Serena and Venus Williams have always attracted eyeballs during their tennis tournament play, and the women’s Olympic teams have captured our hearts, but the always-on excitement for women’s sports has only begun picking up speed in the last few years. In fact, McKinsey found that from 2022 to 2024, women’s sports generated revenue 4.5x faster than men’s sports. 

This past season, Detroit set a record for attendance at a Professional Women’s Hockey League game. And WNBA ticket sales were up a whopping 93% in 2024 and are sprinting ahead of that gain at 145% this season. There’s a reason for the WNBA fervor in particular: The league is filling out with top-tier talent and new teams, like the Golden State Valkyries, who have celebrated their first season with a league record-breaking 10,000 season tickets sold. The WNBA is planning to add five more teams over the next five years.

All of that league investment is because fans are investing, and Lyft data proves it. On average, WNBA games have seen a 20% increase in Lyft rides this year, with the Indiana Fever boasting a 26% increase in rides to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Connecticut Sun showing a 44% increase in rides to Mohegan Sun Arena, and the New York Liberty showing a 60% increase in rides to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (note: Lyft is a rideshare sponsor of the New York Liberty). 

But the excitement for women’s sports isn’t just happening inside the arena. It’s also trickling out to the city streets, where sports bars featuring women’s sports are popping up more and more frequently—and people are flocking to watch their favorite female teams. In San Francisco, Lyft data reveals that rides to LGBTQ+/women-oriented bars like Mother, Rikki’s, and Scarlet Fox are 30% higher on days that the Valkyries play than on other days. 

The Sports Bra, a Portland, Oregon–based women’s sports bar and restaurant, just announced four other openings in Las Vegas, Boston, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. If the Portland vibes continue in the bar’s new cities, women will be flocking to the locations during women’s sports events: Lyft data shows that rides to the Sports Bra double on days that the Portland Thorns — the National Women’s Soccer League team — play. Seventy-eight percent of these riders are women.

The “if you build it, they will come” mentality was justified: People are coming now, in droves. And there isn’t sign of a slowdown any time soon.