With fans and money flowing to women's sports this year, where is the interest in football? Well, interest was there Sunday night in Frisco, Texas.
Hours after WNBA players Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese drew national attention on ESPN and NWSL games were broadcast on ESPN2, the Mississippi Lady Panthers won the fifth annual Women's National Football Conference championship game in front of thousands of fans at the Dallas Cowboys' Ford Center.
New sponsorship and digital media deals have helped the league grow in recent years, but CEO Odessa Jenkins is still fighting to secure investment to ensure WNFC can take advantage of an opportunity that may never come again.
Women's football is nothing new. Like softball, the sport drew thousands of spectators in the 1930s and spawned a separate league in the 1970s. But as men's football has gained more attention from sports fans, women have largely remained on the sidelines, even as other physical sports like rugby, lacrosse and hockey have established themselves as female athletes. The WNFC is one of several growing organizations that are changing that.
Flag elements
Girls' tackle football faces unique challenges. Team size and equipment demands require far more resources than other sports. Just access to quality fields is a challenge. Plus, there are fitness issues and parents of boys are reluctant to play the game.
Soccer, on the other hand, has few such constraints and has enjoyed explosive popularity, with the women's flag set to debut at the same time as the men's game at the 2028 Summer Olympics likely to further boost interest.
According to USA Football, the number of girls ages 6 to 12 playing flag football has increased by more than 200% since 2014 to more than 100,000.
“We're finding that girls and women want to play soccer at every level, from youth to senior level,” said Eric Mays, U.S. Football's managing director of high performance and national teams.
Next month, the NFL and ESPN will team up to broadcast a new NFL Flag Championship tournament in Canton, Ohio, that will feature more than 280 teams with players ages 9 to 18 and is like a Little League World Series for football. ESPN has said it plans to air the girls' games on its network as often as the boys'.
“We're really excited about the opportunity to show people around the country and abroad what flag football is all about and how competitive and elite our players are,” said Stephanie Kwok, the NFL's new executive vice president and head of flag football.
More than 25 states have made girls' flag football an official high school sport or are running pilot programs before doing so, and efforts to gain NCAA recognition continue. The number of girls playing on high school teams grew 86% from 2019 to 2023. At the participation level, the sport is already breaking through. And at the professional level, the American Flag Football League plans to launch a girls' tournament in 2025.
“For young girls, when they can see a clear path forward, it increases participation,” said Esmeralda Negron, co-CEO of women's sports at DAZN. “They think, 'Oh, I can go to college, I can play in high school.' It fosters passion and growth and dedication to the game.”
The WNFC has also embraced flag: The league announced a partnership with Gridiron Football in May and held a flag championship just hours before the tackle teams faced off on Sunday.
“Flag changed everything for us,” Jenkins says. Her goal now? “To build a complete pipeline from a 3-year-old flag player to a 12-year-old tackle player, or wherever we want to be,” she says.
But some worry that flagging could stifle the development of women's tackle football — limiting it to women could limit attendance — and tackle football could open up more roster spots for black women at the college level, where they are still underrepresented.
Sam Gordon appeared in an NFL commercial during the Super Bowl after playing for the boys' tackle team as a 9-year-old in 2012. But without a clear path forward growing up, Gordon eventually focused on football, playing collegiately at Columbia University.
In 2017, she and her father sued the Utah High School Activities Association, claiming it violated Title IX regulations by not offering girls' tackle football as an interscholastic sport. The three school districts settled the lawsuit in 2023, promising to promote girls' sports, including tackle football, and to research activities that might interest students.
“I'm not going to give up fighting for tackle football,” she said in an interview.
During that time, Gordon worked with Under Armour as a Flagside ambassador and camp leader.
“It's really great to have these big companies investing in us when before they were just opposed to anything,” she said. “It's great to see other people are interested… It's great to see people other than us wanting to move football forward for women.”
Investment Initiatives
Advocates of women's tackle football have looked at the millions of dollars being spent on fledgling men's tackle leagues like the AFFL, USFL and XFL and wondered when they'd get a chance to test the hypothesis that fans would rally behind high-level female athletes.
“One of the obstacles with football is that it is very specific. Men's “Gaming has been like that for a long time,” Gordon said. “I think we're starting to break down those barriers.”
Jenkins has made no secret of the league's interest in additional funding: An “Invest in WNFC” banner at the top of the league's website links to a two-page proposal seeking $1.5 million in seed funding while comparing WNFC on an equal footing with other recently launched leagues such as the LOVB, PLL and PWHL.
“We're like any other business. After five years of operating on a cash basis, you get the itchy backside and you get cold sweats,” she said. “We won't go out of business if we don't get investment, but we'll definitely miss the boat. crazy Now we will be missing out on the wave of women’s sports.”
Meanwhile, she continues to run the league on a tight budget. Players still haven't been paid, the league has eight executives in its offices. WNFC's creative director and head of brand marketing, Erin Harville, also works for the Portland Trail Blazers. The league's president is Elizabeth Jenkins, a former Charles Schwab executive and Odessa's wife.
“All the money that comes into this league is redistributed to team expenses,” Odessa said. “None of us get paid or anything like that.”
Many of the 16 teams operate as nonprofits, with the for-profit arm owning their intellectual property. Adidas has backed the league since its inception in 2019, and streaming platforms Caffeine and DAZN recently inked deals. The proposal lists revenue of $800,000 in 2023.
Jennifer Moody, owner of the Tampa Bay Inferno franchise in the Women's Football Alliance, another tackle league, has been making similar calculations for years. A former player herself, Moody founded the team after moving to the area in 2009.
However, in the current economic climate, increased travel and operating costs have made funding for this program increasingly difficult.
Moody, who also serves as the YMCA's administrative director, said his main motivation is the physical and mental benefits Inferno will provide to its players, but he also hopes the team will be an economic asset.
“We have many of us today who have put 20-plus years of personal and financial time and investment into our sport,” Moody said. “Would it be nice to have an investment that matches that? Absolutely.”
For Moody, it's been exciting to see money flowing into other emerging sports leagues, “but there's also frustration and a little bit of jealousy,” she added.
With funding, she believes the possibilities for girls tackle football are endless. But for now, Moody and other believers are focused on the turf in front of them.