WSL 2024/25 Preview: The Fin-Culture Boom of the Women’s Game

It’s no secret that Women’s football is on the up.

According to Deloitte, whose Annual Review of Football Finance analyses the Women’s Super League and the ‘big five’ men’s leagues, the WSL will see £68m worth of revenue in 2024/25. That’s an increase of nearly 50 per cent since the 2022/23 season.

The approach of a new WSL season brings with it a fresh air of excitement that has often been lost in the women’s game. Now, Sky Sports’ monthly rollout of seasonal VT’s includes female players and clips from the WSL. The channel will now show up to 44 Women’s Super League matches in the 2024/25 season–more than any other broadcaster –extending the partnership with the league. Women’s clubs are now being allowed to train in the same facilities as their male counterparts or are seeing huge investments spent on their separate premises.

But what’s the root cause? Where is this rise coming from?

You cannot analyse finance without context, and culture. Beyond the boom of monetary value in the women’s game, the stock of female players across the world has grown. It sees a sparkling fusion of fashion, beauty and activism that places women’s football as a powerful platform.

As we’ve seen from recent media work, namely the Ella Toone and Alessia Russo podcast hosted on BBC with Vic Hope, and Leah Williamson’s continual rise as a cultural icon for fashion and music, female players are popular. They offer another insight into elite-level sport and make the beautiful game more relatable for young girls and general sports fans all across the globe.

As a result, more money is being spent on the game and investors and brands alike are viewing it as a more lucrative prospect. The top-four revenue-generating clubs made up 66 per cent of total revenue across the league. Arsenal and Chelsea were the top two revenue-generating teams with £10.9million (up from £6.8m) and £8.8m (up from £6.4m).

Manchester United were top of commercial revenue (sponsorship, advertising and other partnerships)–earning £5.2m–accounting for 30 per cent of the league’s commercial revenue as a whole.

And typically where money goes, energy flows. Players in their own right are now more marketable and have shot to international prominence. Leah Williamson has been sponsored by huge brands including Gucci, Nike and Pepsi, while Alessia Russo joined Kylian Mbappé and Alexia Putellas as an ambassador for luxury brand Oakley. Since the Women’s Euros win in 2022, the UK in particular has seen a wave of fans ready to interact, engage and champion female football content, opening up topics of societal issues rather than the performances on the pitch.

So what can we expect from the game this season? As the curtain draws on a new WSL campaign and on major women’s leagues across the US and Europe, the female game is set to take it up another echelon. Expect drama, decibels, more fans and more fashion.