Introduction and Local Community Support

Alex: We’re gonna try to explain some numbers at some point. You’re gonna have to maybe get a pad of paper and a pen, it’s a lot.

Caitlin: And you’re listening to Raising the Game, a podcast covering the rise in opportunity, visibility, and accessibility of women’s sports globally. Or a wife-husband team who are avid sports fans raising two young girls and find the exposure and investment in women’s sports globally a gateway for them and other young girls like them to see their passions for play, performance, and leadership, not as extracurriculars to be added to a resume or a discipline with an expiration date after high school or college, but as a real opportunity to build a career as an athlete, a coach, an analyst, an athletic trainer, director of sports operations, maybe even a podcaster. Each week, we’re bringing you the top stories in women’s professional and sometimes collegiate sports. We’ll highlight primetime performers, key business decisions, economic impacts, and the growing opportunities for women’s athletics. You’ll hear our perspectives on these stories as fans, but perhaps more importantly, as parents who value what these stories mean for our kids. If there’s a storyline or topic you’d like to hear us talk about, reach out via email at RaisingTheGamePod@gmail.com and on social media at @RTG_pod. All right, we’re back for another week.

Alex: Another quick shout we’re going to make for just ongoing community support here in the Twin Cities area. It doesn’t go away, not yet, given the current situation. So we’ve been continuing to find ways to donate and support communities that are affected by the various things going on in our city. We’ll continue to post links in the bio and your podcast notes and things like that for you to get involved, as we’ve mentioned before. We have a list of restaurants there that we really enjoy that are looking for support, either they’re not open or a lot of restaurants are really actually struggling in the Twin Cities area right now, just with kind of the uncertainty with moving around. And then some other ways that we’ve gotten involved are through donating to specific community support networks. I think Stand with Minnesota is one.

Caitlin: Yes, Stand with Minnesota. We bought some cool merch from Sota Clothing, shout out to Sota Clothing, who was giving their proceeds to a community fundraiser in St. Louis Park, which is where we used to live really close to the city. So however you feel moved to get involved and support your community, we are here for that. Absolutely. And we have some options for you to check out if you’re looking for a way to get involved.

Alex: Yeah, those will be in the show notes and the YouTube description, so check them out.

Weekly Sports Highlights: NCAA Gymnastics and Unrivaled Basketball

Caitlin: All right, favorite thing sports-wise of the week, I think it’s going to be the same. And we will say what it is in just a second, but I have a couple backups. But it was probably this past weekend when we got to go to the Gopher Women’s Gymnastics meet against Iowa.

Alex: We could start a chant right now.

Caitlin: Yeah, we could start a chant, we won’t do that. We’re trying to attract listeners, not push them away. And that was really, really fun. Do you want to say more about that? I think the girls were really into it.

Alex: I think our oldest was all about it. She was watching, I think she liked the floor routine a lot. I think it was awesome just to see all of that up close. I’ve never really seen any of that that close. So yeah, I think it was just a really cool experience. And also for someone with ADHD like me, it’s just like, boom, this thing and then this thing, and then they go and then they go. And so it was really easy to just keep going back and forth and watching different things happen.

Caitlin: Yeah, there’s no downtime in gymnastics meets. You are literally—they have little breaks in between, I think they’re called turns when they’re transitioning between different events, but at that point they’re warming up, so they’re starting to flip and sprint and do their things. I have a lot of thoughts on it, but I’m gonna keep it brief right now. Watching our girls light up at not just the athletes and the event itself, but the environment was so positive, so welcoming and supportive, it was awesome. I have a real soft spot for athletics where there’s this combo of grace and strength. Or I’ve talked about it before with figure skating, like athleticism and artistry, I just feel like it’s so beautiful to watch and it’s so impressive.

Alex: I think for the girls too, to see there are so many different body types in gymnastics. So many. And you can be short and small, or you can be tall and really strong and it works for almost anything. It’s really cool.

Caitlin: Yeah, that’s a great point. Huge shout out to my coworker who shared those tickets with us. It was certainly a memorable moment, both of our girls said that was their favorite thing from the weekend. But I’ve got a couple more I’ve got to share. So as we’ve started to pick up a little bit of momentum with the podcast and some listeners, I’ve started getting texts from a few folks who are like, “I’ve worked this into my routine”. Like I have a colleague who’s like, “I now try to listen to it on my way home from work on Wednesday after you guys release”. Another friend of mine texted me, she’s like, “Thank you, it was such a great way to start my day”. And so that is so fun to hear, that people are engaged, they’re learning something, they’re really interested in the subject matter and that just really helps us keep it going. We find this stuff awesome and we’re glad to be sharing it with all of you.

Alex: Someone listening to me as part of their routine besides you.

Caitlin: I have to listen to it all the time. Okay, and then my last one will be really short. We’ll talk about this a little bit in our top headlines, but we were watching Unrivaled on Friday night. So Unrivaled, the basketball league, took to Philadelphia for an off-site visit and Marina Mabrey, the Queen, scored 27 points in a quarter and just was draining threes. Like I was hopping up off the couch. If the ball came out of her hand, it was going in from all over the place.

Alex: From all over. She was shooting logo. It was so insane. One of the most impressive individual performances on a basketball court I’ve seen.

Caitlin: And she also seems like a gem, she doesn’t take herself too seriously, she’s a fierce competitor as her crash out jar would suggest. But she actually mentioned that the crash out jar—for those who are unfamiliar, she’s got literally just a jar that she puts money in when she gets a little rough on the court. So maybe says something inappropriate on the court or is a little physical and lets her emotions get the best of her. But she said that all the money she put in the crash out jar in January, she was gonna be donating to a fund here in Minnesota. So I thought that was really cool. Favorite thing, Marina Mabrey over the weekend.

Alex: Yes, absolutely. We’ll keep watching her for sure. All right, top headlines. Let’s do it.

Top Headlines Across Women’s Sports

Caitlin: WNBPA and league leadership meet amid growing stalemate for CBA agreement ahead of 2026 season. This just happened today. They met for three hours.

Alex: I’m sure we’ll get into it or try to fit it into our deep dive somewhere.

Caitlin: We will talk about it. Elena Rybakina defeats the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, to take the Australian Open title and I believe her second Grand Slam.

Alex: Yes. The Australian Open did not end how anybody thought it was going to. We had sat here and been like, you could have three Americans in the semis and none of them made it.

Caitlin: Oh, actually, I shouldn’t say that, Jessica Pegula did play Sabalenka, but she got beat pretty handily. But that was at the expense of Amanda Anisimova, another American. So anyways, good start to the year for the pro tennis tour. Lindsey Vonn crashes in final prep run before Olympics and is airlifted off of the mountain.

Alex: Yeah. And so far, the reports have been her status is kind of unknown, but I would assume at this rate you’re playing that close to the vest. I would also assume that this is supposed to be her actual final run.

Caitlin: Unless she can’t ski, she’s going to try. Anything can happen. And steroid shots are amazing. U.S. Women’s National Team routes Chile 5-0 with goals from Croix Bethune, Jameese Joseph, Emily Sams, Trinity Rodman, and Emma Sears. We aren’t going to talk too much about this game, but they looked in good form. I think they had a quicker start than the Paraguay game the weekend before.

Alex: You got more caps from new players and first-time goals for Jameese Joseph and Emily Sams for the US Women’s National Team, obviously great to see Trin on the score sheet again, too.

Caitlin: Philadelphia Unrivaled road show sets all-time women’s professional basketball attendance record with 21,480 people showing up. Y’all, this looked lit. Like, I know I sound silly saying that but it looked like so much fun. So the almost 21 and a half thousand people showing up actually set an all-time attendance record for any sport being played in that arena. The next closest game, y’all, was Michael Jordan’s last game as a Chicago Bull against Allen Iverson.

Alex: That’s really cool.

Caitlin: You also had a ton of celebrities show up, a lot of NBA players, but Wanda Sykes, Leslie Jones, Dawn Staley, the Kelces (Kylie and Jason), among many others. It looked like a ton of fun and we actually left watching it being like, we need to go try to watch Unrivaled.

Alex: Yeah, we’re kind of always planning a family trip, like, let’s go do this. Next year, let’s go to Miami at least and watch it. Let’s see here. New York Sirens hold on to top spot in PWHL standings heading into the Olympic break.

Caitlin: Yep, Minnesota Frost are two points back in second place there.

Alex: And Boston’s in third now? Wow. All right, U.S. Women’s National Team legend, Crystal Dunn announces her retirement from professional play.

Caitlin: Dunny, this wasn’t quite on my radar. It’s not surprising, but it’s a little like, oh.

Alex: She had a baby the last couple of years. I’ve been seeing articles since this was announced. Is she the best NWSL player to ever play in the league? She is seriously one of the best ambassadors for the game. Hats off to you, Crystal Dunn, for your amazing career. Get some rest.

Caitlin: In the first-ever Women’s Football Champions Cup, Arsenal takes home the prize while NWSL champions Gotham FC take third place. Yeah, so this was new this year, the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. This is essentially taking the champions from each of the major leagues and having them play against one another. Gotham kind of crashed out a little bit. They lost to Corinthians, the Brazilian champions. Corinthians actually went on to take Arsenal to overtime, and Arsenal had to win that game in overtime.

Alex: Caitlin Clark to join Sunday night basketball broadcast team as special contributor.

Caitlin: Yeah, so she joined the broadcast this past Sunday, ahead of these really critical conversations between the league and the players association. And she was expressing all kinds of confidence that something was gonna happen. Kind of interesting to me, I was sort of like, what’s the deal here? It was not on my radar at all. U.S. Women’s National Team and Chelsea star Alyssa Thompson releases personalized pregame playlist in conjunction with a Spotify and EA Sports collaboration alongside Travis Hunter of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, Brazilian footballer Endrick, and F1 driver Bianca Bustamante. This is just cool, right? I think you’re seeing women’s athletes get into collaborations with some other high-profile men’s players. You see different brands wanting to pull these players in and attract potentially a new generation or a new customer base. I think it’s a really clever marketing approach. LPGA kicks off season in Florida at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions with Nelly Korda declared the winner after the final round was cut short due to cold weather.

Alex: And I heard the players were saying the course was playable.

Caitlin: Yes, so this was controversial. They cut the tournament short after 54 holes and it was cold. It’s hard for us Minnesotans to sit here and be genuine about Florida being too cold. I can understand for the sport itself and the impact on the quality of play, but a lot of players who were maybe not quite in the lead were like, hey, I could have used the last 18 holes to win and they didn’t get that opportunity. I will add, there was a $2.1 million purse for this tournament. When you think about funding and accessibility, the LPGA is doing well in that regard. It’s nowhere near comparable to the PGA Tour, but the winner takes home about $325,000 and it distributes down the line from there.

Alex: Overtime Sports announces partnership with NBA and WNBA to gear content clips towards a younger audience.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think this goes in line with that Spotify and EA Sports one. You’re seeing these plays to try to connect with the Gen Z audience, which is going to probably require TikTok and content clips.

Alex: Doing funny dances and stuff like that. And our final headline, Ted Lasso to return to Apple TV this summer, coaching a women’s football club with cast favorites back in action.

Caitlin: Believe. Yeah, so you’ll have all the regulars back in action, but you’re flipping to coach some second-tier women’s league. I’ll be interested to see how that goes.

Alex: Yeah, I’m really excited. I love that show.

WNBA CBA Negotiations and Potential Strike

Caitlin: All right, deep dive time. Back to the WNBA CBA negotiations. We’re gonna try to explain some numbers at some point. You’re gonna have to maybe get a pad of paper and a pen, it’s a lot.

Alex: Yeah, I would recommend it. You spent a lot of time yesterday mathing. I just would look over and you’d be looking up.

Caitlin: Alex can attest that I had scrap paper trying to math out how we could explain this in a way that makes sense. I went deep into what the sticking point is as far as where their agreements are at. I am going to start by regrounding our listeners in some of the acronyms. So WNBA: Women’s National Basketball Association. That’s the main league here in the United States. WNBPA is the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, or the union. We will also refer to the CBA, that is the collective bargaining agreement. Not the Continental Basketball Association, which predates the NBA. What my goal is here in this segment is to really set the table. What’s the backstory here? Why did they have this big meeting between the players association and the league? We’re going to ground in the sticking points, talk a little bit about the shots fired across the bow, and how we think this will end.

Alex: Right.

Caitlin: So the backstory: the players association opted out of the then-current CBA in October of 2024, a little over a year and a half ago now. This CBA was put into effect in January of 2020, and it was supposed to run until 2027, but there was an opt-out clause. Basically, the players are looking to capitalize on the explosive growth that the league has seen over the last three years. In 2019, the league generated top-line revenues of around 100 million. There was an expectation that this was gonna continue to explode, but COVID got completely in the way. They had to start back over. But then we saw Caitlin Clark coming up through the college game, and we saw this resurgence. As the league has absorbed some of that momentum, we are seeing expansion. In 2025, we added the Golden State Valkyries. In 2026, we’re due to add the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. By 2030, we’re supposed to be seeing teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Going from 12 teams to 18 teams in five years. In addition, expansion fees have gone from 50 million to 250 million. So the teams coming into the league are having to pay 250 million to join.

Alex: That’s not money that the players would ever see.

Caitlin: No, and we’ll talk about that, as that’s a major sticking point in their calculations for the valuation. We also see that franchise valuations are averaging around 180% increases over the last three seasons.

Alex: I don’t want to give away numbers, but I think the salary cap increases are like 3% a year. And so you’ve got these team owners making money on their asset while salaries aren’t increasing at even 10%. The liquid money for the players is going almost nowhere.

Caitlin: Yeah. In the model that they constructed under the old CBA, league growth was compounded. You’re adding 20% every year, which starts to look like an exponential curve. Meanwhile, player salaries are fixed at a 3% increase year on year, so they’re not seeing remotely any of that growth. The original deadline for the new agreement was October of 2025. They extended to November 30th, then pushed it to January 9th, 2026, which has come and gone. They are now operating under a state of status quo. This allows league business to continue under the current CBA, but that is really in name only. The two sides agreed to a moratorium on free agency, which was supposed to start mid-January. That is very problematic because right now you have all but two veteran players who need to be re-signed to teams.

Alex: In my brain, I think “status quo” is generous. I think you could call it a soft lockout. You can’t construct teams, you can’t sign your players, you can’t probably even talk to free agents.

Caitlin: Yeah, they’re delaying the expansion drafts right now for Toronto and Portland. The college draft is fast approaching, and we have about 100 days left until the season is supposed to start. If I’m a general manager or a coach looking at this, I cannot construct a competitive team, I don’t know who I have.

Alex: It needs to be figured out before the college season is over so that you can sign free agents, have an expansion draft, and then have your college draft.

Caitlin: My guess is that if we don’t have something mid-March, we’re going to have delays to the start of the season.

Breakdown of WNBA Revenue Sharing and Salaries

Caitlin: So why are they not coming to an agreement? The union sent a proposal to the league in mid-December. They had sent one at the end of November, and the league responded that the players were off base. The players put forward another proposal in mid-December, and the league has not responded.

Alex: I saw they didn’t think it was worthy of responding to, essentially.

Caitlin: Yes, league sources have said it’s too similar to the proposal they submitted in November, and they’re not being reasonable with their asks. The main sticking point when the league responded to their November proposal was, if we actually went forward with what you’re proposing, we would end up operating in the red. This is because the players association is looking at these expansion fees of 250K per team, and they are considering that revenue to the league. Other leagues don’t consider that revenue to the league; that money gets distributed to the existing clubs to compensate them for their decreased share of revenue because you have more teams.

Alex: Is it really decreased?

Caitlin: Well, that’s what we don’t know, because if you have this many teams joining, and you’re claiming the league isn’t generating revenue anyway, it feels a little weird. The players also authorized a strike. This was a historic vote, they had 93% participation from the players, and 98% of those said yes, we authorize the union to use a strike as leverage.

Alex: Obviously, the league could also do a lockout, but that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense for the league. We’re kind of in a soft lockout anyway.

Caitlin: Right now, the major sticking point is revenue sharing. The current CBA has a minimum salary anywhere between 66 and 79K, based on your years in the league. The average salary is about 110 to $120,000. Try living in New York on six figures like that.

Alex: Yeah, and they’re comparing to their male counterparts, where the minimum salary in the NBA is like $3.5 million.

Caitlin: The maximum salary on the current CBA is 250K, just barely above what Unrivaled pays on average. Every year, all the teams get a fixed 3% salary cap increase. It’s very hard with a 3% increase to even keep the same slate of players and pay them appropriately. The revenue sharing rules are based off of an expected 20% target growth year on year. If you do the math, the percentage of salary relative to revenue goes down by about a percentage point every single year.

Caitlin: So let’s talk about the league’s proposal. They are proposing a minimum salary of $220,000. Average salary is $530,000, and max salary is $1 million, scaling up to 2 million over the six-year term with a salary cap of 5 million. They’re also offering 50 to 70 percent of revenue after expenses. According to Front Office Sports, this is essentially 15 percent of gross revenue.

Caitlin: The players union proposal is asking for an average salary of $800,000. They’re also asking for a salary cap of $10.5 million, down from 12.5 in one of their original proposals. They want the salary cap to be determined based on revenues generated, similar to the NBA, NFL, and NHL. The NBA is roughly a 50-50 split, but the players union is asking for 30%. The sticking point is that no one actually knows what revenue the WNBA is generating. The league does not publicly publish that information.

Alex: We’re not opening the books. That makes me feel like there’s something shady going on.

Caitlin: It’s unfortunate. But what you realize is that it’s not really about those numbers; it’s about the fact that the players want to take advantage of proportional compensation for the growth they are directly generating. People aren’t showing up just because of the W on the court; they want to watch Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, and A’ja Wilson.

Alex: The thing that made it click for me is this idea of net versus gross, like in Hollywood. With net, there’s some fancy bookwork they can do to show it never made money. Whereas if you take it on the gross, you get a piece of it based on the overall money it made.

Caitlin: Exactly, and that’s the other piece that’s not clear with the books being opaque. Not only do we not know the revenue, we have no idea on expenses. Regarding leverage tactics, the league released the 2026 season schedule. There are some who speculate the league did this to try and force the union’s hands, so they could say, “We had a schedule and now you’re the reason we’re not playing it”. Meanwhile, players like Natasha Cloud of the New York Liberty are saying, “We don’t need the league. We’ll find ways to play”. There are player hubs being established at universities and fitness centers, opening their doors to players. The players are capable of executing a strike in reality.

Alex: With Unrivaled, for some of the bigger name players, it’s like a strike fund. You’re playing against the best competition there is, and you don’t have to worry about getting paid from the W if you can keep doing this year-round.

Caitlin: The players union and the league met in New York City for three hours, and the league didn’t even bring a proposal. When players association president Nneka Ogwumike was leaving, she declined to comment. The league showing up with no proposal reinforces to the union that they’re not taking them seriously. I wonder if we’re going to hear about the strike.

Alex: I think the league kind of has the leverage currently by not showing up with a proposal, saying “This is what it is”. But that can swing very quickly if they do decide to strike.

Caitlin: If a strike occurs, the league just signed a $2.2 billion broadcast deal. Can you imagine if the first year they’re having to pull back? I think they are in a bit of a tricky position. It’s gonna be fascinating how the players message what’s happening. Fans will travel with them, they want to see these players play.

NCAA Women’s Basketball and Hockey Roundup

Alex: We’ve got a little bit of an NCAA roundup. First up, basketball. Standings are UConn at 1, UCLA 2, South Carolina 3, Texas 4, Vanderbilt 5, LSU 6, Louisville 7, Iowa 8, Michigan 9, and Oklahoma 10. UConn seems unbeatable once again. They played a really big game against number 15 Tennessee, and they look untouchable.

Caitlin: There was a game against Xavier where Azzi Fudd had an off night, six points, and they were on a short bench with injuries, yet they still beat Xavier by 58 points. Geno Auriemma’s recruiting machine is unreal. Also, the SEC and the Big Ten are dominating the standings. Ten of the top 25 are SEC, seven are Big Ten. It’s essentially all SEC and Big Ten. The tournament is going to be fire.

Alex: Moving on to hockey. We have Wisconsin at 1, Ohio State 2, Minnesota 3, Penn State 4, Northwestern 5, UConn 6, Quinnipiac 7, Princeton 8, Yale 9, and Minnesota Duluth at 10. The Olympic shadow is upon us. Wisconsin and Minnesota are missing some of their key players, which is going to test their depth and give other teams the ability to steal some ranking.

Caitlin: The Gophers played the Badgers this past weekend and beat them in overtime on Friday. The Badgers have six players on Team USA that are gone. The Badgers did turn around and route the Gophers the next day.

Alex: Wisconsin plays number two Ohio State this weekend. You could see a swapping of rankings if Ohio State takes both of those games. Also, Penn State is at number four. They’ve been good, but they seem to kind of escape the national spotlight.

Caitlin: We lose track of them because they aren’t in the WCHA. They apparently have a really good defense led by Kendall Butze, who has 21 assists and 38 block shots. Their main goaltender, Katie DeSa, has a record goals against average of 1.2 and a save percentage of .934.

NCAA Gymnastics Scoring Changes

Alex: Moving on to gymnastics. We have the standings: Oklahoma, LSU, Alabama, Florida, UCLA, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia, Stanford, and Michigan. Oklahoma has six titles in the last 11 seasons, an undisputed dynasty.

Caitlin: I do know next weekend, the Gophers are hosting UCLA where Jordan Chiles competes. She scored a perfect ten, and she is very close to getting her bronze medal reinstated from the Paris Olympics.

Alex: So this is a new thing to me: the 198 club. Scoring a 198 in team competition is getting very hard. There are only four teams that have hit that this year: Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, and UCLA. They are changing how they score the teams this year. You go from a six-meet average to a nine-meet average, dropping the top and bottom scores. They are trying to encourage consistency over the whole season, rather than using it as a ramp-up.

Caitlin: You have less ability to throw away your bad scores. I wonder if the NCAA is trying to push this from a broadcast perspective, making it more exciting to watch all season long.

What to Watch: 2026 Winter Olympics Schedule

Caitlin: The Olympics start this week. We wanted to bring to you when the athletes we’ve talked about compete over the next two weeks.

Alex: Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the ice dance duo, start competition on February 9th. Jessie Diggins, Minnesota native cross-country skier, her races start Saturday, February 7th. Team USA hockey drops the puck against Czechia on Thursday, February 5th. Top PWHL draft prospects Caroline Harvey, Abbey Murphy, Laila Edwards, and Tessa Janecke are playing for Team USA.

Caitlin: Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby are in the doubles luge starting February 11th. Figure skating with Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu begins February 17th. Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor are bobsledding separately on February 15th. Just a couple of 40-year-old working moms. Erin Jackson will race to defend her 500-meter speed skating title on February 15th. Chloe Kim, looking for her third consecutive gold on the half pipe, competes February 11th and 12th. Mystique Ro in skeleton competes February 13th.

Alex: Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn’s alpine skiing competition starts over the weekend on February 8th. And Corinne Stoddard in short track speed skating starts February 7th.

Game of the Week and Closing Thoughts

Alex: Game of the week: number two UCLA at number eight Michigan in basketball, Saturday, February 8th at 2 PM on Fox. UCLA is 21-1 overall, Michigan is 19-3. In hockey, number two Ohio State at number one Wisconsin. Wisconsin won both games earlier this season, but this is a chance for Ohio State to swap rankings.

Caitlin: We’ll round it out with Unrivaled Saturday night. The Rose take on the Vinyl, a rematch of last year’s championship. Next Wednesday, the one-on-one tournament starts with more prize money on the line.

Alex: Let’s do winners and losers. My losers are the LPGA tourney organizers for cutting the weekend short. My winner is Elena Rybakina for winning the Australian Open and her second Grand Slam.

Caitlin: My loser is Lindsey Vonn’s crash. Knowing her story, to come back and compete and see that was a bummer. My winner is Marina Mabrey and the whole vibe of Unrivaled. It’s really fun to see people embrace these women as icons.

Alex: That’s all we got. Tune in next week for more. Catch us on YouTube and Spotify. Bye.