Tesla chairman and part owner of the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames basketball teams, Robyn Denholm, says it is “time we started getting serious about the economic opportunity in women’s sports” as a growth market, despite the current downturn in consumer spending.

Ms Denholm said female sports stars were now “standing tall as valuable business commodities ... after years of existing in the shadow lands of professional sport” and had started attracting significant crowds and broadcast audiences.