Y now?

Women's sport, athletes, events, competitions and fans currently present a major opportunity to business, and to sport itself. This emerging market is growing fast, attitudes are changing and barriers to entry are low. Evidence of change includes the tripling of broadcast coverage of women's football in the past two years, and new household name partners investing in women's sport such as Kia and the England Women's Cricket team.

With a developing world-class competition and events calendar and more visible broadcast coverage, witness Sky Sports, BT Sports and BBC's publicly stated commitment to women's sport. Female athletes are in the public eye and their commercial value is increasing.

Following the success of London 2012, where women made up 44 % of the Olympic competitors and the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which provoked another peak in media interest, there is a clear momentum behind the professional and commercial development of women's sport. The government is working hard to invest in sport for women and it is encouraging businesses to do the same. Witness the recent Sport England funded multi- million campaigns "This Girl Can"

The publicly stated government ambition is to see more girls and women playing sport, a rise in its media profile, greater diversity on sports boards and a greater recognition for women's sporting achievements. Y Sports vision is clearly aligned to this, and to Sport England's stated objectives.  

What next? Summer 2015 presents a packed calendar of world-class women's sporting events and phases two of the ‘This Girls Can’ campaign to get more girls and women active.  There is no doubt that momentum and support for women’s sport is building.

What next ?

 Summer 2015 presents a packed calendar of world class, women's sporting events : The FIFA Women's World Cup in June, the Netball World Cup in in August and the Women's Ashes in August , swiftly followed by the 2015 Winter Olympics in ?????and the 2016 Rio Olympics. Momentum is gathering pace.