In Colorado and nationwide, women's sports is big business

From the expansion of women's professional sports leagues to more girls getting on the field or court, it's no secret that women's sports are growing. According to Deloitte, women's sports revenues are expected to reach at least $3 billion this year. That's an increase of 340% in four years.

"The growth of women's sports is one of the key drivers of the whole sports economy today around the world," said Olga Khokhryakova, professor of Sport Management at Metro State University, Denver.

North America is forecasted to drive that growth, bringing in about 54% of that revenue, but it's not all coming from professional sports.

"If we look at the sports economy, we'll see that participatory and physical activity is actually a bigger part of the sports economy than professional and elite sports," Khokhryakova said.

While those numbers are encouraging, Khokhryakova said the idea of women playing sports in any capacity only came about relatively recently.

"Just about 100 years ago, women in sports were considered absolutely inappropriate," she said. "So just imagine 100 years ago, a little bit more, and now we're seeing a boom of professional sports for women; we're seeing participation, a huge increase since the '70s, but there are, of course, a lot of factors that are holding it back as well."

Khokhryakova said some of those factors include societal and cultural adjustments, but legislation like Title IX helped force organizations to include women's sports.

Men and boys have historically received more encouragement and better access to publicly funded programs.

"We also currently see that while participation is growing, positions of power are still most held by men," Khokhryakova said. "In NCAA head coaching, half of the women 's teams are head coached by men and only less than 5% of women coach men's teams."

Today, girls and women are getting more opportunities, and the growth of women's elite and professional sports is having a trickle-down effect on youth sports participation. About 55% of children play a sport nationwide.

"The media is important; we see more coverage, still not much but more coverage, which translates into this kind of increase of visibility and role models so girls may feel they actually belong in the sporting world," Khokhryakova said.

A Deloitte study shows soccer and basketball are projected to generate the highest amount of global revenue for women's sports. Denver is seeing some of those effects firsthand, with the new NWSL team, Denver Summit FC.

"We see more investment, and we see more investments that are more infrastructural, more fundamental: new teams, new facilities, new training facilities, new logistical aspects. So, this is all good because it shows that investment in women's sports, it's not just for the short-term financial gain; it is actually a long-term opportunity," she said.

Fans are buying in, too. Matchday revenue is expected to grow to more than $900 million in 2026.

Khokhryakova said businesses investing in women's sports are already seeing returns beyond their expectations, but there is still a long way to go.

"We cannot just compare numbers with women's and men's professional sports and make conclusions because they are at very different stages of development," she said. "We don't compare Facebook today with a small startup in San Diego today."

Khokhryakova said the best thing to do is be patient.

"We can see not just projections, but a lot of results and returns, and I'm sure we just need to be a bit patient, and it's going to happen."