As a WNBA player, Renee Montgomery didn’t give much thought to who led the league’s 12 teams.
“I didn’t think about possession, I just thought about the championship,” told USA TODAY Sports Montgomery, fourth overall in the 2009 draft.
But when a unique opportunity arose in early 2021, Montgomery, a two-time WNBA champion from Minnesota Lynx, decided it was time to think about the next chapter.
After the public outcry that forced former owner and US Senator Kelly Loeffler to sell Atlanta Dream – Loeffler made derogatory comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, a case long backed by WNBA players – Montgomery teamed up with two others to buy Dream (she is also the vice president of the team). To buy-in, she first had to retire as a player.
“It was so hard to quit my basketball career, but it was worth it for me,” said Montgomery.
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A move from court to front made Montgomery the first and so far only ex-player with an ownership stake in the WNBA. But in professional sports she is far from standing.
For decades, property of professional sports teams has usually passed to someone who ticked three boxes: rich, white, male. This is starting to change across the country as current and former female players are investing in the sport of a new generation of women, buying teams and leagues, playing an equally important role off the pitch or court as on it.
There is Montgomery in Atlanta and Naomi Osaka in North Carolina (Osaka is co-owner of the North Carolina Courage, NWSL squad). The former Swin Cash, All-Star WNBA, now vice president of NBA basketball operations and team development, made the New Orleans Pelicans a chip last season when the WNBA raised $ 75 million in capital.
Soon after retirement, arguably the greatest quarterback in women’s basketball history, Sue Bird announced last week that she had joined the NJ / NY Gotham FC NWSL investor group (Bird is from New York). The founding investors of Angel City FC, an NWSL club in Los Angeles, have a women’s sporting talent, with 18 former or current female athletes including Olympians Julie Fouda, Shawn Johnson East, Candace Parker, Lindsey Vonn and Serena Williams.
After years of pushing companies and businesses to bet on women’s sports, some of the best ever competed are following their own advice.
“It’s more than just a trend right now,” said Olga Harvey, director of strategy and influence at the Women’s Sports Foundation. It’s a move.
Even the athletes’ children are involved: 4-year-old Olympia Ohanian Jr., daughter of Williams and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and 3-year-old Kaavia Wade, daughter of three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade and actress Gabrielle Union – better known as her alter ego “Shady Baby ”On Instagram – it also has shares in Angel City, which makes them the youngest owners in the sport. (Due to the toddlers’ busy schedule, Olympia Ohanian was unavailable for commentary.)
According to Montgomery, this is just the beginning.
“I think you will see a lot more paths between players and owners, I think it will be more normal soon,” Montgomery said, explaining that in the era of “empowered athlete speaking with his own voice,” ownership is the obvious next step. Montgomery, along with NFL eminent figures Marshawn Lynch, Todd Gurley and Marcus Peters, also co-owns FCF Beasts, a professional indoor soccer team.
“There is no better indicator that this is a truly new day in women’s sport than seeing ex-pros invest their hard-earned capital back into the game,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman USA TODAY Sports. “In my conversations with former athletes, their motivation is centered on the belief that the time has come. They can make sure that they are doing their part to make a difference for the next generation of girls who we all know can have a fairer world. “
Worthwhile investment
Shortly after social media exploded in response to the glaring discrepancy between the settings of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in 2021, a nationwide conversation began about women’s sport investment and market value. A 2021 report, commissioned by the NCAA, revealed what many female athletes and coaches have been saying for years: Women’s sports can be a source of money and valuable investment if the opportunity presents itself.
Sports insiders and experts who spoke to USA TODAY Sports said the move was a convergence of forces. This may interest you : Sports Medicine Report: The latest update as Sporting prepares for the Open Cup Quarter-Finals vs Union Omaha #SKCvOMA | June 22, 2022.
First, while the COVID-19 pandemic hindered the immediate expansion of both WNBA and NWSL, women’s sports made a comeback ahead of professional men’s sports (the NWSL came first). As a result, they got prime-time TV slots. Viewership has increased significantly. In subsequent seasons, the networks decided that women’s sports in prime-time should be the norm.
Berman said no spectator in the stands of any sporting event allowed for a “natural reset” of the narrative that women’s sport struggles with attendance. Now that fans are back everywhere and often filling the grounds and stadiums especially for women’s teams, “it has really changed the way people believe in the power of women’s sport as a business.”
New and younger consumers are “very digitally minded,” said Harvey of the WSF, and female athletes in particular are leaning towards it, building social media follow-up that translates to more fans. Famous brands and celebrities buying women’s sports – one of the founders of Angel City is Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman – are also eye-catchers.
More money is undoubtedly part of the equation. As female players sign bigger contracts and earn meaningful endorsements, they have more free money to play with.
“This is quite a recent phenomenon because the opportunities for women to have this ownership profile have been historically limited,” said Cheryl Cooky, professor of women and gender studies at Purdue University, whose research focuses on media coverage of women’s sports. reins and taking it upon yourself, it is likely to be much more effective and efficient in practicing women’s sports ”.
The trick, said Cooky, is to make sure that women’s sport is not forever confined to a marginalized space. The key to further development will be attracting the average sports fan, not just a niche sports junkie. Male athletes investing in women’s sports – former NFL quarterback Eli Manning, like Bird, is investing in Gotham – also support the theory that women’s sports are a viable product.
“In the last data report I saw, men still make up 60% of our fans,” said Berman. “I think most people are surprised to know that men follow women’s sports. Our ecosystem is mostly men. “
Male athletes invest their money in women’s sports “it’s just because they want to do the right thing,” she said, but because “these male athletes are also business people,” they see a viable product where they can get a return on their investment.
Staying power
According to the owners, the development and survival power of professional women’s sports – the WNBA is now the 26th season – also played a role in the trend between players and owners. Read also : A new study suggests that women scientists do not get the authorship they should have.
Saskia Webber was the defender of the United States women’s national team that won the 1999 World Cup, embarking on a women’s soccer craze in the United States. Now the 51-year-old and one of Angel City’s co-owners, Webber said the decision to finance engagement was not very convincing.
“When Captain Julie Foudy rings, you pick up the phone,” Webber said with a laugh. Foudy, the standout on the ’99 team, was the one to gather a group of USWNT alumni and persuade them to literally buy into Angel City.
“For us as ’99, our goal has always been to elevate the future of women’s soccer, and (investing) is just another evolution of that,” said Webber. “There is no doubt that our names, love, passion and financial commitment are behind Angel City and the NWSL.”
Harvey said Angel City, which has 99 co-owners, has put forward a different ownership plan.
“They created a buzz because they were mostly female owners, but also because they have this new model where you don’t have to be a multi-millionaire to own a team,” explained Harvey. “Now it’s not an all-or-nothing game.”
Montgomery echoed this sentiment, pointing out that often property becomes a family affair as shares are passed down from generation to generation. Breaking in as an outsider can be difficult. But he expects to see much more of it, partly because athletes, like every employee, want to work for someone “who works for them, who loves the brand and believes in it.”
Does that mean Montgomery is trying to convince a few other retired WNBA players to join their owners’ meetings?
Not really, she said. But he is thinking about another investment.
“I love being part of the sports organization, so if the NWSL comes to Atlanta, I definitely want to shout at them,” Montgomery said. “I actually played soccer in high school so it wouldn’t even be a cheat.”
