WWD: Women’s World Cup Expected to Heighten Interest in Women’s Sports, Lift Sales of Sports Gear

The FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand Thursday and will run for a month. Teams from 32 nations will be vying for the title with the reigning back-to-back champion U.S. team among the favorites to win this year’s tournament. It is expected to draw more than 2 billion viewers, or nearly a quarter of the world’s population, according to Statista. First Lady Jill Biden helped to rev up interest in the sport by hosting a youth soccer clinic with Major League Soccer on the White House’s South Lawn on Monday. The event was meant to signify how sports can be a unifier and empower youngsters.

The sport benefits from the WWC’s abundance of global media coverage, the U.S. team’s potential to three-peat and the fact that many countries, especially in Western Europe, have realized that investing in women’s sports, in particular soccer, is a good bet for them, according to Mary Jo Kane, University of Minnesota professor emerita of sport sociology and director emerita of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. In addition, how engaged fans are in the tournament will depend on how competitive the matches are, she said.

“The media doesn’t cover this out of the goodness of their hearts. They cover it because it’s a good business deal for them. There’s a growing audience that they have finally recognized and respected. It’s a win-win for everyone in that sense,” Kane said…