The impact of coronavirus on women’s sport
The coronavirus pandemic is having a greater impact on women’s sport than men’s. Whereas 2019 saw great steps towards achieving pay parity between men’s and women’s sports, with the football world cup final reaching a global audience of 1.12bn viewers, and a ground-breaking union contract for the WNBA, 2020 may well set women’s sport back by several years.
Indeed, last week, a Fifpro report stated that professional women’s football is facing an “existential threat” from the pandemic.
There are several reasons for this, but key amongst them are:
- Women’s professional leagues are more vulnerable because they are less-established financially
- Players, leagues, and sponsors have shorter-term contracts. For example, whilst the men’s Premier League operates on a 3-year broadcast rights cycle, the FA Women’s Super League is still in the process of negotiating the sale of its broadcast rights for next year
- Sponsorships deals in women’s sport are typically lower value than their counterparts in men’s football
These issues, and more, are the topic of InSport Education’s free webinar on “The Impact of Coronavirus on Women’s Sport” this Friday April 24th at 11:00 BST. A recording will be made available after the webinar.
The host is Dr Rob Wilson, a football finance expert and Head of Department for Finance, Accounting and Business Systems at Sheffield Business School. He will be joined by special guest Dame Heather Rabbatts, who is the founder of the Women’s Sport Group, a former non-executive Director at The FA, and the Chair of Vero Communications.
For more information on InSport Education visit their directory page on Careers in Sport.