Athletes' spouses growing in popularity, in part to social media, researchers say

A new business in a historic downtown Edmonton building is generating some major buzz.

Several social media influencers recently walked a red carpet leading into Bar Trove and the Trove Living furniture showroom for a media tour ahead of its June 6 opening. They ate oysters and sipped cocktails as a DJ played music and security guards stood outside.

The woman behind the venture, seen at the event clad in a glittery pink dress, is Lauren Kyle McDavid, the wife of Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid.

"To have this star's wife putting money into our city and investing in our city is really special," said Quinn Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Edmonton Downtown Business Association and a former sports reporter.

"Everything is kind of buzzing now in downtown."

Kyle McDavid was not immediately available for an interview, but she is one of several modern WAGs — an acronym for wives and girlfriends — making names for themselves.

Judy Liao, who teaches sociology of sport and gender studies at the University of Alberta, says the buzz Kyle McDavid's business has been getting online shows how much of an interest people take in the lives of athletes' significant others.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, sports wives saw their social media followers go up as they began posting more, Liao says. The popular streaming service Netflix has also created shows following the lives of WAGs in recent years.

"The resurgence of WAGs is really because of social media."

Liao says the WAG trend first became popular in the early 2000s.

"[Soccer star] David Beckham is a key person to think about in this phenomenon because his wife is Posh Spice," she says, referring to British singer Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls.

"After they started dating, they officially entered their pop culture celebrity status. Posh Spice was already a celebrity. They became so iconic, recognizable, so visible, it becomes not just about soccer or football anymore."

Demand for more details on their lifestyle went up as tabloid magazines chased them around and gathered details that made the couple prime subjects of media gossip, Liao said.

"It was the modern fairy tale. The story is so enticing," she said.