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This post was created in partnership with Scripps
For years, professional women’s sports paled in comparison to men’s regarding audience size and brand recognition. Now, their popularity is booming across sports like flag football, volleyball, and hockey as fandoms grow and more girls participate in youth sports than ever before.
During a Brandweek 2026 panel co-hosted with Scripps, industry leaders sat down to discuss the growth of women’s sports and how they offer brands a unique opportunity for powerful partnerships.
Uplifting the athletes’ stories
Sherry Pitkofsky, SVP of marketing at Scripps Sports, moderated the panel and began by acknowledging that while audiences are growing, women’s sports need “consistent access” that goes beyond just airing the games.
“They need to be connected to the athletes. They need that shoulder programming, and they need that social media to engage them in a big way,” Pitkofsky said.
Sanya Richards-Ross, a gold medal-winning U.S. Olympian in track and field and host of Scripps Sports Network’s Beyond the Curve, agreed, saying that this moment is exciting because women athletes are finally getting a chance to tell their stories.
“It’s wonderful that the world is finally catching on to what we have always known: that women are phenomenal athletes, but even more so, incredible storytellers,” Richards-Ross shared.
Her show, Beyond the Curve, named after a track’s curved shape, brings on guests who share their stories as professional athletes and how they “push beyond their own curves to continue to be great.”
Suzy Kolber, an award-winning sports broadcaster and host of an upcoming Scripps Sports Network original series, said that by telling the stories of women athletes, they can claim their own identities.
“It’s not just a different version of men’s sports. It is its own sport with its own identity,” Kolber explained. “For a long time, women just needed a chance. And once there’s the opportunity, people will tune in and will stay.”
Kolber’s show on the Scripps Sports Network will focus on how athletes live in an “unconventional way” and find the courage to “step outside the box to follow their passion to find success.”
Powerful brand partnerships
As women’s sports build their fandoms, brands must follow to truly amplify the athletes, and partnering with women’s sports leagues offers unique opportunities.
Amy Scheer, EVP of business operations at the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), said that the PWHL is a single entity, giving brands a level of creativity not seen elsewhere.
“When you come in to be a partner with the PWHL, all ideas are on the table because we have control of our 12 teams; we have control of the league and what we can do. And so the brainstorming from a partnership point of view becomes a lot of fun because we really don’t have guardrails on what we do,” Scheer noted.
Scheer also explained that women’s sports deliver brands happy audiences. When people watch sports and cheer for their teams, they feel good, which leads to positive associations.
“Brands have an opportunity to connect with people and fans at a place that makes them happy,” Scheer explained. “You have the chance to connect with the community in a place where it fills their soul and is something that they believe in.”
And fans will patronize those partners because they feel that the brands support the same values that they do, she added.
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