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There is a palpable sense of forward motion in the realm of women’s professional sports in recent times, reflective of an overarching optimism that transcends leagues and national boundaries. Pinpointing the exact inception of this trend, as well as its geographical origins, could easily form the basis of an extensive treatise. Nevertheless, tangible evidence of the vigor and potential of women’s professional sports abounds, with new milestones being achieved on a regular basis.
Year of Achievements
The preceding year alone furnishes a wealth of substantiation to support this assertion. The FIFA Women’s World Cup held last summer attracted nearly two million spectators in total, drawn to the 64 matches hosted in 10 different stadiums. This marked a substantial increase of over half a million attendees as compared to the event’s earlier attendance records. Furthermore, the 2023 WNBA regular season culminated in September, recording a cumulative viewership in excess of 36 million viewers across all major American television networks. This figure represents the highest viewership figures since 2008, registering a notable increase of 27 per cent from the previous year.
The “Caitlin Clark Effect” continues to reverberate throughout college basketball circles, with the Iowa standout’s exceptional scoring prowess translating into larger viewership figures for women’s basketball games in comparison to men’s counterparts. Notably, Fox, the official broadcaster for Big Ten games, reported an average viewership of 981,000 per game for women’s basketball matches, surpassing the viewership figures for men’s games at 946,000.
Most recently, on February 16th, the PWHL (Provincial Women’s Hockey League), where more than a third of its games sold out in the first half of its inaugural season, notched a historic attendance record in women’s hockey. A crowd of 19,285 fans congregated at the esteemed Scotiabank Arena to witness the spectacle of Montreal facing off against Toronto in the much-anticipated “Battle on Bay Street.”
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