Background:

When the Matildas became the main event

In August 2023, eleven million Australians stayed up to watch the Matildas play England in a World Cup semi-final. Pubs were packed, offices emptied and grown adults cried into meat pies.

...but it wasn't always like this.

For most of the last century, Australian women's sport was underfunded, under-broadcast and treated as a curtain-raiser.

• The AFLW only launched in 2017
• The NRLW wasn't properly contracted until 2022
• Women's cricket mostly played before the men arrived.

The shift started slowly: pay parity for the Matildas and Socceroos in 2019, plus a standalone broadcast slot for the WBBL that same year.

Then 2023 happened.

Football Australia's sponsorship revenue grew 150% between 2020 and 2023, almost entirely off the back of the Matildas' brand.

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Where we're at today:

They're green, they're gold and they're VERY bankable

Brand Finance valued the Matildas at up to $210 million after the World Cup, up from roughly $40 million, making them the nation's most valuable sporting brand at the time.

After their success, the Matildas jerseys were outselling Socceroos jerseys two to one.

But it's not just soccer either.

• The WBBL's 2024 season saw a 46% jump in TV audiences and 23% growth in attendance
• Netball led the pack with a 33% attendance surge.

In fact, a Victorian government-commissioned report found every $1 a sponsor invests in women's elite sport generates $7.29 in customer value.

But here's the awkward bit: most female athletes who compete in Australia are still part-time professionals - so it means many of the best Aussie players are heading to better-paying leagues in the US and England.

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Where to from here:

The pipeline has a payroll problem

The signs are improving. We've seen the AFL's $4.5 billion broadcast deal (2025 to 2031) include every AFLW game on Foxtel and Kayo. We've also seen Netball Australia strike a revenue share deal with a 40% pay rise over three years.

And top Australian sportswomen can now earn up to $1 million a year. Ash Gardner banked $558,000 from her Indian WPL contract for about a month's work, and Sam Kerr earned over $600,000 a year at Chelsea before endorsements.

The catch: most of that upside is happening offshore.

Australia has built the front end of a commercial women's sport economy. They've got a growing brand, top-selling jerseys, the ratings. But the back end (i.e. wages and domestic leagues) hasn't yet caught up.

So, the question isn't whether women's sport has commercial value anymore - it's who actually captures it.