Investment in women’s sport clearly pays off

• Published date: 14 April 2024
• Publication title: Herald on Sunday

It was the largest audience for any basketball game in ESPN’s history. This is the latest breakthrough in women’s sports. They come almost weekly now, a sellout here, a new star there, all culminating in an undeniable fact — if you invest fully in women’s sport, you will see reward

How do you create a breakout star such as Caitlin Clark, Sam Kerr or Ruby Tui? Before Clark broke records, Lynette Woodard set them. Brandi Chastain lifted her home country’s hopes 20-plus years before Kerr did the same. Vanessa Cootes was the four-try finals hero of New Zealand’s first World Cup win before Tui sang six titles later.

Our female athletes have always succeeded, it is the infrastructure around them that has failed. There have been high performance ladders knocked over as people are climbing them. No thought of retaining the knowledge that retires each season from the field of play.

We’ve seen coaches and management, incapable or dangerous, appointed with due process and then removed after lengthy ones. A lack of vision and accountability is the theme attached to meagre funds administered.

Coverage that has only reliably told the story of championship matches or controversy. Action from limited camera angles or perhaps just your aunty’s Facebook. Team lists published as close to kickoff as possible. Schedules that go out without venues and timings.

Fans have simultaneously been treated as both detectives and fools, having to follow a trail of clues to kickoff or be tricked into watching the end of a game that opened for the one they paid for.

The miracle of these moments we are seeing now in rapid succession is that finally the bigger picture is in view. Investment is just not another word for player wages. It’s part of the...