The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women's Sports

by Jane McManus

Overview

“No one cares about women’s sports” is a familiar refrain from vocal skeptics, but as The Fast Track shows, a series of watershed moments reflect the increasing popularity of and support for women’s sports from both investors and fans.

Veteran sports journalist and academic Jane McManus examines both this upward trend and the forces that have held women’s sports back since the early 1970s when Title IX became law (and Billie Jean King soundly defeated Bobby Riggs). As the fervor for Caitlin Clark during the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball championship illustrates, there is big money to be made from broadcasting, merchandising, and investing in women’s sports.

The Fast Track chronicles how pioneering sponsorships, broadcast opportunities, and surges in ratings contradict the myths about disinterest. Interviews counter the resistance toward women’s leagues, reveal how women are covered in the media, and consider the possibilities for further investment. McManus also addresses racial inclusivity, transgender athletes, women’s health issues, and equal pay.

An essential road map to capitalize on untapped potential, The Fast Track provides a snapshot of where women’s sports as an industry and investment stand at this moment in time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439925089
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	02/21/2025
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jane McManus is an Adjunct Professor at New York University at the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport. She was the founding Executive Director of the Center for Sports Media at Seton Hall University and taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Michigan State University, and Marist College. A former columnist for The New York Daily News and Deadspin, she spent nearly a decade covering women's sports and the NFL for ESPN. She was a founding columnist for espnW, appearing in multiple network shows and hosting two ESPN Radio shows. She is the guest editor of the 2024 edition of The Year's Best Sportswriting.
 

Editorial Reviews

“Jane McManus has long been charting the growth of women’s sports with stories behind the scenes and in front of the cameras. Now, with The Fast Track, she provides the inside scoop on where we've been, where we are going, and why it matters.”—Billie Jean King

“In The Fast Track, Jane McManus thoughtfully and critically helps us understand the moment we are in with women’s sports and all the financial, social, and historical implications. It is a dynamic read.”—Jemele Hill, contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of TruTv’s Above the Fold
 

“With The Fast Track, Jane McManus details the ongoing struggle for equity with a forensic takedown of the cultural attitudes that have long undermined female athletes—at a time when women’s sports are receiving unprecedented attention. The eyes are watching. The moment is here, and the stakes are enormously high, for both an industry resistant to equality and a women’s sports world whose core identities are at risk as the long-awaited money finally rushes in. There is no better time for this book.”—Howard Bryant, author of The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism

"McManus does an admirable job of giving an overview of the cyclical nature of support and dispelling preconceived myths. The Fast Track is a valuable, well-researched playbook that chronicles the frustrating setbacks and the momentum propelling the women’s sports industry forward."— Booklist

"Fifty years of progress toward gender equity in sports is highlighted in sports media professor Jane McManus’s smart, persuasive book The Fast Track. With insights from athletes and advocates, financiers, commentators, and analysts, the book includes a wealth of affecting stories, jaw-dropping statistics, and inside analysis about women’s sports and their growing fan base.... [A] superb recent history of women’s sports and women’s sports media that makes a strong argument for giving women’s athletics the attention and funding they need."—Foreword

From the Publisher