Women’s Pro Football Gaining Investor Attention

More money flowing into women’s pro football 

According to Statista research, football/soccer has the most worldwide followers of any women’s professional sport. The authors of Deloitte UK’s 2023 Annual Review of Football Finance found that this interest translated into 60% more season-on-season aggregate revenue for Women’s Super League clubs, increasing from from £20m to £32m in 2021/2022. The 32nd edition of this report was the first to include coverage of women’s pro teams in the nation, a notable indicator in and of itself.

In its 2023 Women’s Benchmarking Report, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) shared that 259 clubs surveyed worldwide had an average per-club operating revenue of US$785k in 2022, more than double the US$337k reported by 159 clubs in 2021.

Many women’s pro football clubs – all of them in the UK, in fact – have yet to turn a profit. They receive financial injections from associated men’s clubs to cover losses. Even so, note that the financial decision makers behind the men’s clubs, who have perhaps the keenest understanding of the industry, have judged such investments to be worth making.

Heavyweight investors aim to cash in and give back

Notable examples of professional money managers taking ownership of women’s pro football teams include Sixth Street Partners, a global investment firm with over US$70b under management. The firm is the lead investor behind the United States National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) expansion team Bay FC. Other founders include US women’s national team players. According to the firm’s, the team aims to unite California’s “tapestry of different cultures, languages and ideas with shared pride and a sense of belonging.”

Also in the United States, Michele Kwan, multimillionaire founder and CEO of medical technology company Cognosante and venture capital firm Cognosante

 Ventures, became the self-described “first female owner-slash-co-owner” of a professional soccer team in 2020. She went on to take majority ownership of the team, the Washington Spirit, in 2022. In May 2023, she became the majority owner and CEO of Olympique Lyonnais, a women’s professional football club in France.    

Interest from dealmakers is expected to rise along with revenues. Deloitte has predicted that women’s elite sports of every variety will generate more than US$1b in 2024, with football accounting for 43% of it.