Wasserman publishes latest report on private equity, asset appreciation in women’s sports

The GIST: On Monday, Wasserman’s The Collective published the third part of its extensive research on the economy of women’s sports and the influence of women fans. In this edition, The Collective focused on the growth of the women’s sports ecosystem, studying macrotrends exemplified by increased private equity (PE) investment and infrastructure investment.

• Last Friday, we spoke with The Collective’s SVP of strategy & growth Alyson Walker about her insights and what investors and brands should be paying attention to, specifically the opportunity for smaller PE firms and the benefits to investing in closed leagues. Moolah la la.

The report: There are several trends that illustrate how private capital and institutional investment is transforming leagues, such as women’s sports expansion fees increasing over 5,000% since 2008. Plus, practice facilities are a lucrative investment for teams and brands, with franchises investing over $500M across eight new training complexes.

• High-growth women’s leagues — think LOVB, Unrivaled, and AUSL — are scaling faster than traditional models thanks to extensive partnership portfolios, top-tier media deals, and successful capital raises. And media and fan ecosystems (like The GIST) are also scaling up quickly as they nab white space in the media market.

The takeaways: Walker said the insights from this report demonstrate not only the rising interest from large-scale PE firms, but the opportunity for niche and mid-market ones. She mentioned the success of The Monarch Collective, which is dedicated to women’s sports ventures, and Mercury 13, which is focused on investing in European women’s soccer.

• Walker notes the traditional model, like the WNBA’s, can be successful, but closed models work well thanks to their cohesive, centralized structure, equal team investment, and ease in facilitating partnerships across clubs — a theme our She’s Not Next, She’s Now podcast series has explored. A winning playbook.