Section Z Gameday video at an Angel City FC soccer match. Section Z’s tagline is “It’s more than a ticket,” meaning attending a live game has lifelong benefits for girls. Section Z has partnerships with Angel City FC, the most valuable women’s sports team in the world and sports and live entertainment world leader AEG, and brings girls to WNBA games, including those of partner Los Angeles Sparks. Section Z also has a partnership with League One Volleyball (LOVB). The game day experience will include workshops and panel discussions, exposing girls to opportunities and showing them how great they can be.
Section Z: “It’s more than a ticket.”
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Sept. 18, 2024 – Prodege, a leading provider of consumer insights to Fortune 500 brands, and Section Z, a non-profit organization focused on leveraging the excitement of live sports to create opportunities for young women, today unveiled the largest and most inclusive, multi-generational, cross-sectional study about the impact of playing, watching, and attending live sports on girls and women in America.
Prodege and Section Z presented the study “Breaking Barriers: How Sports Set Women Up For Success” at the 2024 Corporate Researchers Conference on September 17th to a large and engaged audience. The presentation is available here.
Now is a pivotal time for women in sports as highlighted most recently by WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and Olympic and world gymnastics champion Simone Biles. The 2024 Summer Olympics was the first time an equal number of women and men competed, and women won more medals. The growing spotlight on athletes such as Clark, Reese, and Biles, among many others, combined with record-breaking viewership and support for women’s sports, is forcing brands to pay attention to the value of this audience. This is driving greater investment because brands are realizing that this audience is highly engaged.
The Prodege and Section Z report is the result of a landmark survey of nearly 5,000 girls and women aged 9 to 75 about their participation and engagement in sports, the largest sample of American girls and women on this topic. The extensive study, unparalleled in its scale and depth, captures current attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions about the full range of engagement in sports from playing and watching to attending live sporting events, thus adding depth to other recent research on the benefits of fanship.
The report was inspired by ongoing Harvard Study of Adult Development (aka “The Happiness Study”), which aims to answer the question of what makes people happy in life by following a group for 85 years to examine outcomes. The Prodege and Section Z survey design adapted that study’s approach by collecting and analyzing the experiences today of Gen Alpha, Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, and in the case of the adults, their childhood experiences.
The study shows the impact of the implementation of Title IX over 50 years ago – as each subsequent generation participated in sports significantly more than the previous. But perhaps the most important element of the research is a detailed analysis of the benefits girls receive from participating in sports. By comparing girls who participated in sports with girls who did not, we see significantly improved outcomes in socialization, self-perception, mental health, resilience, and careers, among others.
The survey also helps us understand the barriers to sports participation still faced by American girls and the significant long-term benefits of overcoming these obstacles.
Here are some selected highlights from the Prodege-Section Z study:
- Girls aged 9-17 who play sports are significantly more likely than girls who don’t participate to describe themselves as active, hardworking, a team player, outgoing, determined, and disciplined.
- They are also more optimistic and empowered than girls who don’t, being significantly more likely to agree with statements like “I feel like I can make a difference in the world.”
- Survey data indicate improved socialization and acceptance among girls who play team sports, as well as mental health benefits. Girls are less likely to say they feel depressed, anxious, nervous, worried, or lonely.
- Importantly, the study shows that the benefits of sports to young girls persist throughout their lifetime, providing critical life skills.
- More than half of all women agree that sports taught them critical career skills.
- Women aged 18-75 who played team sports as girls remain significantly more likely to report being healthy, proud of themselves, and happy with their body type and weight.
- They also report being good at trying again when they fail and working well with others.
- The study also examines the power of fanship – watching and attending live sporting events.
- 2 in 3 girls agree that seeing a game in person makes them want to play more
- 73% of girls agree that “there is a level of excitement going to a game in person that you can’t get anywhere else.”
- Despite progress over the years, access is not equal for all.
- More than 8 in 10 girls say they have barriers preventing them from participating. And girls from low-income households participate at significantly lower levels.
- The percentage of girls between the ages of 9-17 who participate in NO extracurricular activities is as high as 19% among girls in households that earn less than $25k and falls to 11% among $25k-75k households, 7% among $75k-$99k households and as low as 3% among those from households earning more than $100k.
- But when they can participate, it is just as important to them. About 70% of girls in all income groups agree that their team sport is “very important” to them.
We need to find ways to give more girls access to sports and keep them excited for longer! But how?
“We know girls can only aspire to be what they see. Representation is key. We have to show young women what’s possible. Taking them to games and exposing them to a wider range of career opportunities is exactly why I started Section Z,” said Section Z founder Stef Zeh. “We see that 93% of our participants want to play longer and get better after seeing women play in person. And by giving them the opportunity to hear from female executives that work in the sports world, they see that the fundamentals of athletics set them up for success.”
Section Z’s tagline is “It’s more than a ticket,” meaning attending a live game has lifelong benefits for girls. Section Z has partnerships with Angel City FC, the most valuable women’s sports team in the world and sports and live entertainment world leader AEG, and brings girls to WNBA games, including those of partner Los Angeles Sparks. Section Z also has a partnership with League One Volleyball (LOVB) whose inaugural season begins this January. The game day experience will include workshops and panel discussions, exposing girls to opportunities and showing them how great they can be.
Over the last two years, Section Z has:
- Served 1,500+ girls who have attended 44 live sports events.
- Built relationships within 4 leagues, including NWSL, WNBA, LOVB, and X Games.
- Reached student-athletes from more than 30 schools.
- Held workshops, panel discussions, and designed custom curricula.
“We focus on serving those who are otherwise left out. Once you realize the significant life outcomes that playing and watching sports provide, it becomes clear that we must work to make this opportunity available to all girls. By breaking down barriers to access and reinforcing girls’ potential we see remarkable outcomes,” commented Section Z board member Amy Snow. “The lessons learned through sports serve you throughout your lifetime. I know that from my own experience and this research proves it. We owe it to girls to remove barriers.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Section Z on this landmark study of girls and women in sports,” said Nicole Zwolinski, Prodege’s Senior Director of Marketing. “This ground-breaking survey underscores our commitment to Section Z’s critical mission for girls in sports while also highlighting our cutting-edge capabilities in audience research.”
Section Z’s Zeh and Snow, and Prodege’s Senior Director of Client Solutions Susan Stacey made the presentation at the 2024 Corporate Researchers Conference.
On another note, Prodege continues the fall season’s event tour with presentations on Oct 8 at TMRE 2024 (The Market Research Event) in Orlando with Procter & Gamble and Panera Bread. Join us as we continue to innovate and lead the way in delivering top-tier insights that drive impactful business decisions.
