South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley once vented her frustrations at the missed opportunities in women’s sports, especially basketball. In Aug. 2024, Staley appeared on the Forbes YouTube channel. She was asked how much potential money did women’s basketball miss out on, since investments started coming in only recently.
Staley shared that this is exactly what frustrates her the most. She asserted that there are many opportunities and a lot of money to be made in women’s sports, especially basketball, as it has been proven with how it’s been received globally in recent years.
“I think that’s been my frustration as the years have gone by, where we don’t capitalize. I don’t understand why people think we can’t be a billion-dollar industry. We can be, and people are seeing it now. We’re very popular. It’s probably not too late, but a little late if you’re really trying to get a return on your investment,” Staley said (2:39).
Last year, Staley and the Gamecocks were coming off their third national title run. They defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes by 12 points, 87-75, in the 2024 national championship game. They were not able to go back-to-back in the 2024-25 campaign, losing to the UConn Huskies in this year’s NCAA title game by 23 points, 82-59.
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Dawn Staley answers why it has taken this long for more investments to be on women’s basketball
In the same interview with Forbes, coach Dawn Staley was asked why it has taken this long for women’s basketball to be globally popular and for investments reel in.
She mentioned former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar and now Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark as the main driving force for the change in the women’s hoops landscape, with other top talents following suit in the movement.
“I think sometimes you need a unifier. I think Caitlin Clark has done a tremendous job at being that person that people want to see. It is the young, the old, she’s brought the different set of eyeballs on our game. Now, we’re being talked about on talk radio, all the talk shows, all the podcasts. And now we’re seeing not only Caitlyn, but all the rest of the talented young ladies that we didn’t dare to cover, for one reason or another,” Staley said (3:12).
“Now it’s popular thing to talk about women’s basketball, and it’s a great thing. I’m so happy that I’m alive and well to witness it, to see and to be a part of it,” she concluded.
Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks are looking to win their third national title in the last five years, fourth overall, in the upcoming 2025-26 college basketball season, which commences in Nov. of this year.
Also Read: “Grew Up in a Neighborhood That Was 100% Black”: When Dawn Staley Revealed Her Real Reason for Picking Virginia
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