Women's sports had pivotal year, from Summer McIntosh and Caitlin Clark to the new PWHL
Canada also excited for arrival of WNBA's Toronto Tempo and Northern Super League
Record numbers of basketball fans filled arenas to watch the rookie seasons of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese unfold. Fellow American Coco Gauff made women's tennis history. Simone Biles, also from the United States, captivated the world at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
World Aquatics swimmer of the year Summer McIntosh became the first Canadian to win three gold medals at an Olympics. Last week, she was the Northern Star Award recipient as Canada's athlete of the year and set three world records while earning five short course medals, including three gold.
"This week's been overall great, [and] probably one of the best swim meets of my life," said McIntosh, who accomplished plenty this year at 18 years old.
In Paris, Canadians earned 27 medals, more than any other non-boycotted Summer Games, and the majority were by women, which isn't a new trend.
WATCH | McIntosh takes 6th world record in stride:
It was all part of a pivotal year for women in sports, financially and culturally, and after a steady rise in popularity and reach in recent years, the women's game is more valuable than ever.
"[Clark]'s just moved the needle of the global movement of women in sports," said U.S. softball great and Olympic gold medallist Jennie Finch, "and what a thrill it's been to be able to see her rise."
Last November, the consulting firm Deloitte estimated women's sports would generate more than $1 billion US in global revenue this year for the first time ever, which the company said is up about 300 per cent from its last estimate in 2021. Skyrocketing viewership and corporate sponsorships were major factors.
The Women's National Basketball Association has also been a hot topic in Canada, especially since May when Toronto was announced as the first franchise outside the U.S.
While the expansion team doesn't begin play until May 2026, it was given a name — Tempo — earlier this month and is hopeful of hiring a general manager early in the new year.
Best WNBA attendance in 22 seasons
Vancouver will be the first non-U.S. city to host a WNBA game on Aug. 15, 2025. About 500 kilometres south of Rogers Arena is Portland, Ore., which will begin league play with Toronto in 17 months.
The WNBA in July signed a historic 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC valued at about $200 million, a jump from about $60 million currently. Players hope higher salaries and a greater share of revenue could be on the horizon as parity, star power and competition in the WNBA continue to grow.
The WNBA had its most-watched regular season in 24 years and best attendance in 22 seasons, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a recent state-of-the-league address that players are getting a lot more marketing deals, turning them into household names. That includes Las Vegas star A'ja Wilson, who had one of the most dominant seasons in WNBA history, and Clark, who set numerous rookie records.
The decisive Game 5 of the WNBA final between New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx drew an average of 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 3.3 million, which made it the most-watched WNBA game in 25 years.
While many point to the WNBA as a blueprint for success in women's sports, accomplishments in 2024 went far beyond one league or athlete.
Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis superstar, was the world's highest-paid female athlete this year with $30.4 million in earnings, according to Sportico rankings. Gauff could not defend her 2023 U.S. Open title but ended her 2024 season with a WTA Finals title and a $4.8 million cheque, the biggest payout ever for a women's tennis event, per Sportico.
The Olympics neared complete gender parity for the first time among the more than 11,000 men and women who competed in Paris this past summer.
WATCH | Morgan Campbell, Perdita Felicien talk track & field in 2024 and 2025:
More than 34 million people across all NBC platforms in the U.S. watched Biles exorcise the demons of her surprising exit from the Tokyo Games three years earlier. The 27-year-old gymnast shared a message of resilience and redemption as she added four gold medals to her resume.
As Gauff and Biles soared, other women's leagues leveraged that visibility.
The Professional Women's Hockey League brought in 392,259 fans during its inaugural regular season, highlighted by a women's hockey record crowd of 21,105 at the home arena of the NHL's Canadiens for a Montreal-Toronto matchup. The league also reached sponsorship deals with Scotiabank, Air Canada and Hyundai.
CBC/Radio-Canada get in on PWHL action
Now, there is talk the league could expand to eight clubs from six next season.
CBC Sports is on board for the next two seasons, including 17 Saturday afternoon games for 2024-25. Radio-Canada will broadcast another seven featuring Montreal Victoire as all 90 contests of the PWHL's second campaign will be televised.
Toronto Sceptres outgrew 2,500-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre and now plays out of Coca-Cola Coliseum, which holds 8,000 for hockey. Victoire is making 10,000-seat Place Bell in Laval, Que., it's primary home.
"For many of us that have been in the game for so long, it's emotional to think about where the game's come from, where we've come to," said Jayna Hefford, the league's senior vice-president of hockey operations. "We spend a lot of time reading research and all these things that suggest the time is now and that the fandom is there. And to be able to live that and feel it in real time was pretty special."
Diana Matheson, Christina Litz and Mark Cohon also want to capitalize on the women's sports landscape.
Matheson, a Canadian soccer veteran, unveiled the official name and logo of Northern Super League in late May, Canada's first pro women's soccer league set to launch in April in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
"The Northern Super League … will fill a significant void in Canada and bring about meaningful change coast to coast," Matheson, an NSL co-founder and CEO, said at the time.
Litz, a former Canadian Football League executive, joined NSL in July and was followed four months later by Cohon, the CFL's commissioner from 2007 to 2015.
"If you think about what's happening in the world of women's sports, this is a critical moment — being part of that movement, that was very exciting for me," Cohon said.
"The entrepreneurial nature of building a league, doing something that's important for Canada was [also] exciting."
With files from CBC Sports and The Canadian Press
