Some of Australia’s highest-profile players, sports administrators and business representatives said that there has been a "light-bulb moment" in women’s sport, with large companies backing "increasingly widely broadcasted sports" such as Australian football, soccer and cricket, according to Sam Buckingham-Jones of THE AUSTRALIAN. The next year will be the "biggest for the nation’s televised women’s sports," as the W-League prepares, "for the first time," to show every game on Fox Sports, SBS Viceland and the My Football App, and 23 of the Women’s Big Bash League cricket matches will be shown on Seven and Fox Sports. Tens of millions of dollars are "being poured into women's sports" through sponsorship deals that are "increasingly valuable and visible." Commonwealth Bank recently launched a campaign to advertise its long-running, two-decade support for Australian women's cricket in a 30-second advertisement called "20 Not Out." Peter Allen, CEO of Scentre Group, which owns the W-League's major sponsor, Westfield, said, "We're really proud of Westfield's sponsorship of the W-League." Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop said, "There's definitely been a light-bulb moment in Australian sport for women's sport" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/24).
NIKE SIGNS WANG SHUANG: YUTANG SPORTS' Andrea Huang reported Nike and Chinese women's football int'l Wang Shuang agreed to a partnership, according to the Nike Football Sina Weibo account. Wang currently plays for Paris St. Germain. She won the 2018 Asian Football Confederation Women's Player of the Year award in November (YUTANG SPORTS, 12/26).
