Surging professional women’s sports leagues and franchises are increasingly acquiring dedicated practice and office space, prompting projections that growing demand could translate into 5 million square feet of additional leasing and/or development by 2030. Analysts from JLL base the estimate on trends thus far this decade, including: expansion of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA); inauguration and subsequent expansion of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL); and the pending 2026 launch of the Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL).
A new report points to rising game attendance, broadcast and merchandise revenue and investment activity in what’s still a nascent market. WNBA franchise valuations jumped 180 per cent in 2025 as the league readies to add five more teams, including one in Toronto. Meanwhile, the PWHL has already added two additional teams since its 2023 launch, while recording 100 per cent growth in merchandise sales between from the first and second season.
In 2019, women’s professional sports accounted for just 1.2 per cent of total attendance when lumped in with six men’s leagues active in the United States (which, except for the National Football League, include Canadian franchises). Last year the quotient grew to 3.2 per cent, or 5.6 million of the total 177.2 million spectators in the bleachers and boxes. Total 2025 attendance still lagged pre-pandemic levels by about 1 per cent, whereas attendance at women’s professional sporting events increased by 162 per cent in the same period.
“In contrast to the major men’s sports leagues in the U.S., where the domestic market is largely saturated and gains in viewership and attendance are more incremental, women’s leagues have been on an aggressive growth trajectory — which is likely to continue as leagues expand, franchises gain brand recognition and fan culture matures,” observe Alexis Capers and Jacob Rowden, with JLL’s sports and entertainment and research divisions.
They calculate that women’s teams have collectively acquired about 1.2 million square feet of practice and office space for their sole use since 2020, with nearly 900,000 square feet coming into use since 2023. Perhaps more notably, the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) became the first women’s franchise to build a stadium for its exclusive use, which opened in 2024.
The analysts foresee that most existing professional women’s franchises should be in a position to obtain about 100,000 square feet of dedicated practice and office space during this decade if attendance and revenue growth continues at the current pace. That would equate to about 5 million square feet of collective expansion, not including potential further growth in the number of teams.
“As women’s leagues scale from an emerging novelty to an institutional entertainment product, their facility needs will grow in tandem and come to resemble major men’s leagues in terms of size and complexity,” Capers and Rowden theorize. “If leagues and franchises fail to cultivate dedicated fan bases, maintain steady improvements to infrastructure, improve the fan experience and develop the entertainment value of the on-field product, viewership and attendance numbers could begin to plateau after expansion strategies play out.”
