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Combining knowledge from sport management, marketing, media, leadership, governance, and consumer behavior in innovative ways, this book goes further than any other in surveying current theory and research on the business of women's sport around the world, making it an unparalleled resource for all those who aspire to work in, or understand, women's sport. Featuring international perspectives, with authors from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and insightful, in-depth profiles of real leaders within different sectors of women's sport in the global sport industry, the Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport offers an integrated understanding of the ways traditional media and social media impact both the understanding and the advancement of women's sport properties, businesses, teams, and athletes. Innovative case studies show how societal issues such as gender, power, and framing impact the business of women's sports and those who work in women's sport. An essential reference for any researcher or advanced student with an interest in women's sport or women in business, and useful supplementary reading for researchers and advanced students working in sport business, sport management, mainstream business and management, or women's studies.

Pregnancy policies have been identified as a critical support for elite athletes during preconception and pregnancy. However, many sporting organisations lack such policies and the resources to create them. This study aimed to establish consensus of evidence-based policy and practice recommendations for supporting preconception and pregnancy in Australian elite athletes. A three-round modified Delphi survey was conducted with elite athletes and key stakeholders between 2nd October 2024 and 26th November 2024. A set of draft policy and practice recommendations was developed a priori using previous research. These were reviewed in Round I and those that did not achieve consensus (≥75 % agreement with no changes proposed) or were updated based on participant feedback were put through to a subsequent round and the process was repeated for a third round. The resulting recommendations were sent to the Australian Institute of Sport for their review and endorsement. Twenty-two, 15 and 13 respondents completed the surveys for rounds I to III respectively. Round I achieved consensus for nine recommendations, though edits were made to all 13 recommendations. Round II achieved consensus for 11 recommendations with edits to five recommendations and Round III achieved consensus for all five remaining recommendations. The final recommendations were reviewed by the Australian Institute of Sport and endorsed following minor revisions. This modified Delphi study achieved consensus on evidence-based recommendations to support preconception and pregnancy in Australian elite athletes, offering a comprehensive framework for sporting organisations to adopt and adapt when developing future pregnancy policies.

To examine the effects of exercise type (competitive match vs. VAMEVAL test) and playing position on biomarker responses in elite female soccer players, twenty-one athletes (seven each: defenders, midfielders, attackers) participated in this cohort-based study. Blood samples were collected before and 3 minutes after both a competitive match and VAMEVAL test, analyzing 19 biomarkers including metabolic, lipid, protein, inflammatory, and immune parameters. Significant effects (p<0.001-0.004; ƞ 2 p:0.36-0.59[large]) were observed in biomarkers reflecting energy metabolism (glucose), protein turnover (albumin), inflammation (tumor necrosis factor and C-reactive protein), and lipid profile (apolipoprotein-B) across conditions. Match play increased glucose levels in defenders and midfielders (p<0.003) and inflammatory markers (p<0.014) compared to VAMEVAL. Position-specific responses emerged: attackers showed higher urea (p=0.032) while midfielders displayed unique lipid profiles (p=0.033) post-match. These findings, supported by significant interactions (p<0.05), emphasize the importance of considering both exercise modality and playing position when developing personalized training and recovery strategies in female soccer, highlighting the distinct metabolic demands across positions and exercise conditions.

Background: The evolution of women’s football over the past three decades has been remarkable in terms of development, visibility, and acceptance, transforming into a discipline with growing popularity and professionalization. Significant advancements in gender equality and global visibility have occurred, and the combination of emerging talent, increasing commercial interest, and institutional support will continue to drive the growth and consolidation of women’s football worldwide. Methods: The purpose of this study was to present a bibliometric analysis of articles on the evolution of women’s football in terms of scientific production as well as its causes and motivations over the past 30 years (1992–2024). A total of 128 documents indexed in the Web of Science database were reviewed. Outcome measures were analyzed using RStudio version 4.3.1 (Viena, Austria) software and the Bibliometrix data package to evaluate productivity indicators including the number of articles published per year, most productive authors, institutions, countries, and journals as well as identify the most cited articles and common topics. Results: Scientific production on women’s football has shown sustained growth, particularly since 2010. Key research areas have focused on injury prevention, physical performance, psychosocial factors, motivation, and leadership. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain have emerged as the most productive countries in this field, with strong international collaboration reflected in co-authorship networks. Conclusions: The study revealed a clear correlation between the evolution of women’s football and the increase in scientific production, providing a strong foundation for future research on emerging topics such as the importance of psychological factors, sport motivation and emotional well-being on performance, gender differences at the physiological and biomechanical levels, or misogyny in social networks, thus promoting comprehensive development in this sport modality.

PurposeThe aims of this study are to, first, articulate the drivers for predicting rights fees in television sports programming on National Sports Networks (NSNs) and, second, to further investigate the interrelationships of the identified drivers.Design/methodology/approachThe entire annual (24-h days over 12 months) schedule of a NSN is assessed using a series of regression models to determine the drivers, magnitude (Study 1) and interrelationships (Study 2) of those drivers, on the rights fees paid (or received in some cases) by the network to (from) those sports properties.FindingsTV ratings are found to be a driver for identifying rights fees for television sports programs. However, there are other drivers to consider, including the very strong influence of off-the-field engagement. Another finding is the negative influence that deal length has on rights fees, with longer deals providing security but lower fees. The geography of the sports property also influences rights fees. The inclusion of female sports content resulted in lower fantasy sports participation (H1). Active fantasy sports participation has a positive relationship with television ratings (H2), rights fees (H3) and increased viewership of actual matches or games (H4).Originality/valueActive fantasy sports participation contributed positively to rights fees, and women’s sports content had an inverse effect on active fantasy sports participation. The association between the inclusion of female sports on broadcasts and fantasy sports participation requires intervention and further investigation into why this relationship is negative. The knowledge that participation in fantasy sports results in increased ratings and rights fees, that television ratings mediate the fantasy sports/rights fees relationship and that it supports the importance of fantasy sports for sports properties and media organizations.

This study examines the pivotal role of women’s participation in sports in the sociocultural metamorphosis of modern China, shedding light on the intricate dynamics among physical culture, gender norms, and societal transformation. By conducting a critical discourse analysis of publications by female sports activists during the Republican era, this study reveals how the portrayal of the female athlete’s body, as advocated by those authors with the aim of enhancing women’s self-awareness through modern Western practices, remains subtly entangled with masculine dominance through symbolic violence. Female sports educators’ reinterpretation of the “mind–body harmonization” concept integrates social and cultural dimensions that extend beyond the individual’s physical and mental well-being. It illustrates that women’s active engagement in sports catalyzed the localization of modern sports and significantly contributed to the reweaving of China’s sociocultural narrative. This process reshaped perceptions of gendered bodies, challenging established gender norms while unconsciously constructing new forms of masculine dominance in modern China.

Guided by network theory the purpose of this paper is to explore the consumption networks of Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) fans. Through an egocentric network analysis, the authors utilize hierarchical linear modeling to examine the strength of consumption ties among WNBA fans during the 2019 season. Initial results revealed an unexpected finding: the presence of participants who reported having no fan-to-fan ties, whom we term IsoFans. A second sample of men's basketball fans was then collected to serve as a comparative confirmation of the unexpected result, whereby IsoFans occurred in the men's sport sample at a much lower rate. In the third step of the study the authors examine the differences between WNBA fans consuming in isolation, IsoFans, and WNBA fans consuming with alters, whom we call Social Fans. Results from the hierarchical linear modeling of Social Fans revealed that attributes of both ego (i.e., focal fan) and alter (i.e., individual with whom ego shares a tie) affect the strength of fan-to-fan ties within the women's sport context.

Over the past ten years there has been a dramatic rise in female sport participation and accompanying female professional national leagues across multiple sports, yet research has not followed suit. Although there are known variations between female and male physiology, training protocols in female sport are predominantly underpinned by research undertaken in male athletes. The hormonal variability experienced by women across the menstrual cycle, as well as the menstrual cycle variability between women, may contribute to the complexity of conducting rigorous physiological studies, leading to a paucity of robust sports-specific research that can be confidently applied to female athletes. Moreover, barriers exist in female sport that potentially limit the ability to conduct research, including the lack of full-time programs and limited resources. Recently, there has been increased interest in the potential effects of fluctuations in the female sex hormones, progesterone and oestrogen, on sport performance across different phases of the menstrual cycle. However, current research evaluating the menstrual cycle and physical performance (such as strength, speed, aerobic fitness, and athletes’ perception of their performance) have shown inconsistent results. Additionally, methodological design across studies has shown little consistency, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions, which potentially prevents female athletes optimising their physical and sporting performance. It further impacts coaches and sports science researchers in their ability to provide appropriate training recommendations and educational opportunities. It is important to progress in female athlete research with an understanding of how the unique physiology of female athletes may influence their ability to physically perform in their respective sport, which requires representation in sports science research. This paper will provide an overview on current evidence and limitations within menstrual cycle research and provide considerations and directions for future research in this space within team sports.

This study was conducted to design a model of Iranian international women’s sport diplomacy. This research was performed qualitatively using the grounded theory strategy. The research population included documents related to the field of research, university faculty members and experts in the field of sports diplomacy, and women’s sport. Sampling was done purposefully via a snowball approach and the subjects were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. In this study, using the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (Grounded theory in practice, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1997), the existing documentation related to the field of research and interviews with participants (17 interviews) in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding in 5 sections: Causal conditions, context conditions, mediating conditions, strategies, and outcomes were analyzed. The analysis showed that paying attention to women’s sport diplomacy and using its capacity can lead to the development of peace, relations and security, economic development, socio-cultural development, and also the development of women’s sport.

This paper will show that sporting institutions that police the boundaries of women’s sports do so to keep sportswomen constrained in ways that men’s sports and male athletes are not. This paper explores three methods that sporting establishments have used to police and constrain women’s sports and sportswomen: the exclusion of women and the creation of different rules for men’s and women’s sports, the policing of international sporting administrations of which women can compete in women’s sports by invoking the specter of “gender fraud”, and the exclusion of trans women from sports by relying on conservative Christian notions of a gender binary motivated by a similar strain of homophobia that animated previous efforts to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage. Taken together, these three threads reveal that gender policing in women’s sports is not and has never been about “fairness” but about preserving heteropatriarchal systems of power that position women as weak and inherently less athletic than men.