Women’s sport has seen massive jumps in popularity the last few years, indeed, recent studies show that viewing figures are increasing by 131% each year. This rise however, is especially prevalent in basketball. With the final of the women’s college tournament getting a whopping 18.9 million people to tune in! This figure is only set to rise however with women’s basketball icon, Caitlin Clark, joining the WNBA.

 

Basketball enthusiast Thomas Kangie said, ‘I used to believe that women’s basketball was a watered-down version of the men’s game but now I realise that it’s just as exciting and often more tense’.

 

The WNBA originally struggled to gain footing and was plagued by low attendance, financial instability, and limited media coverage but they have overcome these problems because of the players and them being much more marketable and well liked.

 

The rise in popularity is due to several factors including: the overall skill level increasing; the league being advertised more; women’s sports finally getting the same level of importance as men’s sports and them being able to access a larger audience.

 

This boost in popularity sets the stage for many other sports across the world to open to women and will allow for many more young girls to aspire to become superstars.

 

With the trend as we see it now, women’s sport is likely to be just as popular as men’s sport in the next couple years and in basketball we can see it is already happening and nothing, but benefits will come from this as more people get an opportunity to play sports at a high level.