This week, Y-Sport featured in the Independent on Sunday in an article focussing on the growth and development of women’s sport.
Currently, most female sports team representing England are not professional, largely due to the lack of commercial backing. We aim to change that. Women’s sport should be viewed as just as commercially valuable as men’s sport, if not more. Key sponsors such as Kia and Newton Investment Management are big fish in a small pond. The return they get on their investments is far greater then what they would get were they working with men’s sport.
Sponsoring women’s sport is a tangible way for businesses to demonstrate that they care about the girls and women in their workforce. In a cynical world, it’s about actions speaking louder than words.
“The opening game of the FIFA Women’s World Cup pulled in more viewers than Sky Sports’ coverage of Barcelona vs Juventus in the Champions’ League final on the same night. True, that game was also shown free-to-air on ITV, but the gathering power of women’s sport is clear.
“In the 1970s, Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the England women’s cricket captain, regretfully had to refuse sponsorship for her cash-strapped team from a company that had the word “rubber” in its name; at the time, it was felt that a connection to condoms could only represent the social abyss. So for the team it was back to self-funding and begging M&S for the odd blouse.
