Soccer it’s one of the fastest-growing categories in global sport. In the U.S., MLS is being valued like a growth asset ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Globally, women’s elite sports are pulling in investment and attention at a pace few industries can match.
$23 billion
Combined value of MLS’s 30 franchises in 2026, up from $2 billion in league revenue.
340%
Increase in global women’s elite sports revenue since 2022 — projected $3 billion in 2026.
75,673 fans
MLS opened its 2026 season with the largest opening-day crowd in league history — the second-highest single-game attendance ever recorded.
$911 million
Projected 2026 matchday revenue in women’s elite sports — fans are showing up in person, not just watching from home.
Every part of the sport, men’s and women’s, clubs and leagues is being valued like a growth asset. That demand is showing up off the field, too: the number of U.S. bars dedicated to women’s sports quadrupled in 2025 alone, from 6 to roughly 24.
This growth depends on trust, and trust is fragile across the entire industry.
Every stadium that fills up, every new sponsor that signs on, and every new fan that shows up is a bet on trust that the people inside the game, on the field and around it, are being looked after. That trust isn’t automatic, and it isn’t evenly distributed. The data below shows where it’s already being tested.
29% more likely that Women’s World Cup players were targeted with abusive or discriminatory messages than men’s World Cup players.
21% / 11% — Female vs. male athletes reporting childhood sexual abuse in sport — only 7% of women ever disclose it.
This is an industry-wide gap in prevention and reporting at every level of the game.
The same trust driving this growth disappears fast when safety fails, the money moves to whoever protects it.
Sponsors don’t wait to see how a crisis resolves. In 2022, following investigations into institutional abuse in both the NWSL and Hockey Canada’s men’s program, sponsors including Alaska Airlines, Tim Hortons, and Nike pulled or redirected their funding within days. Some of those same sponsors kept investing in the parts of the sport where trust held.
Protecting trust isn’t a values exercise. It’s how a club protects ticket sales, memberships, and sponsorship revenue from walking out the door.
2022 — NWSL institutional abuse investigation.
Alaska Airlines, KeyBank, and Tillamook pulled or redirected sponsorship within days of the report.
📎 Source
2022 — Hockey Canada men’s program investigation
Tim Hortons, Scotiabank, Canadian Tire, Telus, and Nike pulled funding — several permanently.
📎 Source
2025 — San Diego FC inaugural home match.
Homophobic chanting heard three times in front of 34,506 fans; club publicly addressed it same night.
📎 ESPN
2025 — Women’s sports bars quadruple in the U.S.
From 6 to roughly 24 dedicated venues in a single year demand is showing up in person.
The Strong Side exists to protect this trust — turning it into people who actually look out for each other, and into ticket sales, memberships, and sponsorships that last.
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