Women in sports – a conversation that once exclusively revolved around formulas required to meet gender equity standards, is now spinning around fan interest at warp speed. Yes, female professional and collegiate athletes are drawing sizable crowds around the world, with more televised visibility and fandom than ever before. In what has conventionally been a male-dominated sports world, women are closing the gap, scoring lucrative endorsements and making their mark on newly designed courts, fields, and ice — as athletes, sports analysts, and even men’s program coaches. Women are changing the game.
Performance, period.
For the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), the proof is in the performance. No longer on thin ice, the program is building a dynamic movement on a global stage, attracting several big sponsors, including Discover, Midea, Intact Financial, and Canadian Tire. In January 2025, SportsPro reported that Minnesota Frost’s victory over the Montréal Victoire attracted a crowd of 14,018 at Denver’s Ball Arena, nearly doubling the average and setting a new U.S. attendance record for PWHL games (Islam, PWHL sets new US women’s ice hockey attendance record, 2025). In comparison, according to the most recent NHL analysis on SoundofHockey.com (Barr, 2025), men’s average league-wide attendance is just under 17,500, demonstrating how quickly women’s hockey is closing the gap.
Technically, the movement first began with the WNBA, where Statista reported that in the 2024 regular season, the average game attendance rose to 9,807; an increase over the previous two years, but the highest average attendance in the last 22 years. Statista also reported that the average TV viewership of the WNBA reached around 505,000 per game in 2023; over double the figures from 2021 (Statista, 2024).
Stepping Into a New Era
When the WNBA’s Caitlyn Clark signed an NIL deal with Nike as a student-athlete at Iowa, she started a basketball bidding war that Nike won, reportedly landing a $28m deal and signature sneaker (Caampued, 2024). Fans had been glued to her collegiate performance for four years before joining the WNBA.
Brands like Nike, Adidas, and Visa have also partnered with women’s soccer stars, including Megan Rapinoe, Ballon d’Or, and Alex Morgan – who managed to secure 27 brand deals in 2022 (Keech, 2023). The list of female athlete endorsements is now miles long, growing brand and buyer strength every year.
The high-profile corporate interest is not solely limited to sneakers though, it’s also lured in prominent league investors. The WNBA’s 2026 expansion to Canada kicked off with the Toronto Tempo franchise, which has won the owner investment of tennis legend Serena Williams, with former WNBA player Monica Wright appointed general manager (Dalzell, Toronto Tempo’s latest announcements show WNBA franchise is on the right track, 2025).
Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league supported by notable women athletes, including Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Michelle Wie West, has drawn the founding brand partnership of Ally Financial, as well Under Armour, providing the performance outfitter and official uniform partnership (Unrivaled (basketball)).
In March, the NBA’s Stephen Curry, a long-time proponent of women’s basketball, also stepped to the line for Unrivaled, announcing his formal investment in the league, which is reportedly aiming for the highest average salary of any women’s professional sports league, in addition to player equity and revenue sharing (Dalzell, Stephen Curry’s latest announcement will benefit Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese — and all of Unrivaled, 2025).
The world’s biggest brands and celebrities already get it, and professional and collegiate institutions are beginning to embrace it. It’s not about gender, it’s about unparalleled performance, period. And just like men’s sports, fans want to follow the story that grew the star.
Viewership Evolving
The collegiate institutions JLG works with, as an architecture firm that designs courts, fields, and arenas, know that fans are following the journey of exceptional women athletes from high school and college to the pros. With the establishment of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2012 and the Professional Women’s Hockey League in 2023, there’s now a lot more stars for fans to follow.
According to recent US Consumer Insights, “Viewership of women’s sports in the US is growing in popularity, reaching 18% in 2024 and rising by four percentage points from the third quarter of 2023,” as reported by S&P Global (Nissen, 2024). More of these insights revealed “Nearly two-thirds of those watching NCAA women’s college basketball and FIFA women’s soccer are men. Half of WNBA viewers are men.” As reported by Sports Media Watch, last year’s game featuring Clark and Iowa against Nebraska drew an astonishing 3.02 million viewers.
Athletic Architecture
So, what do women’s viewership and endorsements have to do with architecture? Everything. If fans are following the story of female athletes, they’re also being exposed to the often televised or immersive environment of game day. Not only do the quality of fields, rinks, and courts matter to fans, but they also matter to recruits. Top-tier athletes want top-tier facilities and amenities, regardless of gender.
JLG Architects may have grown its roots in the Midwest, but the team’s athletic prowess is in demand across the U.S., working quietly behind the scenes in the development of several new D1 women’s programs and PWHL programs.
“Today’s emerging pros want collegiate environments that understand student-athlete needs and prioritize equitable locker rooms and access to sports medicine, health & nutrition, and state-of-the-art training,” said JLG Architects’ Miranda Deutz. “They also want to give their fans an extraordinary experience, a destination that draws all ages, builds excitement, and delivers high-performance entertainment — preparing them for the pros.”
At the University of Michigan, Jenna Trubiano, a former women’s head coach, now Advisor to the Board of Regents, leads the recruitment charge, saying, “At the end of the day, everybody should have at least access to the same things. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re a male or female athlete. Everybody’s there to go to school and play their sport.”
Margot Miller, Director of girl’s hockey at Grand Forks Youth Hockey, agrees. “If girls see that they have the same access and opportunities as boys, they’re more likely to believe they can pursue hockey seriously, whether at the amateur, collegiate, or even professional level,” she said. “Increased participation also creates more role models, from grassroots to elite levels, which is essential for the continued growth of women’s hockey. At the end of the day, equal access to ice time isn’t just about fairness — it’s about investing in the future of the sport and ensuring that every player, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to succeed.”
Building Better
Historically, if women wanted to compete, they had no choice but to play in facilities specifically designed for men. They made it work for far too long, but they certainly shouldn’t have to now. This is the equivalent of starting every game knowing you’re going to stay in second place.
Designing cross-country, JLG Architects believes it’s no longer about just supporting the idea of creating opportunities for women to play competitive sports but rather about providing entertainment the public demands. “In the past, we as sports developers and designers may have thought we were being helpful and supportive simply by providing opportunities post-amateur in an almost altruistic way, as if it were just for the athletes. This misses the point that athletes are athletes and sport is sport. If there is a market for good competitive and entertaining sport, let’s support that, and in these cases those athletes happen to be women,” said JLG Architects’ Randy Lieberg, AIA, CIRM.
“The way the world thinks of women’s sports has dramatically changed,” said Michelle Mongeon Allen, CEO, JLG Architects. “It’s exciting to see the momentum and know that our team is a leader in the charge. This means facilities specifically designed for women, or at the very minimum, facilities equitably designed to support the scheduling, amenities, and needs of both men and women.”
JLG Architects has worked hard to change the country’s athletic perspective, spending decades executing solutions that move the needle in both men’s and women’s sports, with others following suit. This team was part of the early development conversations of the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, which kicked off a January 2024 inaugural season. Based on previous work with women’s programs, the woman-ran firm was also recommended to assist the Minnesota Frost. With the firm’s CEO, Michelle Mongeon Allen, and a powerhouse team—including Randy Lieberg, the nation’s only Certified Ice Rink Manager/Certified Ice Technician Architect, and Jason Marshall, former NHL player Architect, this team is hard to beat in both men’s and women’s athletic facilities.
At Sacred Heart University, the firm designed for women right from the start, creating an equitable Women’s Hockey suite with access to the same top-tier amenities as the men’s suite, including personalized custom lockers and a team lounge in proximity to a video review theater, sports medicine suite, and state-of-the-art strength training facilities.
Augustana University’s Midco Arena also pushed for equitable athletics in Sioux Falls, SD, where JLG Architects created a full team suite for the University’s Women’s Soccer program, including dedicated coaching offices, team lounge space, and customized team locker space. This arena is multi-use, the new hub of Augustana’s athletic district, housing strength and conditioning and sports medicine with hydrotherapy spaces for all Vikings athletic programs, paying no attention to traditional gender seniority.
In 2002, at the University of Minnesota, Gopher Women’s Hockey and Ridder Arena made history — as the first women’s collegiate hockey program to play in a facility dedicated solely to women’s ice hockey. In 2023, the University further invested in Women’s Hockey at Ridder, with JLG Architects and M.A. Mortenson pouring new concrete for a premium slab with energy-efficient refrigeration, improving ice quality for the Women’s Hockey program, with enhanced safety features for fans.
JLG Architects’ Sports Studio Leader Tom Betti made sure the Gopher Women’s project was done in time for the first puck drop in October 2023. “I love projects that reinforce change, and this was just one more milestone that demonstrates the University of Minnesota’s longtime commitment to growing women’s athletics,“ explained Betti. He is currently leading the design of the Mosaic Quarter in Tucson, AZ, following more than 50 ice arena projects across the country, including the Anaheim Ducks training facility, Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, CA; Phoenix Coyotes training facility, Ice Den in Scottsdale, AZ; and Elk River Ice Arena & Community Center; Elk River, MN.
JLG Architects’ Adam Barnett has a vested and personal interest in growing women’s athletics – both of his daughters are Minnesota hockey players. “I want my daughters to have the opportunity to play in truly equitable facilities where they ultimately feel just as valued as any of the men’s teams,” added Barnett. “Adapting to less based on gender sets a second-rate standard I don’t want them to have to live by. If we want to grow great women athletes, it starts with equitable facilities, amenities, locker rooms, sports medicine, and training.”
Unwelcome Targets
Savvy fans and veteran athletes have grown tired of seeing women athletes share or inherit the leftovers of facilities made for men, if they have space to play at all.
As a former player and women’s ice hockey coach for the University of Michigan Wolverines, who now serves as an advisor to the University’s Board of Regents, Jenna Trubiano has lived through the challenges outdated facilities impose on female athletes. Throughout her youth hockey career, inequitable facilities put an unwelcome target on her back.
“When I was the only girl playing with boys, they put me in a storage closet and they were required to put a magnet on it that said, ‘girl’s locker room’ – and it was pink. That’s great to notify everybody, but then all the boys would come knocking on my door trying to get me to come out,” Trubiano recounted. “Today, if I were to go to the front desk and say that I’d like my own locker room, they would have to honor that, or they should, but sometimes facilities fill up and there are no other options.”
In Grand Forks, Miller wants her team to grow into women’s hockey with a different story. “When girls have equal access to ice time, quality coaching, and proper development programs, they’re able to reach their full potential,” she said. “This doesn’t just benefit individual players—it strengthens women’s hockey as a whole. More opportunities lead to stronger competition, which in turn raises the level of the game and inspires the next generation of players. It also fosters a sense of belonging and confidence in young athletes, showing them that they deserve a place in the sport just as much as anyone else.”
Righting the Wrong
Universities are ramping up investment in women’s athletics because it’s paying off in performance. “The resources and assets have improved, and so has the talent level, the skill, and the overall numbers,” said Brian Idalski, Head Women’s Hockey Coach at St. Cloud State University. “It all goes hand in hand. You don’t have to be a genius, whether internationally or collegiately, to go find who spends resources and then find out how they finish – it’s basically one for one.”
Although each sports architecture endeavor takes steps in the right direction—a chance to right the wrong—a full transformation is still a work in progress, pending funding, space allotment, donor support, program structure, program performance, increased media exposure, and fan demand.
Architects don’t have a crystal ball, but they can certainly confirm that women athletes are flipping the game in their favor – finally getting what they’ve already earned. “We have to find out what is important to both male and female athletes; what will help them be a successful athlete; and what would make them feel safer and more comfortable within their facility,” said Deutz.
Works Cited
Barr, J. (2025). NHL Attendance Report 2024-25. Sound of Hockey, https://soundofhockey.com/2025/02/11/nhl-attendance-report-2024-25/#:~:text=The%20average%20attendance%20league%2Dwide,since%20the%202012%2D13%20season.
Caampued, A. (2024, May 6). A History of WNBA Athletes’ Signature Sneakers. Sole Savy, pp. https://solesavy.com/a-history-of-wnba-athletes-signature-sneakers/.
Dalzell, N. (2025, March 11). Stephen Curry’s latest announcement will benefit Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese — and all of Unrivaled. SB Nation, pp. https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2025/3/11/24382263/stephen-curry-unrivaled-womens-basketball-golden-state-warriors-investor-sabrina-ionescu-milaysia.
Dalzell, N. (2025, March 11). Stephen Curry’s latest announcement will benefit Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese — and all of Unrivaled. SB Nation, pp. https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2025/3/11/24382263/stephen-curry-unrivaled-womens-basketball-golden-state-warriors-investor-sabrina-ionescu-milaysia.
Dalzell, N. (2025, March 10). Toronto Tempo’s latest announcements show WNBA franchise is on the right track. SB Nation, pp. https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2025/3/10/24381875/toronto-tempo-wnba-expansion-monica-wright-general-manager-serena-williams-ownership-group.
Islam, A. (2025). PWHL sets new US women’s ice hockey attendance record. SportsPro, https://www.sportspro.com/news/pwhl-womens-ice-hockey-attendance-record-denver-january-2025/#:~:text=Minnesota%20Frost%27s%20victory%20over%20Montreal%20Victoire%20attracts,for%20a%20professional%20women%27s%20ice%20hockey%20game.
Islam, A. (2025, January 13). PWHL sets new US women’s ice hockey attendance record. SportsPro, pp. https://www.sportspro.com/news/pwhl-womens-ice-hockey-attendance-record-denver-january-2025/#:~:text=Minnesota%20Frost%27s%20victory%20over%20Montreal%20Victoire%20attracts,for%20a%20professional%20women%27s%20ice%20hockey%20game.
Keech, D. (2023, January 24). Women in Sports 2022: Alex Morgan Most Endorsed Female Athlete of 2022. ONFOCUS, pp. https://www.onfocus.news/women-in-sports-2022-alex-morgan-most-endorsed-female-athlete-of-2022/.
Nissen, K. (2024, December 19). Viewership of women’s sports in the US is on the rise. S&P Global , pp. https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/research/viewership-of-womens-sports-in-the-us-is-on-the-rise.
Statista. (2024, September ). Average TV viewership of the WNBA regular season from 2016 to 2024. Statista, pp. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236723/wnba-regular-season-viewers/.
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