ESPN viewers have been looking forward to soccer for a long time. They will now have more opportunities to watch a different take on the sport.
ESPN and the Women’s National Football Conference have expanded their rights agreement with a new two-year agreement that will keep the WNFC IX Cup Championship Game on ESPN2 and add the Disney-backed sports media giant to the mix for marketing the Women’s Tackle Football Pro League.
“I think this deal is important,” league founder and CEO Odessa “OJ” Jenkins said in an interview. He said the new deal is double the original one-year agreement between the league and ESPN and will allow ESPN executives to work on innovative marketing and promotional ideas. Additionally, it appears that the broader ESPN portfolio, including the newly acquired NFL Network as part of the NFL’s investment in ESPN, could be leveraged to strengthen the WNFC.
Under the terms of the agreement, the league’s championship game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 on Sunday, June 21 from the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas, a 12,000-seat stadium that is the practice home of the Dallas Cowboys.
“We want to hire the right people and bring more power and influence to this league,” Jenkins said. “And I think ESPN is where we’re looking to grow.” WNFC has partnered with streaming platform Victory+ and has partnered with a series of sponsors including Dove, Ridell and Adidas.
ESPN has been focusing on women’s sports in recent years, and this summer it will air “Women’s Sports Sundays,” which will feature games between the WNBA and NWSL, replacing the long-running “Sunday Night Baseball.” Jenkins is hopeful that there may be room for the new program to draw attention to the WNFC.
Susie Piotrowski, ESPN’s vice president of women’s sports programming, said in a recent interview that ESPN sees an opportunity to reach more viewers for emerging sports. “The audience is there. When we platformed the WNFC Championship Game on ESPN2, it was the most-watched program on the network that day,” she says. “We continue to show that when we make new sports available and accessible, we can reach new audiences.”
The WNFC is made up of 16 teams across the United States and includes players such as Leilani Kamal of the Golden State Storm, a new expansion team that debuted this season. Cassidy Snowdy of Kansas City Glory. Maria Jackson of the Texas Elite Spartans. Ashley Clark of the Washington Prodigy. And Michelle Angel is one of the top quarterbacks in the league and also plays on the Texas team.
“The more people know about us, the more people love this league,” Jenkins says of the league’s fan base. Seven years ago, before the recent boom in interest in women’s sports, finding new audiences “wasn’t that easy.” Now, with other women’s leagues gaining new momentum, “people can see what women are capable of, and fan attitudes have completely changed.” She has found that the growth of flag football has also helped increase interest in a professional women’s tackle football league.
“Once people know it exists, it’s actually pretty easy,” she says.
