It’s been a decade since, Momentum invested in the South African women’s cricket team.When this partnership began, the team had no contracted players. By the end of the sponsorship’s first term, all 13 players were contracted.This past Saturday, we witnessed these players flying our flag high as they played against Australia at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Women’s World Cup in South Africa.
In an effort to encourage citizens to watch women sports, Momentum started the #OneMoreFan campaign.Through this campaign, the Financial services group is not only continuing a crucial conversation on the gender pay gap in sponsorship earnings, but are also encouraging fans to shift media visibility ,elevate women’s sports and contribute to levelling the playing field.
Gender pay gap in sports is the persistence of unequal pay in sports, particularly for female athletes who do not receive equal revenue compared to their counterparts, which differs depending on the sport.This gap impacts the number of women who can pursue sports as a viable career choice, the facilities and resources that would be available to them to improve their game, and the exposure they get from the media.
The main aim of this campaign is educate ordinary citizens about the importance of watching live matches in an effort to increase commercial value. According to Charlotte Nsubuga-Mukasa,Head of Marketing “Ordinary citizens don’t know that every time they watch a match on channels like Supersport, eyeballs are being counted and every time they are being counted, those media packages become more expensive. With that being said,every single South African needs to know that when they buy tickets for a sports match or watch matches on their tv’s they are contributing towards closing the gender pay gap.
Nsubuga-Mukasa explained that the more fans watch live, they are helping to make women’s sports more commercially viable by attracting more media coverage and as a result, more sponsors. More sponsors mean more financial investment into the sporting code which has a powerful ripple effect.This will mean more money trickle down to development leagues and grassroots support making a way for other young girls to consider sports as a viable career.
Momentum is not only on a mission to address the gender pay gap but it also recognises that women face many obstacles that may slow them down from achieving their goals. “It was important for me to come and show my support today.As I believe that women sacrifice as much as men in order to be the best.I also believe that they need more recognition, sponsorships and I want to be more vocal about the importance of supporting women who play sports,” said Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira.
