CLEVELAND — Kent State basketball player Abby Ogle has her own brand of sports swag. It didn’t take much time to design.

What You Need To Know

  • A report by the firm Deloitte estimates women's sports revenue to eclipse $1 billion for the first time

  • The report estimated around $1.3 billion in revenue from women's sports by the end of 2023

  • Women's basketball accounted for 28% of the annual revenue

“My number is 22,” Ogle said. “And then I just wanted something that had my family’s last name in it, too. So, I threw Ogle on there. And then I was like, throw a name in front of it.”

It’s part of her name, image and likeness, or NIL deal. She learned about NIL from the football players she met on campus. She used their designer, and she gets a cut off each sale of the merchandise with her logo on it. She admitted this wasn’t part of the description of a student athlete when she arrived as a freshman.

“Growing up, you didn’t really see anything of athletes trying to put themselves out there and sell their own kind of stuff,” Ogle said. “So I never thought I’d be able to do that until this came out.”

A report by consulting firm Deloitte estimated that women’s sports revenue should eclipse a billion dollars for the first time. It estimated the totals will be $1.3 billion by the end of the year. That’s a 300% increase since 2021.

The report predicts commercial income will increase the most in 2024. Women’s basketball took in 28% of that revenue, which was the second-most of all women’s sports.

“Just knowing that a bunch of women are out here, just making money off who they are and how they sell themselves, I think is really important,” Ogle said. 

Barb Anthony is the Executive Director of Play Gap, a nonprofit that champions equity and accessibility for women’s sports. She said the billion dollar mark is a milestone, but is still a drop in the bucket compared to what men’s sports are pulling in.

“There are some men’s leagues that are making 20 times that, just singular leagues alone,” Anthony said. “So yes, it’s a win. And we still have more to do and the nice part is that people are realizing that women’s sports are fun and they’re marketable.”

Ogle said she’s just using this NIL deal to soak in some business skills while making some money on the side. She said this will help compliment the master degree she’s pursuing in sports administration.

“I get to see what works and what doesn’t and who will buy my stuff,” she said.

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