By Jessica Upton, Assistant, Dentsu Sports Analytics

As International Women’s Day approaches, it’s vital that sport utilises data and insights to ensure that progress is sustained beyond the hype generated during big events.

Women’s sport soared to new heights in 2025, smashing records, breaking boundaries and establishing its presence in the hearts of people all over the world. Like most people who watched the UEFA Women’s Euro tournament in July and Women's Rugby World Cup a month later, I was thrilled by the promise of a new era in sports equality.

(Lionesses, Instagram)

Finally, the tables were turning, guided by the hands of the athletes who competed in different sports at different levels. But as the summer turned to autumn and the thrill of success dimmed, so too did the buzz of change, leading to the question: how do we sustain the momentum of success built up by these big competitions? And how do we move away from success-driven support to year-round loyalty?

The growth of women’s sport has ebbed and flowed since the dawn of sport competition. In many ways, its fortunes have always mirrored society's - rising when women's voices were amplified, retreating when they were suppressed. Whether that’s the once booming US All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) evaporating in the wake of the post-war return to traditional gender roles, the collapse of the Women’s United Soccer Association in 2003 or the steady decline of the Women’s Australian Football League since 2017, they all befell the same fate -  overwhelming success preceding a decrease in interest, political support and their eventual collapse.

Big moments create fans – but something else is needed to keep them. The challenge isn't riding the wave, it's what happens when it breaks. Memorable sporting moments can galvanise entire nations, but a surge of support around a tournament isn't the same as a fan base. For that, we need to look at how women's sport shows up in the day-to-day.

Grassroots and community-based initiatives are recognised in their long-term support of female athletes, but they are also vital in revolutionising the experience for both new and lifelong fans. Since 2022 there has been a rise in dedicated spaces for women’s sport. The CROSSBAR in Brighton and Set Piece Social have created spaces which prioritise women’s sport and champion inclusivity. Though controversial to some, their impact has made waves in local communities.

As we look ahead to International Women’s Day, this feels like the right moment to shift the conversation. Celebration matters, but sustained progress matters more. The real opportunity lies in building the everyday environments, communities and experiences that allow women’s sport to thrive long after the spotlight fades.

The Sports Bar

To begin to understand how to grow the women’s sport community, we must accept that the existing culture orientates around men’s sport. Understanding how women experience this space is essential as it can often act as a barrier to women feeling like sport is ‘for them’. Understanding this dynamic is key to unlocking a sustained interest in women’s sport.

One of the main centres of communal fan engagement is the sports bar. Despite being outwardly inclusive to all, the male-dominated history of sport has rendered fan spaces undeniably masculine. Walk into any sports bar on a match day and the room tells you everything you need to know about who it was built for. A defining factor is the idea that sports engagement has become a universal marker of masculinity – Dentsu Sports Analytics study of fans, Decoding 360, shows that almost half (42%) of men in the UK say being a fan of their favourite team/athlete is something they use to define who they are, compared to only a quarter (26%) of women. The binding of these identities is influential enough to form a rigid idea of what a dedicated sports fan should look like and those who deviate from this can feel the resistance.

This isn’t to say that a woman wouldn’t naturally shout, scream or punch the air in response to something that happens on the pitch – I’m not necessarily a die-hard football fan but please believe me when I say that the Lionesses’ performance last summer saw me do all of the above. It’s about redefining a fan space that’s not tied up in a long history of gendered assumptions, a space inclusive to all levels and displays of fandom that doesn’t force you to jump through hoops to prove to you didn’t start following football because you fancied Jude Bellingham.

So what does this mean for women’s sport? It means that as the feelings of exclusion become increasingly acknowledged, the demand for change intensifies and that momentum is channelled toward the growth of women’s sport. More than half of female sports fans (56%) say they follow women’s sport because they believe it’s important to support women (Decoding 360).

The outpouring of support for women’s teams in international competitions reflects the increasing appetite among women who aren’t usually immersed in the sporting world. A study of women who openly reject sport fandom found that women’s sport competitions created “a ‘safe’ space to essay alternative forms of fandom less reliant on the masculinist behaviours that sustain gender inequality and women’s marginalisation” - #Sportsball anti-fandom as identity performance on X: The case of Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW)

But while men’s sport is a constant, women’s sport still feels seasonal. Without an always-on community presence, this seasonal affinity gets lost in the day-to-day lives of budding fans. This presence has the potential to revolutionise these fans’ relationship with women’s sport.

Resetting the Gender Imbalance

Over the last four years, we have seen the rise of women’s sport bars across America, something that’s now being repeated in the UK. The Sports Bra opened in Portland, USA in 2022 as the world’s first sports bar showing only women’s sports, promising to address a glaring gender imbalance in global sports coverage: 40% of professional athletes globally are women, yet women’s sports make up only 4% of sports media coverage (UNESCO, Her Headline).

(The Sports Bra, Portland, Oregon)

Since then, the UK has started to adopt the trend. Female-led brands like Set Piece Social and CROSSBAR in Brighton have created similar spaces that prioritise women’s sport and champion inclusivity and community.

"We are tearing down the concept of a “traditional sports bar” and creating an inclusive space where players, supporters and spectators of women’s and non-binary sports can celebrate and connect with their future community." – Set Piece Social

              “There’s people who want to watch women’s sports, there’s people who want to build that community and if there’s no space for them then how is it going to grow?” – Pippa Tallant (Co-owner of CROSSBAR), @bhafcwomen

(Set Piece Social, Instagram)

Alongside the praise for these initiatives, they have also sparked controversy, with people asking, whether this a window into a brighter future for female sport and sports fans or if the gender-based split will halt the progress of drawing mass appeal to women’s sport.

My initial reaction was with the latter. Creating a dedicated space for women’s sport could serve to legitimise its neglect in current spaces and therefore reduce its visibility among the broader sports audiences that tend to watch sport in more established venues. It makes it sound political – this bar versus that bar, the feminist versus the traditionalist. And yet the reality is that, these dedicated spaces serve to shed the politicisation of fandom and create an environment where inclusivity sits front and centre, a space where women’s sport is the default, a space that’s neutral and inclusive to all, where both new and lifelong fans can exist without the prying eyes of gendered assumptions.

My belief and hope is that women can and will attend both types of bar, as will men. So the idea that these spaces serve to divide people into this camp versus that camp evaporates when you look deeper into the impact this has on the individual and the community they foster. They create real, tangible and meaningful change in the fan experience.

              “Normally it’s just ‘Here’s all the men’s football’ and then brackets women’s football. So, it’s great to have a place where you can come and watch the football and feel safe” – CROSSBAR customer, BBC Sport

              “When you go to a lot of bars and it’s male-dominant, they then dominate the bars over women, and a lot of women don’t feel safe in those spaces.” – CROSSBAR customer, BBC Sport

The Brand Opportunity

The opportunity for brands goes far beyond logo placement or tournament visibility. The real value lies in working closely with clubs, rights holders and athletes to build always-on communities that sustain fandom between the tentpole moments.

According to the Decoding 360 study, investing in the local community is the most widely shared expectation of sponsors from female sports fans. That might mean investing in grassroots programmes, creating year-round fan experiences, supporting local initiatives or amplifying player voices beyond matchdays. Women’s sport is on a powerful upward trajectory, but there is still significant room to grow its everyday presence. Brands that take a thoughtful, long-term approach, embedding themselves into the fabric of these communities rather than appearing only at peak moments, have the chance not just to benefit from that growth, but to actively shape it.

Brands could bring this to life by investing in always-on fan hubs, both physical and digital, that give women’s sport a consistent home between the headline moments. They could empower a new generation of female fan creators, providing platforms and production support to tell authentic stories that grow the community from within. Alternatively, they could launch season-long challenges that run alongside the league calendar, keeping engagement high and giving fans a reason to stay connected week in, week out. Small, sustained interventions like these can turn spikes of interest into lasting loyalty.

The case studies are already starting to emerge. In 2020, Adidas launched the Breaking Barriers Project, which focused on unlocking opportunities for women and girls both on and off the pitch in the sports industry. Adidas has proved their commitment to backing women’s sport from the ground up, not just jumping on the back of seasonal victories, but actually investing in understanding and addressing the day-to-day challenges that women face in sport.

Cadbury’s Game Changing Wins series took a different approach by shining a light on champions of women’s football who are already showing up in communities. Among the recipients of the award are women who have created safe and supportive environments for young girls to build their confidence in sport. These community-first approaches are a blueprint for how brands can back women’s sport authentically.

The summer of women’s sport created cultural momentum, pulling in fans both new and old to become the defining force of 2025. In 2026 that surge of empowerment has fuelled a growing desire for everyday spaces that make the joy and energy of those big moments as visible and accessible in our lives as we want them to be. From sports bars to sponsors, the change is in motion, and with heightened presence comes enduring growth.