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It’s not every day that fans can catch women’s volleyball at AT&T Stadium and Wrigley Field, women’s college basketball at the Intuit Dome or women’s ice hockey at Lambeau Field.
But all those events have happened or are planned for this season, with large-scale showcases expanding both in number and the opportunity they’re offering in collegiate sports.
As women’s sports have exploded in popularity, interest, attendance and viewership in recent years, women’s NCAA sports have found a bigger platform, new audiences and NIL opportunities in the growing number of events that are spotlighting a wider range of sports.
Far beyond invitationals that have populated non-conference basketball schedules for years, the growth has expanded to include volleyball, softball and other women’s sports.
Already this season, Spikes Under the Lights drew 40,000 to AT&T Stadium, and the Players Era Volleyball Showcase in Las Vegas drew 1.7 million weekend viewers on Fox, FS1 and FS2. Humid conditions didn’t dampen the Big Ten/SEC Challenge at Wrigley Field, with more than 43,000 fans attending and players dancing and mopping the court during weather delays.
Nebraska — a program that first set a world attendance record with 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium in 2023 — played in all three. While the Cornhuskers have remained one of the best volleyball programs in the country, it’s parity that is adding to the appeal of events.
“What’s interesting is the number of quality teams in women’s sports has grown significantly in the last few years,” said Seth Berger, CEO at Players Era. “So five years ago, a top-five versus top-20 women’s basketball game was not going to be close. Now these games are close. There are more really good players in women’s basketball and women’s volleyball. And so because of that, there’s more opportunity for event operators to create meaningful events.”
That growth helped Range Sports create the Hollywood Hardwood Classic, with the first women’s college basketball game in the Intuit Dome featuring USC and its star Juju Watkins, who is returning from an ACL tear, against Baylor in November.
Showcasing marquee matchups off campus — and having access to fan data from venues that event operators can market with — allows the events to draw in not only a larger audience, but a new one.
“It’s expanding the fan base beyond the core audience,” said Will Funk, co-president at Range Sports. “We can bring in fans that might be more casual fans into the event, making them aware of the event and providing a really high-end experience in a state-of-the-art arena like the Intuit Dome.”
It’s also providing NIL opportunities for female athletes. Several of the new events offer NIL pools. Berger said Players Era would do mid-seven figures in deals combined in its volleyball and women’s basketball events, with USC, Texas, Duke and South Carolina committed to the basketball showcase in December.
“If you look at our events, the best play here and the champions play here,” Berger said. “Because of that, those athletes deserve real financial opportunity.”
Wild Horse Sports also offers NIL opportunities with the launch of the Lone Star Series for basketball, featuring Texas, TCU, Ohio State and Utah State playing at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Founder Dennis Kazimir created Wild Horse Sports to focus on women’s sports events.
“It’s just an underserved market,” Kazimir said. “We’re seeing that on the women’s side. They’re not being given the resources necessary internally to be successful, so therefore they need to rely upon someone like ourselves.”
That’s especially true in other women’s sports, like softball or gymnastics, that don’t have the revenue and resources certainly of men’s sports, but also larger women’s sports like basketball.
Since 2019, ESPN Events has created events in softball (the Clearwater Invitational, launching in 2019), gymnastics (Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad in 2024) and volleyball (Broadway Block Party and Shriners Children’s “Showdown at the Net” in 2025). It has long held basketball events, including launching the Phil Knight Invitational in 2022.
Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events, said the growth of women’s sports checks all the boxes of providing programming, having market demand and generating revenue.
“When we started putting the softball event together, we saw pent-up demand from our conference partners,” he said. “Schools were looking for these kinds of showcase opportunities.”
“We have no shortage of teams looking for opportunities and we see no shortage of promoters out there looking to create opportunities.”
— Clint Overby, vice president, ESPN Events
So are brands, especially ones focusing their deals in women’s sports. Overby and Funk said sponsor interest has contributed to the growth.
“If you look at the marketplace with brands investing in women’s sports, that has accelerated dramatically,” said Funk. “We have brands that are literally looking for opportunities to support and integrate with women’s sports events and talent.”
Which means more are coming. Event operators expect the trend to continue upward.
As recent events have given fall sports a platform for wide appeal, organizers announced the Travel Wisconsin Frozen Tundra Faceoff. The February event will mark the first time hockey has been played at Lambeau Field in 20 years and the first time for women, with Ohio State and Wisconsin facing off in a doubleheader.
It’ll mark a milestone, but certainly not the last one, as the market for these types of women’s events continues to grow.
“We have no shortage of teams looking for opportunities,” said Overby, “and we see no shortage of promoters out there looking to create opportunities.”
Rachel Axon can be reached at raxon@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
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