It’s July 10 and Bell Centre stadium in Montreal is packed, with 20,996 fans on their feet screaming as the Toronto Tempo and Dallas Wings take to the court against a backdrop of indigo strobe lights and rock music.
asserted
Tempo → ’ → lights
The crowd shattered the WNBA’s regular-season attendance record for a single game, an extraordinary statistic given Montreal doesn’t even have its own WNBA team.
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Montreal → shatter → team
It didn’t take long for an avalanche of posts on social media.
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It → take → media
“Tough day for the ‘No-one watches women’s sports’ crowd,” one user cheekily proclaimed alongside footage of the roaring crowd.
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user → watch → crowd
The records didn’t stop there.
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records → stop → ?
Last week the WNBA announced the first round of the play-offs was the most-watched yet, with an average of 1.3 million viewers tuning in across the network over 10 days.
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average → announce → days
Meanwhile, an analysis from Sports Business Journal found the WNBA drew a league-high record of 3.79 million fans to games in 2026.
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WNBA → find → 2026
The WNBA’s skyrocketing popularity is the accumulation of what many people in women’s sports spaces have been dreaming about for decades.
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people → skyrocket → decades
The league’s record-breaking attendance, sold-out stadiums, in-demand merchandise, fan activations and superstar players have set the benchmark for what marketing in women’s sports can do.
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marketing → break → sports
Dr Kasey Symons, a lecturer in sports media at Deakin University, says Australia has fallen behind the United States when it comes to creativity and innovation for marketing in women’s sports.
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it → say → sports
“I want to be generous to where we are in our sporting landscape in terms of resources, revenue, and support, but we are undoubtedly behind,” she said.
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she → want → resources
“It’s not enough any more just to say, ‘One day we’ll get there’.
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we → ’ → ?
‘One day’ is now, and we can take some examples from other sports to see what they’re doing.”
We’ve contacted athletes, player agents, content creators, academics and marketing experts to ask which women’s sports in Australia are thriving in today’s marketing landscape.
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sports → take → landscape
More importantly – which ones need to catch up?
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ones → need → ?
What’s behind the WNBA’s meteoric growth, and why isn’t the WNBL as popular?
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WNBL → ’ → growth
Not many have had a closer look at the WNBA’s expansion than Australia’s most-decorated basketballer, Lauren Jackson.
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many → have → basketballer
Over more than a decade in the American league, Jackson won two championships, was crowned MVP three times and was a seven-time WNBA All-Star.
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Jackson → win → championships
Now, as chief strategy and partnerships officer in Australia’s WNBL (in which she also played, winning seven championships), Jackson has the task of trying to emulate domestically some of that success she’s been privy to abroad.
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she → play → success
“There are so many moments that are contributing to us being here right now and in a position where we are starting to grow – we are getting eyeballs,” Jackson said of the WNBL.
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Jackson → be → WNBL
“We’re able to start making a little bit of noise around the game and the global women’s basketball movement is happening, and it’s real.
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it → ’re → game
For us, it’s about trying to capitalise on that, trying to grow with it, and [to] stay globally relevant.”
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it → ’ → it
Jackson said the way the WNBA is now marketing its players – where individual stars have become household names – has been a big contributor to its success.
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stars → say → success
“When I first went into the WNBA, they made us not be ourselves, we weren’t being marketed as ourselves, it was more what they thought society wanted to see,” she said.
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she → go → what
“Whereas, I think what’s happened in the last 10 years or so is that you start to see way more authenticity.
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you → think → authenticity
The athletes are stepping into their own power, and it’s resonating with society.”
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it → step → society
Symons has a theory about why the US has been able to produce these cult-like figures, noting American sporting culture allows “individual personalities to shine and be themselves”.
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personalities → have → figures
“I think in Australian sports we still have a bit of that tall-poppy syndrome, where individualism is a bit less celebrated, and we do like athletes to stay more humble.”
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athletes → think → syndrome
Symons also praised the multipurpose marketing campaign implemented by the WNBA for fans across a diverse demographic, highlighting the impact of New York Liberty’s famous mascot, Ellie the Elephant – who has dedicated fan pages and had appeared in Vogue.
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who → praise → Vogue
The WNBA also attracts investors such as Serena Williams (part-owner of the Tempo), Tom Brady (who has a stake in the Las Vegas Aces), Magic Johnson (part owner of the Los Angeles Sparks) and Karlie Kloss, who is an investor in the group that owns the Liberty.
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that → attract → Liberty
The WNBL has recently introduced private ownership and Jackson believes will help propel opportunities in, and visibility of, the league.
Why netball is falling behind other sports
Netball remains one of the most interesting women’s sports in this conversation.
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Netball → introduce → conversation
It attracts a largely female fan base and has mammoth participation numbers in grassroots levels.
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It → attract → levels
While total attendance numbers during the Super Netball league have increased this year, the sport is still battling for attention.
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sport → increase → attention
Alexa Prinno is a Perth-based presenter and content creator of Your Netball Bestie – a media platform with a combined 120,000 followers.
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Prinno → base → followers
From a marketing perspective, Prinno believes netball is falling behind other sports and is eager to see more branding, media visibility and sponsorship opportunities to transform netballers into household names.
“I’d say from a fan perspective, yes, I would say netball is behind, from what I’ve seen there’s no denying that,” she told this masthead.
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she → believe → masthead
Netball Australia recently announced Priceline Pharmacy as a partner, and Prinno believes the sport should capitalise more on its growing female fanbase.
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sport → announce → fanbase
“Marketing research shows approximately 80 per cent of all household purchasing decisions are made by the women in the household, and yet, for some reason, a lot of big brands still really aim for male-dominated sports,” she said.
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she → show → sports
“We are looking at females as second-tier decision-makers when they are actually the main decision-makers for purchases.
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they → look → purchases
All brands who want to make money should pivot to a predominantly female audience, which is exactly what netball brings.”
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netball → want → what
Prinno wants Super Netball to draw on inspiration from the WNBA and see more Australian netballers become “the face of the sport”.
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netballers → want → sport
“We see other sports really lean into platforming their superstars, and then we kind of associate the superstar face and name with the sport,” she said.
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she → see → sport
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
