'We want the same opportunity to grow.' WNBA legend Sue Bird on women's sports at SXSW 2024

Before former WNBA champion Sue Bird and Jessica Robertson got into their 2024 SXSW discussion about the investment and growth of women's sports, Robertson needed to make sure she had her priorities in order.

"I want someone to update us in real time for the Nebraska, Iowa score," she said. "Should we all just watch it?"

Comments of "overtime" rang out. Plenty of audience members knew the stakes. Caitlin Clark and the No. 2 seeded Hawkeyes had engineered a comeback after being down 46-35 at halftime. After making it to OT, they held a slim 91-87 lead over the underdog No. 5 Nebraska in the Big 10 Championship game.

While Bird and Robertson talked, there was an underlying anxiousness in the audience. There were gasps when Iowa's Gabbie Marshall blocked Nebraska's Logan Nissley's 3-pointer. Murmurs when Hannah Stuelke missed both of her free throws to keep the score at 91-87 with 28 seconds left.

It might seem disrespectful, dividing attention between events. In reality, it's indicative of how far women's sports have come, with the women's college basketball game invading mainstream consciousness.

"Now look, now there's way more players that are quote unquote, household names. We're becoming part of the cultural conversation. It's not crazy to see highlights on ESPN anymore," Bird said.

How Alex Morgan brought Sue Bird, female athletes together

Robertson is a co-founder of "Togethxr," a media and commerce company centered around four of the world's greatest athletes: USWNT legend Alex Morgan, Olympics Gold Medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim, fellow Gold Medalist, swimmer Simone Manuel, and Bird — perhaps the greatest WNBA player of all time.

Morgan birthed the idea in order to elevate female athlete stories and to break what Robertson described as a vicious cycle in the women's sports space, where only a minute percentage of media coverage has historically been dedicated to the space.

"If only 4% of media coverage is dedicated to telling female athlete stories and elevating women's sports, it's incredibly hard to build an audience for a community," Robertson said. "Brands perceive that there's no real audience to be had and they don't invest in the space, which means media companies don't tell those stories, because we're not going to get brand dollars to do so."

The growth of women's sports: finding equity

According to SXSW moderator Justine Brown, that number has gone up to 15% in 2022 and 16% in 2023. Even within the past year, there have already been plenty of events that have proved the growing relevance of these stories.

Fox Sports reported that women's college basketball averaged more viewers than the men's side this season. As soon as Clark declared for the 2024 WNBA draft, the Indiana Fever, which hold the No. 1 overall pick, sold out their lower bowl in 15 minutes. Last August, Nebraksa volleyball had the largest attendance for a women's sporting event of all time, fitting 92,000 fans inside Memorial Stadium, normally the home of the football team.

Even with the numbers, there's still room to grow. Bird says that the archaic media system wasn't built for women's sports to succeed the way the men's has been able to. What she wants is equity within that system, which could lead to even more of a rise.

"We want the same opportunity to grow," Bird said. "A lot of people get it twisted, like I'm walking into a room saying I deserve Lebron's money, that's equality, that's pay equity. That's not it at all."

The future of women's sports

New problems have arisen from the attention that women's sports have attracted on mainstream media from a lack of education surrounding the sport leads, to stale narratives and, sometimes, blatant ignorance.

While Bird appreciates the occasional podcast invite, she believes that the content is lacking. Why constantly ask the WNBA legend about her playing career which frankly, can be read about on Wikipedia? There are more stories within the league to be explored.

"'Were you on that team when there was a fight in the locker room? Oh, were you there when (your team) met the president?' And to get into the nitty gritty," Bird said.

As the landscape changes, more and more of these interesting, niche anecdotes will find their way into the spotlight. However, what also will happen is more incidents similar to the one involving TNT and the Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu's 3-point contest vs. Steph Curry.

While Ionescu's lights out shooting fell just short of Curry, her 27 point outing matched the Bucks' Damian Lillard, the winner of the NBA's official 3-point contest. Regardless, the moment was spoiled by TNT's Kenny Smith, who immediately started talking about how the Liberty guard should've shot from the women's 3-point line.

There were plenty of points missed, points that Bird, a player with an expert WNBA perspective, wouldn't have missed.

"If I was on, I would have talked about how Sabrina already shoots from that range. That was never mentioned," Bird said. "I would have talked about how shooting with a men's ball is actually easier."

With entertainment options only growing and female athletes developing even more of a voice, problems will continue to be revealed and solved. But if things go well, Bird might not be back at SXSW in a few years, speaking of the same topics.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: WNBA legend Sue Bird talks equity in sports at SXSW 2024