Speaker 1: In recent years, one of the most popular new sports
Speaker 1: leagues has been the Women's National Basketball Association. I had
Speaker 1: a chance to sit down recently with Kathy Engelberg, who's
Speaker 1: the commissioner of the WNBA, to ask her how she's
Speaker 1: helped to transform the WNBA into a very popular sport.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the WNBA as a business and make
Speaker 1: sure I understand how many teams are there.
Speaker 2: So starting the season, there'll be thirteen teams. We had
Speaker 2: twelve for a long time. Thirteen teams on our way
Speaker 2: to sixteen or more.
Speaker 1: Who's the new team?
Speaker 2: The new team is in the Bay Area, the Golden
Speaker 2: State Valkyries, and they're going to kill it this year
Speaker 2: off the court for sure, and on the court they'll
Speaker 2: be They had an expansion draft, so it'll be interesting
Speaker 2: to see.
Speaker 1: Hey, so you have thirteen teams. Are you planning to
Speaker 1: expand to more now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So we've announced team fourteen and fifteen in Toronto
Speaker 2: and Portland, and we have a process right now for
Speaker 2: additional teams where we have a lot of demand and
Speaker 2: a lot of ownership groups around the country interested.
Speaker 1: Each team has how many players?
Speaker 2: Twelve twelve players?
Speaker 1: You've got one hundred and forty four professional players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one, fifty six this year fifty six.
Speaker 1: Okay, So today the league is well known for having
Speaker 1: some stars like Caitlyn Clark among others Angel Rees as well.
Speaker 1: Is that kind of competition between Angel Rees and Caitlin
Speaker 1: Clark helping your TV ratings? And is that worked out
Speaker 1: well for you to have Caitlin Clark in the league.
Speaker 2: You know, when I came into the league. People watch
Speaker 2: sports for three basic reasons, for rivalries, for games of consequence,
Speaker 2: and for household names if you know the players, and
Speaker 2: we didn't have a lot of household names, even though
Speaker 2: we had amazing players back then and have amazing players
Speaker 2: beyond Caitlin and Angel. So rivalries are generally good for
Speaker 2: sports and women's sports. Sometimes it's complicated by the social
Speaker 2: media vitriol, which we did announce. It's terrible what some
Speaker 2: of these players have to endure. And so the hatred,
Speaker 2: the vitriol, the misogyny, the homophobia, the racism, there's no
Speaker 2: place for it in sport, and we like to be
Speaker 2: known in sport as a big uniter. So that's the
Speaker 2: negative part of that. But the positive certainly has been
Speaker 2: that people are watching. I mean we brought tens of
Speaker 2: millions of new people into our sport last year because
Speaker 2: this rivalry came out of college.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, take Caitlyn Clark. She was very famous at
Speaker 1: the University of Iowa, and she came into the league
Speaker 1: and she had more attention probably than anybody who came
Speaker 1: in as a rookie, Rookie of the Year, and so forth.
Speaker 1: But it seemed as if she was getting beaten up
Speaker 1: a little bit or being treated relatively roughly. Why would
Speaker 1: the other players who would see that she's making the
Speaker 1: league more visible and more profitable, why were they kind
Speaker 1: of giving her a rough time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that narrative became the narrative. But
Speaker 2: I think, you know, we have a really exciting, fast paced,
Speaker 2: physical game. The physicality I think surprised a lot of
Speaker 2: the new fans that came in games pretty physical in college.
Speaker 2: But then when you come to WNBA and it's all
Speaker 2: the great players from the best colleges in one place,
Speaker 2: one hundred and forty four of them last year with
Speaker 2: our twelve teams, we're expanding now, so I think it
Speaker 2: was very physical at first for a lot of new
Speaker 2: eyes on the game. I think there were unfortunately some
Speaker 2: inappropriate plays that happened. But over the course of the
Speaker 2: whole season, I think Caitlin really adjusted well, so did
Speaker 2: Angel because Angel was very physical for her at first two.
Speaker 2: And I think all of our rookies or Kia Jackson
Speaker 2: and Cameron Brink got heart early in the season. But
Speaker 2: you know, they all adjusted to the physicality of our game,
Speaker 2: and I think our fans didn't adjust as quickly, and
Speaker 2: then that narrative kind of got away from us.
Speaker 1: Now, recently, Adam Silver, the head of the commissioner of
Speaker 1: the NBA, negotiated on behalf of the NBA and the
Speaker 1: w NBA a contract, a TV contract for many years
Speaker 1: that was said to be worth roughly seventy six billion
Speaker 1: dollars over some period of time, and you get part
Speaker 1: of that as I understand it. So were you happy
Speaker 1: with that arrangement.
Speaker 2: Yes, we actually negotiated our own deal, but along when
Speaker 2: you partner and what I call go to market with
Speaker 2: the NBA. The NBA and WMBA are the only two
Speaker 2: major professional sports in the US that have essentially opposite seasons.
Speaker 2: Were made to October. They're October to June, but April
Speaker 2: is the end of their regular season, so we could
Speaker 2: provide think about the disruption and the media landscape from
Speaker 2: linear to streaming to subscription models, and we together with
Speaker 2: the NBA can provide over three hundred and twenty plus
Speaker 2: days of programming, So we hit all twelve months for
Speaker 2: programming for a streamer, even if it's NBC and Peacock
Speaker 2: er Amazon, So it was a huge advantage. We're much
Speaker 2: more valuable going to market with them on this deal
Speaker 2: with NBC and ABC, ESPN, Disney as well as Amazon,
Speaker 2: So that was a huge positive for us and we
Speaker 2: had a great deal. It's historic for women's sports.
Speaker 1: How long is the contract fork.
Speaker 2: So that contract's eleven years?
Speaker 1: Eleven years and you get two to three billion of
Speaker 1: that something like that.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. But after three years we have an option
Speaker 2: to renegotiate around the price of that if we keep growing,
Speaker 2: because we've grown the league enormously just in a couple
Speaker 2: of year period, so we after three years have an option.
Speaker 2: We also have the option to enter an additional media
Speaker 2: rights deals. I call them our Trench two deals, and
Speaker 2: we're in the process of negotiating those.
Speaker 1: So you have an option after two or three years
Speaker 1: to negotiate presumably a higher price. Yes, did they have
Speaker 1: an option to negotiate a lower price? No?
Speaker 2: I think it's an option to take a look at
Speaker 2: the growth of the league, and if we continue on
Speaker 2: the growth trajectory, it's to provide more value, especially because
Speaker 2: ultimately that value goes to the players.
Speaker 1: So today, how are your TV ratings compared to the
Speaker 1: NBA or your assume a fraction of it, but how
Speaker 1: do you compare or do you get ten percent of
Speaker 1: what they get?
Speaker 2: Twenty last year we had an unbelievably historic year. Our
Speaker 2: average was at one point two million, huge increase over
Speaker 2: prior years.
Speaker 1: Two million people watching watching.
Speaker 2: Average average some games TV linear. We would peak in
Speaker 2: the US, a US only number, that's not a global number.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of global fans too, and that's
Speaker 2: an untapped area of growth for US. But we continue
Speaker 2: to look at a huge increase in that viewership. I
Speaker 2: mean even our draft at peak last year, over three
Speaker 2: million people watch the WNBA Draft. Last year our All
Speaker 2: Star Game over two million people. These were all time records.
Speaker 2: And remember we don't necessarily compare ourselves with the NBA
Speaker 2: or other men's sports. They've been around the NBAS in
Speaker 2: their seventy eighth year. NFL, NHL, and MLB are all
Speaker 2: over one hundred years old. We're going into our twenty
Speaker 2: ninth season this year, so these comparisons to men's league
Speaker 2: are tough, but certainly where we are today, I never
Speaker 2: thought we'd have as high viewership as we had last year.
Speaker 1: It's often the case that these players have to fly
Speaker 1: commercial historically. Now, as a result of your new arrangement,
Speaker 1: you can afford to have and every team can afford
Speaker 1: to have a kind of a special.
Speaker 2: Jet or a charter program.
Speaker 1: Is that part of the deal.
Speaker 2: Now, Yes, It's something we've been working on since I
Speaker 2: came into the league. We've been chipping away at it.
Speaker 2: We offered it during certain games previously years ago, chipping
Speaker 2: away at it for full playoffs two years ago, and
Speaker 2: then last year because I knew where we were tracking
Speaker 2: for the media rights. But we needed to build an
Speaker 2: economic model to fundness. It wasn't just like you wave
Speaker 2: a wand and you can give a twenty to thirty
Speaker 2: million dollar benefit to someone through charter travel. So I
Speaker 2: felt very confident, our owners felt confident that we had
Speaker 2: been building an economic model to sustain it over the
Speaker 2: long term. Because it also can't be you just offer
Speaker 2: it for a year or two. We need to think
Speaker 2: about it for decades. That we were able to afford it,
Speaker 2: and so I felt good about that and we did
Speaker 2: it outside of collective bargaining cycle.
Speaker 1: Now, the NBA has something called a salary cap, and
Speaker 1: I guess a salary floor. Do you have a salary cap?
Speaker 2: Yes, we do. We have a hard cap under the
Speaker 2: current CBA. Obviously that CBA will be up after this
Speaker 2: year and we'll be negotiating a new deal.
Speaker 1: You've done quite well, But there's any team profitable at
Speaker 1: this point by normal profitability standards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think our teams are making enormous progress towards profitability.
Speaker 2: They're just growing. But what they're doing, which we love,
Speaker 2: is because they have so much confidence in the growth
Speaker 2: trajectory either turning around and anything, they might be making
Speaker 2: their investing back. We have at least six teams who
Speaker 2: are now have built, are building new practice facilities. They're
Speaker 2: working on a lot of different things to invest in
Speaker 2: the player experience because our free agency has become such
Speaker 2: an important part of building a roster to win a championship.
Speaker 2: So they're all taking the upswing in attendance gate for them,
Speaker 2: corporate partnership money for them, and they're investing it back
Speaker 2: in the business today.
Speaker 1: How many owners of w NBA teams are women?
Speaker 2: Well, again, we have NBA affiliated owners, independent owners, We
Speaker 2: have an all women ownership group, three women up in Seattle.
Speaker 2: We have diverse ownership at the minority investor level. Obviously
Speaker 2: all the NBA teams are primarily owned by men, but
Speaker 2: we're making some progress there with diverse ownership groups. And again,
Speaker 2: as we look at expansion, we look for the diversification
Speaker 2: of that group.
Speaker 1: So in college basketball, the average game or the game
Speaker 1: is how long in terms of length of time?
Speaker 2: So again in women's they have four quarters forty minutes.
Speaker 2: We played four quarters forty minutes in professional or in
Speaker 2: professional then yeah, if you pay four quarters forty minutes
Speaker 2: forty minutes total each quarter is ten minutes.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay? And today is that likely to change or
Speaker 1: the rules going to change any way shape or form
Speaker 1: that you know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think, you know. One of the things
Speaker 2: when I came in I assessed kind of the strategy
Speaker 2: and the quality of the game, and the importance of
Speaker 2: the brand. And the one thing that when I looked
Speaker 2: at the game. There's not much to tweak about the game.
Speaker 2: I mean, pure shooting, pick and rolls, great rebounding, great play.
Speaker 2: People who we've brought in those tens of millions and
Speaker 2: new fans love the game. So I don't think there's
Speaker 2: much to tweak in the game. And we use more technology,
Speaker 2: can officiating you know, advance and evolve, yes, But the
Speaker 2: game itself, I think the quality of the game was something.
Speaker 2: You know, it's probably the only thing we didn't need
Speaker 2: to actually pick up a stone and totally change.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about your own background for a moment. Where
Speaker 1: are you from.
Speaker 2: I'm from Philadelphia and you were born there. Yeah, born
Speaker 2: in Philadelphia, grew up in right across the bridge in
Speaker 2: southern New Jersey and one of eight kids. I have
Speaker 2: my brothers.
Speaker 1: I'm an only child, so I don't know what that's like.
Speaker 1: What is it like to have seven siblings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy, especially five brothers three older, so I
Speaker 2: was their fourth and everything from whiffleball to soccer, to hockey,
Speaker 2: street hockey to basketball. Grew up very athletic family, very competitive,
Speaker 2: like my sister and I would compeach you and I
Speaker 2: are only thirteen months apart, compete for everything, including food,
Speaker 2: and we'd hide food in our rooms because the brothers
Speaker 2: would steal all the food. So it was a fun upbringing.
Speaker 2: Continues to be very close knit family.
Speaker 1: Oh what did your father do to support a family
Speaker 1: of eight children?
Speaker 2: So my father worked for RCA and was an IT
Speaker 2: guy and early like we used to have the punch cards,
Speaker 2: he'd bring punch cards home, an early it kind of manager.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately died young in nineteen eighty seven. But my mom
Speaker 2: worked for sixty two years for the same place for
Speaker 2: a pediatrician as their office manager as that business grew.
Speaker 2: So you know, both my parents worked, and my mom, though,
Speaker 2: you know, was able to balance it all and raise
Speaker 2: eight children on the way.
Speaker 1: You were an athlete in high school? Yes, and what
Speaker 1: sports did you play?
Speaker 2: So? I actually played tennis, basketball on lacrosse in high school,
Speaker 2: and I was recruited for lacrosse in college. I was
Speaker 2: a walk on for basketball. Back in the mid eighties,
Speaker 2: you could play two sports in college at a D
Speaker 2: one level. Today you can't do that, But back then
Speaker 2: I played both lacrosse and basketball.
Speaker 1: So you were the captain of both teams. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: playing two sports and eventually you have to graduate. So
Speaker 1: you graduate, and you said, I want to be in
Speaker 1: sports or I want to be going to Deloitte.
Speaker 2: Well, actually it all dates back to sophomore year when
Speaker 2: I was a computer science major and I had to
Speaker 2: take a programming course in Fortran and I said, I
Speaker 2: have no idea what that professor's talking about. Someone said,
Speaker 2: there's this thing called the Business School, Cathy, you should
Speaker 2: transfer to it. And there's something called accounting and it's
Speaker 2: the language of business, and you'll get a job. Because
Speaker 2: it was the big eight accounting firms back then, so
Speaker 2: I didn't know who said it was the language of business.
Speaker 2: I found out later that was Warren Buffett, and you'll
Speaker 2: get a job. I got a job pretty easily back
Speaker 2: then and started with Deloitte.
Speaker 1: In those days, I can't imagine that women were being
Speaker 1: seen as potential CEOs of big accounting firms. So as
Speaker 1: you imagine when you started you would be the CEO.
Speaker 2: No, because I think at the partner ranks when I started,
Speaker 2: it was probably five percent women partners, so it was
Speaker 2: pretty new, you know, as far as the trajectory for women.
Speaker 2: Never thought that I would be the CEO. Never aspired
Speaker 2: to be the CEO quite frankly, but your specialty was what?
Speaker 2: So my specialty back then was I worked in a
Speaker 2: variety of clients, growing up manufacturing snls back during the
Speaker 2: SNL crisis. Bank I settled more once I had my kids,
Speaker 2: in the pharmaceutical sector as well as consumer products. But
Speaker 2: I was a derivative financial instrument specialist at the firm,
Speaker 2: which gave me tons of tons of valuation expertise.
Speaker 1: You were the CEO of Deloitte, which is one of
Speaker 1: the largest service providers in the United States and accounting,
Speaker 1: an audit firm, among other services, and you did that
Speaker 1: quite well for quite a while, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you're approached by the WNBA about being the commissioner.
Speaker 1: What made you think you would want to do that
Speaker 1: and what made them think that you could do that?
Speaker 2: Well, it's an interesting question. So it didn't seem to
Speaker 2: make a lot of sense to a lot of people
Speaker 2: unless you had come to my office at Deloitte and
Speaker 2: saw basketballs all behind me. So I played college basketball
Speaker 2: for now Naysmith Hall of Fame coach Muffett mcgahol, who
Speaker 2: went on too great success at Notre Dame. I went
Speaker 2: to Little Lehigh University and my father was actually drafted
Speaker 2: into the NBA in nineteen fifty seven by the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2: So we had a lot of basketball DNA in the family.
Speaker 2: And so when I was my term was ending at Deloitt,
Speaker 2: I really said, you know, what do I want to
Speaker 2: do next? I want to do something different, something with
Speaker 2: the broad women's leadership platform and something I had a
Speaker 2: passion for, thinking maybe it would take me to a
Speaker 2: college or university. And then someone coach me about the
Speaker 2: WNBA commissioner job, and I said, definitely is something different,
Speaker 2: broad women's leadership platform and certainly a game. I have
Speaker 2: a huge passion for the game.
Speaker 1: How long had you been the CEO of Deloitte?
Speaker 2: So I'd been at delott for over three decades, thirty
Speaker 2: three years, and I'd been the CEO for a little
Speaker 2: over four year terms four years. I took over a
Speaker 2: little earlier than usual and then your terms up and
Speaker 2: it's time to move on. And could have stayed at
Speaker 2: Deloitte senior partner, but really wanted to do something in
Speaker 2: kind of a second act and this was it.
Speaker 1: And did you stay connected to sports by playing on
Speaker 1: weekends or anything? Like that, or you didn't have time.
Speaker 2: For that, not really raising two kids, you know, having
Speaker 2: a career. I did coach my daughter's travel basketball team
Speaker 2: from middle school during middle school. I stay connected that way,
Speaker 2: but just a big fan of sports.
Speaker 1: So now, how many years have you been the commissioner?
Speaker 2: Five and a half so almost six now.
Speaker 1: Any regrets about taking the job.
Speaker 2: No regrets at all. This was a really good fit
Speaker 2: for me personally, professionally, and just enjoy the game so much.
Speaker 2: I could go to a game every day and it's
Speaker 2: just been a total transformation of a league that was
Speaker 2: just surviving five six years ago and now thriving.
Speaker 1: So what do you do outside of the job you
Speaker 1: have now? Are you any corporate boards or this is
Speaker 1: what you're doing full time?
Speaker 2: Or no? I am on corporate boards. That was one
Speaker 2: of the things that was important to me, given my
Speaker 2: long history at Deloyd. So I'm on the board of McDonald's.
Speaker 2: And one of the reasons I wanted McDonald's was not
Speaker 2: necessarily because I love Hamburgers, although I do. I want
Speaker 2: to be consumer brand because now I'm running a consumer
Speaker 2: brand called the WNBA, and it's been helpful to see
Speaker 2: their digital their consumer base their globalization and everything. And
Speaker 2: then I'm on the board of Royalty Farmer, which is
Speaker 2: a public company as well, and then I play. My
Speaker 2: passion now is golf.
Speaker 1: So I don't play golf because it's too humiliating to me.
Speaker 2: It's a hard game. I took it up when I
Speaker 2: became the CEO of Deloitte. So I was fifty when
Speaker 2: I took it up. And it was because I would
Speaker 2: be in CEO's offices and they would be talking golf
Speaker 2: or they'd have golf decorations in their office. I'd ask
Speaker 2: them about it. Do you play? I played a little
Speaker 2: bit and then started playing a lot and got pretty
Speaker 2: good at it and got invited to the at and
Speaker 2: T Pebble Beach Pro Am and the American Express. And
Speaker 2: now I just love being in that environment with all
Speaker 2: my former CEO colleagues. And it's a lot of fun now,
Speaker 2: but it isn't great. And I tell a lot of
Speaker 2: women take up golf, you know. It's a great way
Speaker 2: to build relationships in the corporate world.
Speaker 1: Recently, in spring training, I went into a batting cage
Speaker 1: and they found the picture who could throw the ball
Speaker 1: between three and four miles an hour as slow as possible,
Speaker 1: and I actually hit a couple of ground balls to
Speaker 1: everybody's amazement. Do you ever go on the court and say, well, look,
Speaker 1: I played at Lee High. I was a star there.
Speaker 1: Let's have a little shoot around.
Speaker 2: You ever do that all the time? I passed by
Speaker 2: in the practice facilities or as I'm walking in arena
Speaker 2: the rack of basketballs, and I'm like, and I'll usually
Speaker 2: have heels on, so it's a little challenging, but I'll
Speaker 2: always take a ball and shoot a few, and the players,
Speaker 2: I think it does give you a little credit that
Speaker 2: you played the game, not at the level they're playing at,
Speaker 2: but playing for Muffett McGraw and Nasmith Hall of famer.
Speaker 2: My dad played for Jack Ramsey, doctor Jack, who was
Speaker 2: a Naismith Hall of Famer. So just having a little
Speaker 2: bit of that basketball DNA is helpful.
Speaker 1: In the NBA, many of the stars, now not all,
Speaker 1: but many of the stars come from Europe or other
Speaker 1: places outside the United States. Do you have many players
Speaker 1: coming from outside the United States.
Speaker 2: We've got players from Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Africa. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we're starting to globalize our ranks. But they're not
Speaker 2: quite where the NBA has been, again the NBA being
Speaker 2: fifty plus years older than US, but it's starting to increase.
Speaker 2: And I think the US's dominance in the Olympics. The
Speaker 2: women just won their eighth consecutive gold medal in basketball
Speaker 2: in the Paris Olympics, and I think that dominance has
Speaker 2: helped lift other programs around the world, such as France
Speaker 2: almost the only lost by two to the US. So
Speaker 2: a lot of these programs around the world have invested
Speaker 2: in their grassroots and youth football such that they're getting
Speaker 2: really good.
Speaker 1: And today, when you were trying to get sponsors, is
Speaker 1: it much different for the teams to get sponsored much
Speaker 1: easier than it used to be, or the the league
Speaker 1: negotiate sponsor deals, or each team does its own sponsor deal.
Speaker 2: Both. We have national league sponsor deals, we have global deals,
Speaker 2: and then there's local deals for teams to negotiate as
Speaker 2: long as it doesn't block a category at the national level.
Speaker 2: And so one of the things that's so interesting to
Speaker 2: me when I came in the league, and I didn't
Speaker 2: know this because I was off at Deloitte in a
Speaker 2: very different industry, is that someone told me my first
Speaker 2: day on the job that less than one percent of
Speaker 2: all corporate partnership money spent on sports is women's sports.
Speaker 2: And my first question David, as a good prior accountant,
Speaker 2: was what's the denominator? Because if we were to move
Speaker 2: that a couple hundred basis points, how much do we
Speaker 2: have to move the numerator? And I would say we've
Speaker 2: moved that significantly up probably to ten percent or so.
Speaker 2: But the denominator's huge. Obviously, it's multiple, multiple tens of billion.
Speaker 1: Women's sports are the two biggest known or best known
Speaker 1: women's sports, I would guess in the United States in
Speaker 1: terms of professional leagues are soccer or what was called
Speaker 1: football outside of the United States, and basketball. Yes, is
Speaker 1: there a third that's coming up as softball?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well certainly the WMBA. We're the longest tenured women's
Speaker 2: professional sports league at twenty nine years now, double any
Speaker 2: other so, and part of that's due to our big
Speaker 2: brother of the NBA and everything they've done for us.
Speaker 2: And then it's soccer, and then the PWHL is a
Speaker 2: new hockey league that has emerged and they've had a
Speaker 2: lot the hockey's had a lot of fits and starts,
Speaker 2: has had soccer. We're blessed to have had continuity over
Speaker 2: twenty nine years. But I think there's some emerging sports
Speaker 2: like volleyball, but they're the problem is there's four professional
Speaker 2: volleyball leagues, so they probably need some consolidation.
Speaker 1: If you look back on what you achieved today, what
Speaker 1: are you most proud of having achieved today?
Speaker 2: Definitely the growth, you know, the you know, getting through
Speaker 2: the pandemic. I mean if it was pretty existential for
Speaker 2: us during the pandemic, we hadn't started our season yet
Speaker 2: because remember pandemic was March when Adam Silver shut down
Speaker 2: the sports world by shutting down the NBA play then
Speaker 2: the NCAA's shut down. So getting through that pandemic year
Speaker 2: I'm probably most proud of. It was like working on
Speaker 2: an IPO for a couple of weeks. Because I had
Speaker 2: just come in the league. I didn't have a lot
Speaker 2: of relationships. We had to convince the players to play
Speaker 2: that we would keep them safe. We were at a
Speaker 2: time of racial crisis in America with the George Floyd situation.
Speaker 2: We got thrown in the middle of the political battle
Speaker 2: in the state of Georgia with one of our owners,
Speaker 2: so there was so much going on in that twenty
Speaker 2: twenty years, so I think I'm proud of the way
Speaker 2: we emerged from that, such that just a year later,
Speaker 2: in February of twenty two, we were the first women's
Speaker 2: sports property to raise capital at scale seventy five million dollars.
Speaker 2: We probably could have raised more.
Speaker 1: What do you consider the biggest single challenge for the
Speaker 1: WNBA going forward?
Speaker 2: I would say, you know, we have several challenges and
Speaker 2: several opportunities. One of our biggest challenges is certainly how
Speaker 2: do we globalize this game. There's a lot of opportunity
Speaker 2: outside the United States to build fandom, to build viewership,
Speaker 2: to make our players global stars. We continue to be
Speaker 2: challenged by being a women's league and therefore and a
Speaker 2: diverse one. So therefore we continue to be challenged around
Speaker 2: the vitriol in social media against our players and the league.
Speaker 2: So we're working on a four prong strategy on that,
Speaker 2: around a technology solution to help with the social media side,
Speaker 2: monitoring physical safety, and mental health. So that's another challenge,
Speaker 2: but enormous opportunity as well in the league around so
Speaker 2: many areas. Expansion would be one of those. A lot
Speaker 2: of capital inflows coming into the league finding places to
Speaker 2: invest that.
Speaker 1: So if somebody said to me, you have a chance
Speaker 1: to invest in a women's NBA team, w NBA team
Speaker 1: new One, should I take that chance or should it
Speaker 1: to still a risky investment?
Speaker 2: Now, I think as you look at our new media deal,
Speaker 2: you look at the growth, You look at the quality
Speaker 2: of the game, the strength of the brand, what it represents.
Speaker 2: Would I wish three four years ago I had invested
Speaker 2: in it, but obviously I couldn't as the commissioner. But yes,
Speaker 2: that's why we raised that capital three four years ago.
Speaker 2: Those people who invested in us back then were believers
Speaker 2: in the future, and I think, you know, they're all
Speaker 2: going to be pretty happy, So yes, I would invest.
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