Announced at the Power of Women’s Sports Summit in New York, the collaboration will focus on strengthening the pathways, infrastructure and leadership pipeline surrounding women’s sport, connecting opportunities created on the playing field with those that can ultimately reach the boardroom.

A $3 billion opportunity

The partnership comes at a significant moment for women’s sport.

Global revenues are projected to reach $3 billion in 2026, while women’s sport now accounts for around 15% of all sports media coverage, up from approximately 3–5.5% just a few years ago.

But the growing commercial market tells only part of the story. Deloitte research points towards a strong relationship between participation in sport and subsequent leadership development.

In a 2023 Deloitte survey, 85% of women who had played sport said the skills they developed through participation were important to their career success. Among women in leadership positions, that figure rose to 91%.

For Lara Abrash, chair of Deloitte US, those figures demonstrate why investing in women’s sport should be viewed as an investment in leadership as well as participation.

“Sport is one of the most powerful leadership accelerators, and the evidence is clear—the skills built in competition are the same ones that make exceptional leaders.”

Potential being left on the field

Despite the rapid growth at the elite end of women’s sport, significant challenges remain further down the pathway.

Research from the Women’s Sports Foundation cited by Deloitte shows that girls drop out of sport at nearly twice the rate of boys, with close to half stepping away during adolescence, around the ages of 13 to 14.

There has also been a substantial shift in female representation in coaching. In 1972, women coached around 90% of women’s teams. Today, that figure stands at approximately 41%.

The concern is that every departure can have consequences extending far beyond the loss of an athlete. It potentially reduces the number of future coaches, administrators, executives and leaders progressing through sport.

Abrash believes the contrast between the commercial momentum surrounding women’s sport and the continuing loss of talent from the pipeline represents a significant missed opportunity.

“At the very moment women’s sports is breaking records, too much of that potential is being left on the field.”

From youth sport to the boardroom

The collaboration will seek to combine Billie Jean King’s decades of advocacy and work creating opportunities for women with Deloitte’s experience in leadership development, organisational growth and business.

For Deloitte, the ambition is not simply to support women’s sport at the professional level, but to strengthen an ecosystem capable of developing people throughout their sporting and professional journeys.

“Developing leaders and building the infrastructure that enables organizations to grow is what Deloitte does,” Abrash said. “Together, we can help keep the pipeline of future leaders full—from the youth level all the way to the boardroom.”

It is an important distinction. The growth of women’s sport is increasingly measured through rising broadcast audiences, sponsorship agreements, attendances and valuations. But its wider impact also depends on whether that growth creates sustainable opportunities for women and girls throughout sport.

Keeping girls participating through their teenage years, increasing opportunities for female coaches and developing clearer routes into administration and leadership could therefore become as important to the long-term success of women’s sport as continued growth in revenues and audiences.

King looks to the next generation

Few people have done more to transform the landscape of women’s sport than Billie Jean King. Her involvement gives the partnership a powerful intergenerational dimension: progress achieved by one generation becoming the platform from which another can advance.

For King, that responsibility to those coming next sits at the heart of the collaboration.

“My generation’s job is to support those who follow in our footsteps. Deloitte brings the leadership development and business-building capabilities this moment needs, and I’m excited to be building what comes next in women’s sports with them.”

Deloitte says the collaboration is intended to turn the current momentum behind women’s sport into meaningful growth for future leaders while also advancing its commercial future.

Converting momentum into lasting impact

Women’s sport appears to have entered a new phase. The question is increasingly moving from whether there is a commercial market to how that growth can be converted into lasting impact.

The Deloitte and Billie Jean King collaboration puts leadership development firmly within that conversation. It suggests that the value created by women’s sport should not only be measured by what happens inside stadiums and arenas, but by the opportunities created beyond them.

If the skills developed through sport can help create future business and community leaders, then keeping girls engaged and creating pathways for women to progress becomes both a sporting and economic imperative.

The $3 billion revenue projection demonstrates how rapidly women’s sport is changing. The bigger opportunity may now be ensuring that the people participating in that growth have the chance to shape what comes next.