Women’s Super League Clubs Report Significant Revenue Rises

Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs generated £32m in aggregate revenue in the 2021/22 season, up from £20m in the previous financial year, according to new analysis from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.

The significant 60% rise was driven by increases in both broadcast and commercial revenues.

The commencement of a new broadcast deal in the 2021/22 season – the largest broadcast deal of any professional women’s football league, representing a reported £8m per year – led to a significant uplift in broadcast distributions for WSL and Women’s Championship clubs.

The deal marked the first time that broadcast rights to the WSL had been auctioned separately from the men’s game, with broadcast distributions shared among WSL and Women’s Championships clubs at 75% and 25% respectively and included an equal fixed amount per club, plus a share based on league position.

Commercial revenue was an additional driver for both league and WSL club revenues in the 2021/22 season, and Deloitte expects commercial revenue in the women’s game will continue to grow in future seasons.

While the sponsorship agreement that was in place for the 2021/22 season was originally struck for around £10m over three years, the latest title sponsorship agreement includes a new £30m investment into the WSL and Women’s Championship from 2022-2025.  

At the club level, commercial revenue in the 2021/22 season was captured separately from the men’s team, or as part of bundled deals across all a club’s teams. Overall, ten out of 12 WSL clubs shared the same front-of-shirt sponsor as their men’s team in the 2021/22 season.

This allows WSL clubs to benefit from wider sponsorship agreements for affiliated men’s sides, which included some of the highest revenue-generating commercial deals in European football. 

Matchday revenues throughout the league accounted for nearly 10% of WSL clubs’ combined revenues in the 2021/22 season, with average league attendance of 1,923. 

Zoe Burton, director in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said: “The women’s game achieved significant leaps in revenue in the 2021/22 season. The Lionesses’ success at the UEFA Women’s Euros is pinned as an inflexion point for the popularity of women’s football, so it’s telling that even before this historic win revenues had begun to grow in the Women’s Super League.

“We have already seen new records set for attendance, viewership and the value of commercial partnerships in the 2022/23 season. Organisations should not be shy about the commercial opportunities available in women’s football, and we are now reaching the point where clubs can seek to maximise the value associated with the women’s game by unbundling revenue streams to target a unique fanbase.”

Deloitte’s analysis highlights that while WSL clubs’ revenues from matchday, broadcast and commercial streams are growing, there is also significant backing from their wider organisations as group income accounts for around 40% of revenue across all WSL clubs.   

This latest analysis follows the publication of the 2023 Deloitte Football Money League, which analysed the revenue attributed to the affiliated women’s teams of Money League clubs for the first time.

The 2023 Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance will publish on Thursday 15th June.