Despite whatever the name suggests, Softball packs a pretty punch. It might not find itself among the ten most-watched sports in the country, but its growth outpaces even the top-fives. The Oklahoma University’s sports revenue report once again highlights the growing potential of Softball. 

It’s the first time in 2024, that Oklahoma University crossed the $200M mark in operating expenses and revenue. But the real surprise was the numbers on Soft Ball. The Oklahoman reported that the OU Softball ticket sales were more than $2.6M. Let’s put that into perspective:-

• The Softball ticket sales were more than the men’s and women’s basketball combined, and $600K over men’s basketball. 
• 80% of ticket sales among women’s sports were from softball. 
• Softball’s total revenue of $4.1 dwarfed the women’s basketball revenue of $3M.

The unprecedented growth follows years of quiet progress. The Athletic reported that last year, for a regular-season home series in April, attendance topped 4,100 at each game. In just 11 games, the OU surpassed its single-season attendance record (43,647 across 30 games in 2018). 

Interestingly, OU’s Softball budget for 2024 was under $7M. Love’s Field, the home of Sooners, is the largest on-campus softball facility in the country. It cost the University of Oklahoma $47.9M of which $12M came as a donation from Love’s Travel Stops. 

Yet, Oklahoma’s domination of Softball was an unthinkable affair not too long back. Softball has been a west-coast affair since its inception in 1982. UCLA took home the title. The runner-up? Fresno State Bulldogs. The first 20 of the 23 championships went either to California or Arizona. Cut to 2024, 307 Division I softball teams competed compared to 245 in 2000 and just 143 teams in 1982. Looking back, it would appear that one game changed the course of history. And, now leaders are shaping the future.

How Carol Hutchins kicked off a chain reaction 

Carol Hutchins, the winningest coach in NCAA Softball history, changed the game. Hutchins has been a part of the Michigan Softball program since 1983. She never suffered a losing season and helped the Wolverines to clinch a multitude of records. And to everyone’s imagination, the 10-inning victory over UCLA in game three of the WCWS championship series infused a new lease of life to the sport. With time more and more institutions are spending big bucks on softball. 

• Northwestern and Stanford are invested in building new homes, both multimillion-dollar projects.
• Meanwhile, Devon Park expanded its capacity to 13,000, with an estimated $15M renovation.
• Florida State pumped $1.5 million into its athletics budget for the updation of the Seminole Softball Complex 

From concentrated pockets of Florida, Texas, and California, new stars are emerging out of Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and other states. Alabama’s Montana Fouts, Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo, and Tennessee’s Kiki Molloy rose to the occasion at the Women’s College World Series finals. The Softball roster includes names like NiJaree Canady and Maya Brady. The former is dominating Softball with a force not unlike Caitlin Clark. The latter, Tom Brady’s niece, has already decided to turn pro. She is what Tom Brady called “the most dominant athlete in the Brady family…by far.” That was in  2021.

Not a surprise that the graph of average attendance at the WCWS is going upwards. Notably, the 2023 series witnessed an average of 12,290 fans. An increase of around 30% since 2015, and a whopping 86% since the first WCWS in 1990. Broadcasters too have taken note. 

Last year, ESPN platforms broadcasted or streamed 3,000+ regular-season NCAA Division I softball games. It paid dividends. Regular season viewership shot up by 25 percent from a decade ago making it the most-watched season since 2015. Consequently, TV viewership is also on the rise. 

The Woman’s College World Series finals reached a record-breaking 1.85 million viewers in 2021. A year later, it outpaced the Men’s CWS championship with 1.6 million viewers. Last year, the WCWS Finals between Texas and Oklahoma averaged 2 million viewers, marking a 24% Y-O-Y from 2023 and setting a new record for the most-watched WCWS Finals. 

If the viewership highlights the robustness of its current state, then the future projections highlight the massive scope for growth. From participation in the sport to the revenue generated from it, Softball is just on the verge of a breakout. 

Is Softball the Next WNBA? The Numbers Say Yes

NCAA data reveals that approximately 344,592 female athletes participate in high school Softballs annually. 6.3% of those athletes compete at the collegiate level compared to 3.6% in men’s basketball, and 4.5% in women’s basketball. 2% of Softball players go on to take part in NCAA Div I matches, vis-a-vis 1.0% and 1.4% in men’s and women’s basketball, respectively. While basketball still remains the most popular girls’ program in high schools (17,881), Softball is rising fast (15,406) as the 2022-23 High School Participation Survey reveals. 

Per NCAA’s projections, Softball programs at Power Five conference schools are likely to distribute an average of $80,434 to approximately 23 players. That equates to roughly $3,542 per athlete in a year. The University of Oregon has taken the lead. The Oregon Ducks are looking to distribute $190,539 among 20 players, with each athlete pocketing $9,527.

If anything, the increased footprints of brands in the Softball NIL space further vindicates the untapped potential of the sport. NiJaree Canady has inked a deal with Adidas. Canady, the 2024 USA Softball Player of the Year, had a meteoric rise to fame quite reminiscent of Caitlin Clark. Like Clark, Canady also takes a keen interest in setting new milestones– she was clocked at 75 mph in the 2023 WCWS – in her early 20s, drawing comparisons with the legends. 

In fact, the former pro turned ESPN analyst Monica Abbott once conceded, “I don’t know — can NiJa be the Caitlin Clark of softball? I kind of believe she can.” Canady actually signed for Texas Tech inking a one-year deal north of $1M with the school’s Matador Club Collective.

These are the telltale signs that a sport is growing and is on the brink of a breakout success. The WNBA’s growing popularity was largely due to Caitlin Clark’s star power which was well complemented by future icons like Angel Reese, and A’ja Wilson. In the runup to its breakout, the WNBA also witnessed record-breaking attendance and staggering TV viewership numbers. Following that, it seems Softball is on a similar trajectory waiting to explode in time.