Women's soccer growth fueled by investors Kang and Ohanian

The growth of women’s soccer across the world has been clear with events like the 2023 Women’s World Cup. That tournament, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, set attendance records with just shy of 2 million fans across all games. Fans across the world broke viewership records for the tournament in 2023, too. Australia drew 11.5 million viewers on domestic TV during its semifinal loss to England. In the Women’s World Cup Final, English TV broadcasters BBC and ITV peaked at just shy of 15 million, a record for a women’s soccer game. Then, in China, 53.9 million people tuned in for the game between China and England in the group stage.

As global interest mounts in women’s soccer, investors have ramped up their acknowledgment of the sport. Michele Kang is the founder and CEO of Cognosante, a medical technology company. Her fortunes in that field have now pivoted to investment in sports. She recognized the gap between where women’s soccer is currently and where it can be down the line. Therefore, Kang invested in three professional women’s soccer teams. She is the majority owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and the London City Lionesses.

Speaking to CNBC during coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kang talked about the massive development of women’s soccer in the United States. Popularity among the league and the Washington Spirit in particular has skyrocketed over recent years.

“Just for NWSL in the US, just this year, our viewership doubled in the first half over last year,” Kang said. “Our gameday attendance is growing 40 to 50%. The Washington Spirit, we play at Audi Field, which is about a 20,000-person [stadium], we average about 14,000. That is about triple the size of three years ago when I first took over.”

“Numbers are there. We just have to make sure everyone knows about this, especially a lot of corporations wanting to reach our target audience.”

Growth of women’s soccer comes from men, women and children

Alexis Ohanian, 776 founder and co-founder of Reddit who is a lead investor of Angel City FC in the NWSL, says the superstar nature of women’s sports plays a role. Women’s athletes have more of a following than many of their male counterparts. That contributes to the widespread interest in women’s sports, which has also grown broadly with more content being readily available.

“There are plenty of men who love sports who are now finding ways to tune in because they weren’t accessible before,” Ohanian told CNBC. “They’re finding something they really love. They are getting to spend time with their kids, boys and girls. They realize I love sports for the stories, for the excellence and for the athleticism. The women’s game has it too. You’ll see more and more folks showing up in these stands that represent the whole population with men, women and children.”

Global interest is key to investors

Michele Kang, whose three clubs come from different countries, understands the potential of the world embracing women’s soccer. Kang wants to promote clubs in different countries and continents for both sporting and financial reasons. Africa and South America are two areas that stand out for potential growth. The lack of existing facilities and competition makes the initial task easy to enter. However, Kang can bring her expertise and experience to these areas to great success.

“The goal is to have global coverage because this is about making sure all the young girls around the world know that this is not just a US, English, or French phenomenon,” Kang said. “When I get a team in those countries, I’m going to bring the same infrastructure, technology and capabilities to those countries so that they can feel if I put my best into it, I can be the next Alex Morgan.”

Yet, there are inherent differences between men’s and women’s soccer. Having someone like Kang in the fold provides a different look at how research and analytics work for women’s soccer.

“Fundamental research had to be done about how to make female athletes perform the best,” Kang said. “Only 6% of all science and medical research on athlete performance is dedicated to women. That’s why we had to train our female athletes on a men’s training manual. That has to change.”

PHOTOS: IMAGO.