more likely to travel for women’s sporting events than other generations.

The examples: We’ve seen this trend play out across cities hosting major women’s sporting events. The UEFA Women’s Euro drove a 12% increase in visitors and a 27% spending boost through its first week, while post-tourney research found there was about a 1.6% increase in overnight stays in host cities attributable to the tournament.

• The PWHL Takeover Tour’s market-testing also had a positive effect, creating $11M in economic activity for Edmonton. This may be why women’s basketball is considering bigger stages: The 2028 Women’s March Madness tourney switched venues to accommodate about 13K more fans, which may translate into millions in economic impact for Indianapolis.

Zooming out: Like SponsorUnited CEO Bob Lynch told us in July, the hospitality and travel industry will likely start to capitalize further on women’s sports. Brands like Delta, Marriott, and Booking.com are leaning in, but considerable gaps remain — Airbnb may be an IOC and FIFA sponsor, but it and fellow hospitality disruptors have openings across women’s sports leagues. Don’t sleep on this.

The GIST: Yesterday, sports data insights platform SponsorPulse (SP) highlighted its recent report that tracks WNBA fan behavior in relation to the beauty industry. This, combined with May data from Sports Innovation Lab (SIL), proves the fascinating overlap between W fans, luxury fashionistas, and makeup lovers. A slam glam dunk.

WNBA fan profile: An estimated 37% of Americans aged 13 to 64 engaged with the WNBA each year, translating to 78.5M consumers. Through the first half of 2024, when Caitlin Clark and her cohort entered the chat, W engagement levels soared to 46% — the league’s highest ever and a 70% jump since SP began tracking in 2019.

• Of these fans, an estimated 30.6M tuned in weekly and 20.4M expressed excitement about the W and its offerings. And building on previous data from women’s sports fans, 9.4M of them are likely to be influenced by a league sponsorship, reporting higher purchase consideration and brand favorability.

The luxury opportunity: About half of Americans purchasing luxury products have engaged with the W in the past year, 35% more than the general population. Every WNBA tunnel walk and Orange Carpet rollout has become a fashion moment, which is something brands like Coach are embracing along with opportunities to reach Gen Z.

The beauty overlap: An estimated 19%-22% of beauty and luxury purchases showed increased purchase consideration for WNBA sponsors, an 83% lift above the general population. On average, 40% of Americans watch women’s basketball year-round, but among those who buy beauty products, that surges to 49% and rises to 62% among weekly beauty buyers.

• This compounds the aforementioned SIL data that found W fans were 3x more likely to buy Fenty than average consumers, while NY Liberty fans were 4x more likely to buy from Rihanna’s brand. Mintel shared similar findings this year — 87% of W fans interested in beauty are more likely to support brands that sponsor women’s sports.

Zooming out: Beauty companies are picking up on these opportunities across women’s sports, with labels teaming up with leagues like the NWSL and individual athletes like Ilona Maher. But these brands are also realizing the underserved community of women fans across men’s sports — consider E.l.f.’s focus on women fans in the NFL, the Premier League, and NASCAR.

• Brands like Sephora are seizing the women’s sports opportunity, but they’re also considering women who watch men’s sports. The company’s involvement in Netflix’s Running Point is fictional, though the commanding stat cited in the show is (almost) real: Women comprise a little over a third of people who viewed or attended an NBA game as of January 2025. A buildable foundation.

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