Episode 15 - The $3 Billion Moment: Women's Sports Is No Longer a Bet, It's a Buy

Alex: There was a note in our prep that women’s sports are built on community and cause. And the kind of snarky question I put down was: will women’s sports save our country slash culture? Like, if we can base more things on community and cause, I think that’s always a good thing.

Caitlin: Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex.

Caitlin: And this is Raising the Game, a women’s sports podcast covering primetime performers, the business behind the athletes and leagues, and what the growth of women’s sports means for the next generation of women’s athletes.

Alex: We are back. Exciting night.

Caitlin: The WNBA draft is happening as we speak. You’re watching it with our girls. They were really into Mommy’s predictions.

Alex: Yeah, which I was very bad at.

Caitlin: A little off. A little off. But pretty fun. So yeah, big night tonight for women’s sports. We’ll get into that.

Alex: Yep. I’m really excited to talk about some business numbers. Like one of the most exciting things for me is to talk about numbers.

Caitlin: Yeah, I love the business side of this. I love analyzing the industry from the perspective of like, what signals can you use to invest, to expand? All of those things. The growth behind women’s sports doesn’t happen on accident. And we actually get to talk about how we got here today based on a report that was released recently from Deloitte.

Alex: Yeah, that’ll be fun. And then I think we have just a little bit of a roundup. Women’s national team played.

Caitlin: Women’s national team played first of three.

Alex: Yep. Got a couple of interesting PWHL games coming up. That’s most of it.

Caitlin: That’ll be the episode.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Before we get into headlines, let’s do favorite thing.

Alex: I mean, we were at the same thing this weekend. We went to another Frost game, which was amazing.

Caitlin: Yeah, we went and saw the Frost play the New York Sirens. The Sirens had to win in any fashion in order to Seattle in. And so the Frost essentially eliminated the Seattle Torrent by winning that game. It was kind of a weird game. We scored really quickly, then there was like a quiet second period. And then the third period was wild.

Alex: It just exploded.

Caitlin: What was really fun and different about this for us was we got tickets down on the double attack end in a hockey rink. So we got to see a lot of offensive action up close and personal. My personal favorite was Taylor Heise’s goal where she dangled two players in the neutral zone and then came in and shot from an odd angle, top shelf. Like pick your spot. She’s just on fire. I am buying a jersey.

Alex: We’re lucky there wasn’t one there because you would have had one.

Caitlin: I would have bought one.

Alex: It was also fun being by all of that, kind of like the supporters section. Right there behind our double attack goal.

Caitlin: Yeah, a lot of people cheering and making up fun cheers for everyone to take part in. And it was Pride Night, too. So just like a real good vibe of inclusivity. Whenever they do feature nights, I always feel like whenever we have a Pride Night, whether it’s for the Lynx or Aurora or whatever, there’s just like a really good feeling of like everybody belongs here. And it was fun to share that with the girls.

Alex: Yeah. Should we dive into our headlines?

Caitlin: Let’s do it.

Headlines

Alex: All right. I think number one here: Dallas Wings take Azzi Fudd number one pick in the WNBA Draft.

Caitlin: Yes. I’m sure we will talk about some of the other picks. I think there was a little uncertainty on whether or not Azzi would get this one. I think she was like a lock late in the college basketball season, but then she had her performance in the tournament. Really fun to see her go to the Wings. That team, we’re going to talk about how teams are doing in free agency and the draft. That team is going to be a team to watch.

Alex: They’re going to kind of flip their fortunes here.

Caitlin: Yeah, not going to be 10-and-34 this coming season. That’s for sure.

Alex: TD Garden sells out for a battle at the top of the standings between Boston Fleet and Montreal Victoire.

Caitlin: Yeah, almost 18,000 people. And the only reason there weren’t more is because they don’t have that many seats at TD Garden. This coming one week after they eclipsed 18,000 at Madison Square Garden in a game between the Sirens and the Fleet.

Alex: Sophia Wilson returns to the pitch for the U.S. Women’s National Team, starting in a 2-1 win over Japan, led by Rose Lavelle’s goal and assist.

Caitlin: Yeah, we’ll talk about this game, but it’s so fun to see Gigi’s mom on the pitch. And Gigi, they showed when she got subbed out, they panned to Gigi against the window of the box that her family was in. So cute.

Alex: There was a cute video of Emma carrying her around coaching with her.

Caitlin: I’m obsessed with all of everything. I’m obsessed with it.

Alex: WNBA free agency was wild all week long with big moves and even bigger rumors swirling about who will end up where.

Caitlin: Like I said, we’ll talk a little bit about this. I’ve got kind of like winners and losers. Alex and I were having a good time just following all the drama on Threads.

Alex: I have a little bit about that in my section. It’s super fun.

Alex: The 2026 NCAA Women’s College Basketball Tournament drew the second highest viewership in network history.

Caitlin: That title game between UCLA and South Carolina drew an average of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.7 million. What we’re seeing is this trend in average versus peak, that gap shrinking, which means more people are just watching the whole thing. This was second highest viewership in a tournament to the 2024 tournament, which was Caitlin Clark’s senior year. That’s going to be a hard number to eclipse. But really cool to see it rebound after last year. They had a little bit lower viewership, yet they had the same four teams in the Final Four as last year. So good to see that upward momentum for the tournament.

Alex: Deloitte’s Game Changers report projects that women’s sports will exceed three billion in revenue in 2026.

Caitlin: Bottom line up front. This is what I tell my people at work. So we’re going to dive into that, but there’s the headline.

Alex: The White House has stalled the U.S.’s bid to co-host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, with the administration demanding FIFA issue a transgender athlete ban akin to what was just issued by the International Olympic Committee.

Caitlin: This just makes me mad and sad at the same time. There’s a lot more that we can talk about as it relates to this, but it’s disappointing when there is a lot of opportunity for goodness in having that opportunity here in the United States, especially given the growth in women’s sports. And we can’t talk about women’s sports without talking about equality for all. This is just such a small proportion of people that are being targeted. And it’s just really upsetting.

Alex: SI Swimsuit Edition featured WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Sophie Cunningham.

Caitlin: Yes. I think they were the first WNBA players to feature in the SI Swimsuit Edition. They looked great.

Alex: Yeah, they did look great.

Caitlin: Get it, girls.

Alex: Sue Bird will join the studio desk for NBC’s coverage of the WNBA during the 2026 season.

Caitlin: Yeah, this is big. Sue Bird has a brand in and of herself. And that media deal has NBC airing at least 50 games between regular season and postseason. So they’re going to have her on the desk to do that analysis. She put out a statement, she’s really excited to be able to talk basketball X’s and O’s and things like that. And then also interesting: we just mentioned Sophie Cunningham featured in the SI Swimsuit Edition. She’s actually going to sit at the desk occasionally during the season when it works. She’s actively playing. She’s got a big podcast where she talks all about women’s sports. She’s clearly somebody they’ve keyed in as a potential talent that can bring more viewers in. But I also wonder if that’s a path she’s wanting to go down when she’s done playing.

Alex: WNBA formally approves expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

Caitlin: Yeah, so these will drop, in that same order respectively, 2028, 2029, and 2030. I did see a really interesting reaction. There’s a guy named Bill Simmons. I don’t know who that is, but apparently he’s known enough in the sports community that there was reason for this to come across my feed. He was like: this is so irresponsible, they’re just growing for growth’s sake. And I watched a clip of some other people talk about his reaction and was like, yes, thank you. Like, why are you talking?

Alex: He’s not paying attention.

Caitlin: Yeah, don’t speak.

Alex: Yeah. Columbus seems to be in the final stages of formally securing an NWSL team.

Caitlin: That does appear to be the next move for them. It’s not coming without its challenges within the community. They’ve got to move or get rid of a park, and that’s pissing the neighbors off. So it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. But excited to see more soccer go to Columbus.

Alex: That’s kind of what we talked about too. They were seeming like they were the next spot.

Caitlin: Yeah, makes a ton of sense. They’ve got a good fan base there, they’ve got a men’s team in Columbus already. We’ve talked about that partnership being really important from an infrastructure and support perspective.

Deloitte Game Changers Report

Alex: All right, let’s dig into this Deloitte Game Changers report. Three billion is the number we’re talking about here.

Caitlin: Yeah. So this is a report, as Alex just mentioned, it’s called Game Changers. It’s issued every year by the consulting company Deloitte, one of the biggest consulting companies in the world. And they have issued it every year since 2021, I believe. The purpose of it was, I think they picked up on: hey, there’s an industry here that we need to be monitoring. To me, this is what’s really important about this coming out. A legitimate, huge consulting company is coming out and saying you need to be monitoring this as an asset class. This is an emerging industry.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: And if you’re deciding to put money in places where it can make you more money, this is a place you should be doing that. This is legitimizing it as an asset class that investors, venture capital, and others should be considering.

Alex: Yeah. And it’s kind of like, if you could get in early on a startup as an angel investor, they’re saying you’ve got a short window. Get in now and it’s going to grow from here over many years.

Caitlin: Right. So we’re going to break this down in four sections. First, the numbers. What is this report saying as far as changes in 2026 versus 2025 across different revenue streams? Then we’re going to get into the history. So really what got us into this position. There’s kind of like the slow build, and there are moments that we’ve already talked about here on the pod, so they should feel familiar. There are accelerants and then there are these catalyst moments that we’re going to hit on. What I find really, really fascinating is the differentiators. How are women’s sports approaching this very differently from how men’s sports grew? I’m excited to talk about that piece because there are some trends that we’ve picked up on that we really want our listeners to be watching out for.

Alex: While we were going through the research, I felt so validated that so many of the things we’ve talked about from a business perspective, they’re in here. Like, we were already talking about this without knowing this report.

Caitlin: So that felt kind of good. And it was cool to see it all pieced together in a way that we’ve been kind of piecing it together on our own. Let’s get into it.

Alex: I think the money is what we’ll talk about first. It’s broken up into three different categories. As I was doing the research, I was categorizing it as leading, current, and lagging indicators. Upfront, the leading indicator is commercial revenue, which was about 1.1 billion last year and this year is expected to be 1.4 billion. That comes from sponsorships and brand deals. The big thing about that is brands recognizing that investments here are going to pay off. They’ve seen it work in action, so they’re going to put money there now. The numbers we have: sponsorships grew 12% year over year, versus 8% in men’s sports across five men’s pro leagues. So nearly 50% faster. 86% of sponsors said their investment met or exceeded expectations, and one third said it delivered better results than expected.

Caitlin: And then the WNBA Changemaker partners averaged a 286% ROI, and one partner turned $5 million into $18 million.

Caitlin: So if you wanted any proof that this is a worthwhile investment in certain pockets. Now, I do want to back us up a little bit. We’re looking at women’s sports as an industry. The majority of it right now is coming from North America, primarily the WNBA and the NWSL as far as revenue generators. There is a growing segment that is now up to about a third of that revenue generation coming from outside of the U.S., about 36 or 37 percent from Europe, and about 32 percent from other places in the world. This is a really important part of this. And going back to this brand thing: this is a true investment. You are accepting risk in putting your name on these teams and athletes. So there’s a belief being built there about the value that could be had.

Alex: I think one of the other things I saw was another sports research firm saying that women’s sports fans are three times more likely to purchase products from a sponsoring brand. And you have this higher intent-to-purchase audience. Women’s sports fans cross sports more often than men do. You have someone who might see advertising for soccer and buy from a brand that’s also in basketball.

Caitlin: Yeah, and we’ll dig into that more when we get to those differentiators at the end.

Alex: So next up, the current indicator is match day revenue. Last year was $748 million, this year projected to be $911 million. Average annual attendance across women’s sports rose 55% between 2021 and 2024. Kansas City Current built the first stadium purpose-built for women’s soccer. And we have a bunch of WNBA teams moving into larger stadiums, like actual NHL and NBA arenas.

Caitlin: Yeah. And that first stat is growth in attendance from 2021 to 2024. We have been coming at y’all nonstop with attendance records on this show this year. We talked about the 63,000 at the Denver Summit inaugural home opener. There’s a game being played at Wembley Stadium in London between the English national team and the Spanish national team, and already 70,000 tickets were sold a couple of days before. The PWHL, we just talked about the Gardens and the sellouts there. The Women’s Six Nations Rugby just had 77,000 people. We’re going to get into some 90,000 markers on various things that have happened over the years. And when you think about that match day revenue, it’s tickets. But then it’s also merch. There’s a compounding effect there. The more people you can get in the building, the more other things you’re selling that are going to contribute back to the growth of the sport.

Alex: The other thing about the Kansas City Current building that stadium is infrastructure is permanent. They’re not viewing this as a short-term investment. This is: we are building this for the long term. We expect this to go for at least 30 to 40 years and then build another one.

Caitlin: Yeah, right, exactly.

Alex: And then the third category, the lagging indicator, is broadcast revenues. Last year was $551 million, this year expected to be $765 million. We saw the NWSL broadcast deal, the WNBA broadcast deal, the ESPN Sunday Night spotlight, and I think there are rumblings of a PWHL deal coming.

Caitlin: Yeah. I do want to talk about this quickly. There’s a little bit of a chicken and the egg on broadcast. The PWHL broadcasts all of their games for free on YouTube, which is great. There’s no national deal here in the States, but they’ve chosen to still invest money in making that production and viewer experience consistent. We’ve seen a very different example as we’ve tried to tune in to another league, and we’ve talked a lot about how if they want to generate more buzz, they need to invest in some more sophistication in their production value.

Alex: I totally get they’re a new league and might not have as much funding, but there are simple things about just consistency: consistent camera positions, normal graphics, that kind of thing.

Caitlin: I compare those two because the PWHL, we’re in the third season now, and the other league has been around for seven years. So it’s about intentional choices. Now the PWHL is sitting on the cusp of potentially signing a national broadcast deal because they have drawn the fans and fans are watching because they’re getting a good fan experience. Really important.

How Women’s Sports Got Here: The History

Caitlin: We would be remiss if we did not talk about and pay homage to the people who got us here. Some of this is going to feel really familiar to our audience, but always a good reminder and refresher. Prior to 2020, there’s been this really slow build. It really started with Title IX, which was kind of the point in time that really pivoted all of this momentum. We talked about in our Pioneers episode like Althea Gibson and Wilma Rudolph and Billie Jean King, right? And then Patsy Mink and Title IX in 1972 really set the stage for building the pipeline that’s required to develop talent that then becomes your product that you can generate revenue with.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Following Title IX, Billie Jean King founds the WTA. That became the first women’s professional sports association. Equal prize money, things like that. Then you fast forward about 20 years and we had the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Some really pivotal moments for women’s sports: Kerri Strug on a sprained ankle, winning the gold medal with the Magnificent Seven. Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo winning a gold medal for Team USA basketball. That then started the WNBA in 1997, right? That league was born out of that Olympic success. You had the future ‘99ers, because this is pre-‘99ers. The whole Title IX gang of Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy coming through in the Olympics. 76,000 people showed up to the final where they won the gold medal. So even prior to some of the moments we think of, right?

Then we get to 1999. We’ve got 90,000 plus people watching the World Cup Championship between the USA and China. Epic sports bra moment with Brandi Chastain. I think that spurred a generation of women to want to be professional athletes, probably soccer players. And then fast forward again 20 years later. We’ve gone through some of the struggles of the different leagues in that time. But FIFA commits a billion dollars to women’s football infrastructure globally. That structural commitment, as I said before when we were talking about the distribution of where this revenue is coming from…

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: A big part of that is commitments like this from governing bodies to grow the game not in one place. We talked about this, where the Premier League struggles with expanding outside of the country. They’re making efforts, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t have the foresight to try and build that out globally earlier on. And then 2019, women’s sports media coverage triples from 5% to 16% of total coverage after years of stagnation. Like you couldn’t find women’s sports on TV if you tried.

Alex: Was there a single event, or was it just the flywheel catching up?

Caitlin: I think there was probably some WNBA momentum that year, they renegotiated the old CBA, and then COVID happened in 2020. They were projecting like 20% growth year on year with how that whole CBA was structured. And then also the Women’s World Cup. This was the one where Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, the back-to-back win.

So moving into some of the accelerants: we are now in 2020. We have what is fondly referred to as the Wubble. In the summer of 2020, all 144 WNBA players gathered in Bradenton, Florida to play their season. Empty arenas, but they kept it going. But what also happened in 2020, if you’re remembering your recent history correctly, was George Floyd was here in Minneapolis. And instead of shutting up and dribbling, those women decided to use that time to platform advocacy, for equal rights, for a lot of things that are really important for our society. I think this was one of the first times we saw activism through athletes on a very large scale. Now, there have been activist athletes for decades. Look at Billie Jean King. But this was a big moment.

Alex: Yeah. And I think back to our Pioneers episode: it was almost every single person we talked about who had some sort of activist element. You see that a little bit with male athletes, but not as much.

Caitlin: Yeah. And what’s interesting too is that brands took notice of this. Fans of women’s sports are more likely to align values to the people they support. They are willing to give their money to institutions, players, brands, whatever it might be, that seem to align with them from a values perspective.

So that was one major moment. The second one: in 2021, there were some pictures shared at the NCAA basketball tournament. They had the men’s and women’s tournament in the same area. And the pictures that were shared were the men’s weight room…

Alex: Which was like this fully kitted, fully outfitted, all Rogue, like the whole thing.

Caitlin: Weight plates, racks, barbells, full sets of dumbbells.

Alex: Probably an $80,000 to $100,000 setup.

Caitlin: Yeah. Juxtaposed next to a picture of what was provided for the women, which was a single dumbbell tree with dumbbells that went from like five to 30 pounds. And then I think they had like maybe a physio table and a few other things. Suffice to say it was not $80,000 to $100,000 worth of equipment.

Alex: You’d probably find more in your hotel than what was there.

Caitlin: Yeah. And so when I think about this, the way that social media was used to expose that inequity quickly, that also has played a huge role in how we can have conversations about needing to elevate the women’s side. Because if that had happened in previous decades, and it has been happening, you wouldn’t have seen it.

Alex: Hey, social media is good for something.

Caitlin: The outrage around this generated structural change. That is no longer the case. There were also pictures of the swag bags being completely different, the food the players got being completely different. They had totally short-shifted the women’s side.

And then, to wrap this section up: the Yates Report can’t be discounted. We’ve talked about the Yates Report when it comes to the history of the NWSL, the really broad-reaching systemic abuse of players and cover-ups by team ownership. A horrible thing that happened, and it took a ton of bravery for some of those players to come forward. But through the change it catalyzed, it brought in Jessica Berman and really saw a transformation in growth from an NWSL perspective.

And when we get to 2022, that’s the year Deloitte is basing these growth numbers off of. In that year: the U.S. Women’s National Team equal pay settlement, $24 million plus equal pay going forward with the men’s team. Angel City FC and San Diego Wave joining the NWSL and taking the league by storm. Camp Nou in Spain, where Barcelona plays, breaks the attendance record with 91,648 fans for a UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinal. The largest crowd ever for a women’s sporting event at the time, broken in just over a year. And players using social media to build their own personal brand, which has been really important for attracting fans.

Catalysts: 2023 to Present

Alex: Yeah, moving from 2022, we pop into one of our first catalysts: the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which was the most watched women’s sports event in history, about two billion worldwide. The prize money increased by around 300% to $150 million, which was still about a third of the men’s, but it’s progress.

Caitlin: Getting there.

Alex: And then Morocco had a run that brought in this global audience in a way that hadn’t really been seen before.

Caitlin: You have an African nation making this run competitively against these superpowers of women’s football. I can’t stress that point enough: this growth is not happening in isolation. This is global.

Alex: Then we move into later that year: 92,003 fans attended a Nebraska volleyball game, a doubleheader. The largest ever sporting event for a women’s event.

Caitlin: And what’s interesting is it wasn’t like a marquee event. It wasn’t a tournament. They were like, hey, let’s try this. They packed the football stadium for a regular season game.

Alex: That record was broken in 14 months.

Caitlin: Records that used to last for decades. Less than a year and a half. OK, here we are again.

Alex: And then probably one of the biggest catalysts on this list. Caitlin Clark and the Caitlin Clark effect. The 2022 championship had four and a half million viewers. The Indiana Fever, after drafting her, saw a 43% increase in sponsorship volume between 2023 and 2024. Every game the Fever came to town was a sellout.

Caitlin: And in multiple cases they had to move games to bigger arenas if the team wasn’t already playing in an NBA arena. And then merchandise sales for her jersey. I don’t care if it’s a men’s or women’s basketball game, you will see at least one Caitlin Clark jersey.

Alex: Yeah. Before her, it would be very hard for me to name the upcoming college pipeline. But now I tend to know more of them than even sometimes men’s football.

Caitlin: And just to put a finer point on the championship viewership: we just talked about 9.9 million on average this year. The viewership prior to Caitlin Clark was less than half of that. And now, consistently, even after she’s left, viewership is double what it was before she came onto the scene.

Alex: Yep. And then we move into the 2024 Paris Olympics, which was the first gender-equal games in history with equal athlete representation on the field of play. Women athletes generated 53% of social media engagement but only had 43% of news coverage. They outperformed the coverage they got. And then we had some cultural moments that transcended sport: Biles, Chiles, and Andrade. Ilona Maher kind of becoming a social media darling.

Caitlin: Yes.

Alex: And Julien Alfred, becoming St. Lucia’s first ever Olympic medalist.

Caitlin: And I want to take a pause on this. We’ve just talked about Caitlin Clark, and then Biles and Chiles and Andrade and Ilona Maher. We’re talking about social media and branding, and it can be really easy to fall into the trap of thinking they’re just really good at engaging an audience.

Alex: Yep.

Caitlin: They’re really good at engaging an audience because they’re really good at what they do. I don’t want it to be lost on anybody that the level of talent these women have is off the charts. The reason so many people wanted to watch Caitlin Clark was because her ability to shoot was unmatched.

Alex: Unmatched. You don’t see people shooting threes from the logo in the NBA.

Caitlin: No. And as human beings, we love excellence on display. We love seeing the extraordinary play out in front of us. I think what we’re seeing more and more is that we’re able to see the extraordinary play out in women’s sports. We weren’t always able to see that because the opportunity for viewing wasn’t really there. We love being able to pay homage to the work that all of these women put in to becoming really, really good at their craft.

Alex: And then moving into 2024 and 2025, we had the PWHL launch. Breaking attendance records, 18,000 at MSG. And then LOVB raised $160 million in funding. Their championship is this weekend. I wanted to point out that one of our favorite commentators, Holly Rowe, said she thinks LOVB is the next big thing in women’s sports.

Caitlin: Volleyball. I think that one seems to be on the rise. They have multiple leagues and the crowds they draw for those games are pretty significant.

Alex: The other interesting thing about PWHL is they haven’t necessarily had a massive Caitlin Clark-esque star. They’ve kind of just been patient, doing all of the right things with production and how they present the game, knowing that if they do all the right little things, it’s going to grow. They have this patience in growing the game and thinking the game will be what it is and bring in those fans.

What Makes Women’s Sports Different

Caitlin: Yeah. So we wanted to explore what’s different. Why are women’s sports growing at the rate that they are? How do we differentiate this from men’s sports? My analysis comes down to three pillars.

The first is cultural ambassadorship over celebrity. We just talked about this as it relates to the Wubble. In my view, and I’m very biased, but I think men’s athletes take for granted that there is a spot for them. Women’s athletes do not take that for granted. They recognize that they have to fight to be in the position they’re in. And so that advocacy piece is sort of built in, inherent in the fact that to be able to play, you had to be willing to represent something bigger than yourself.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Whereas a lot of male athletes, not all, but a lot of them are just like: I want to play in the pros one day, and the pros are just there. As long as I work hard, get seen by the right people, work with the right coaches, I have that opportunity. For women athletes, until very recently, that wasn’t the case.

Alex: Well, and a lot of men don’t take any sort of advocate-type stand because they just think: if I don’t, there will still be spots for the men.

Caitlin: Right. We talked about this too with fans: 70% of women’s sports fans agree that brands have a responsibility to support women’s sports and promote positive social change. There’s a deep-rooted belief within the fandom that we want to feel aligned with the team and athletes we support. You know, Ilona Maher doesn’t just play rugby. She advocates, she educates, she entertains. And that draws fans. In the WNBA, we hear from Natasha Cloud a lot, very outspoken about human rights. Napheesa Collier, Alyssa Thomas, talking about things around climate, human rights, reproductive rights. That advocacy is just inherent and built in because they don’t take for granted the fact that they have a platform.

Alex: There was a note in our prep that women’s sports are built on community and cause. And the kind of snarky question I put down was: will women’s sports save our country slash culture? Like, if we can base more things on community and cause, I think that’s always a good thing.

Caitlin: You feel so connected at a women’s sports event. I don’t know any of the people there, but I want to be around them. I was telling you, I’m like, we’ve got to get season tickets to something. I feel so alive when I’m there. There is something to that sense of welcoming and inclusion that just is inherently human.

So our second pillar is athletes’ personal brand as a league driver. In men’s sports, leagues built stars. In women’s sports, stars build leagues. I think about Brett Favre: beloved in Green Bay, then he came to Minnesota, and they could immediately hate him because he played for the Vikings. On the women’s side, you do not see that. You see: oh, this player moved here, now I’m a fan of that team.

Alex: Yes.

Caitlin: You know, leagues like Unrivaled are noticing that fans are connecting with individual personas, and they’re leaning into: if we can give fans a peek behind the curtain and really humanize these people, that draws them in. You’ve got Cameron Brink and Angel Reese in the WNBA with a ton of brand sponsorships. Cameron Brink was the first female athlete signed to New Balance. Angel Reese was the first ever WNBA player in Victoria’s Secret modeling. I think Angel Reese’s move to the Atlanta Dream is going to be huge for that team. She drew a ton of fans to Chicago because people follow the player.

Alex: An interesting thing I saw with the Cameron Brink New Balance deal was that it was a deal she made that turned into a partnership for the WNBA.

Caitlin: OK, yeah, that’s cool.

Alex: She was responsible almost for bringing that into the league.

Caitlin: Yes. And smart of the league to lean into that. Women’s sports fans are twice as likely to buy merchandise or purchase products endorsed by a female athlete compared to other influencers, and they’re 45% more likely to buy from sponsoring brands. There’s this deep inherent trust built between the athlete and the fandom.

So the third pillar is the fan experience as identity, not transaction. Women’s sports fans in general don’t just consume sport. They become part of it. Every time I hear an interview with leadership of the PWHL or the NWSL, they are talking about what their pre-game, in-game, and post-game fan experience is going to be like. They’re really thoughtful about how to continue to engage fans with brands and athletes so that they feel included and special. That sense of community is so biologically inherent to our species. They’re really tapping into that in a really cool way.

That was a lot, but we really had a lot of fun digging into this report and thinking through those differentiators. Because I think as we’ve gotten more and more intimately familiar with these different leagues, we’re starting to pick up on those patterns and trends and we see them not only as cool things for us as fans but really strong indicators for business minds to be looking at these leagues and saying: you are onto something here. You have a lever that you can pull that can help to grow this.

Alex: I think this report has made it so fun. We are noticing certain trends and then a firm like this comes out and says these are the trends we’re seeing, and they’re exactly what we’re talking about.

Caitlin: We feel legitimized.

Alex: If you listen to our show, you’re going to kind of understand these things before they actually happen. You’re going to be able to make those connections like we’ve been making.

Caitlin: Yeah. So let’s wrap this up by talking about this $3 billion projection. First of all, the industry itself has overshot the projection every year since this report has come out. So we might eclipse $3 billion. But what does this really mean in practice? This means more pay for athletes. We’re already seeing players signing million-dollar contracts when they were making $129,000 last year. There’s the infrastructure investment, broadcast quality and access, league survival. We talked about how long the NWSL took, how many different leagues happened along the way. And then expansion: the PWHL, the WNBA, the NWSL, Unrivaled, Athletes Unlimited. There’s just so much going on, so much opportunity. And that all culminates in the next generation. It’s our daughters who are growing up in a world where they get to see this sense of community, and where we get to see these women being paid what they’re owed.

Alex: So many chances that are out there now.

Caitlin: So many. I mean, I was throwing the football in the backyard with our daughter the other day, our eldest, and she can throw a pretty tight spiral. She’s six and a half, y’all. And I was like, you could play flag football and you probably… I got a little ahead of myself.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: But I was like, you probably could play this pro. Because that’s going to be a thing.

Alex: Yeah, it’ll be a thing.

Caitlin: And it’s so cool to sit there and be like, you have so much ahead of you.

Alex: If you want it, it’s there. And she’s not even old enough yet to realize that you did not have that opportunity.

Caitlin: Right. And it goes back to: women have consistently had to advocate for this space. And I’m not saying that our daughters won’t have to continue to advocate for their right to be in the room. But the fact that that opportunity is even out there for her right now? She could go play rec flag football.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Amazing.

Alex: Yeah, it’s great.

Caitlin: It’s amazing. Definitely something we’re going to be watching. I would encourage y’all to go check out the report. They did a great job. And it goes without saying, Deloitte. All right.

WNBA Draft: Winners, Losers, and the Lynx

Alex: All right, well let’s get into this. We’ve got the WNBA Draft.

Caitlin: Yes, we do. I think what I really wanted to hinge on is between free agency and the draft, what teams are looking like they’re coming out in good position, and what teams are like, what are you doing? So I have a couple of takes. When it comes to our big winners, I do feel like Atlanta is on that list. They had the huge trade with Angel Reese. They retained Ryan Howard, Alicia Gray, among some others. I do think that’s going to be a strong team this year. They were in the playoffs last year.

Chicago, dare I say Chicago.

Alex: Despite everything they usually do, somehow.

Caitlin: It would be very Chicago of them to completely implode. And a lot of our Threads friends have pointed out that they have a lot of really strong personalities on that team that you never know how that’s going to gel in a competitive space.

The LA Sparks are looking very good. They were able to sign Nneka Ogwumike from the Seattle Storm, re-sign Kelsey Plum. Lots of jokes flying around about like, why didn’t they pay her a million dollars? The reason is she goes into a completely different tax bracket in California if she hits that. So she was like, I’m going to stay at $999,999. She’s smart.

Dallas, they picked up Azzi Fudd earlier tonight. They’re no longer a 10-and-34 team. If they are 10-and-34, they are doing it wrong. They strengthened their roster. They also acquired Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard, two of our faves from up here in Minnesota.

Vegas, the defending champions, kept their core three in Asia Wilson, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young, and added some talent. I think they’re going to continue to be strong.

And then from an expansion perspective, I do think Toronto is looking strong.

On the flip side, I don’t know what Portland’s doing. I can’t figure that out. And I also have no idea what is happening in Seattle. On the draft they were basically owning the fact that Seattle’s in a rebuilding year. I don’t know if you want to be broadcasting that.

The Washington Mystics, there are people on Threads being like, we’re holding open tryouts, we have no one. But they just landed Lauren Betts, Angela Dugalić [VERIFY: spelling], and Codi McMahon. They had three first-round picks in the draft, which is going to help them out. And the Phoenix Mercury lost some players. They were able to re-sign Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper, but lost Satou Sabally. That’ll be interesting, especially for a team that went into the finals last year.

Alex: I’m going to talk about the Lynx. Twitter was insane. I have to say, I have learned that Threads is equally insane in other ways on the WNBA threads. Actually, I think any women’s sports thread has some ridiculous things being said out there. We were watching free agency all weekend and at one point someone came out and said like, I think Natasha Cloud’s coming to the Lynx, because that makes me feel better when I think about it. Not per leaks or anything.

Caitlin: Who knows where she’s going.

Alex: But then a lot of people were saying: we just have to trust Cheryl, she’s cooking. And today there was apparently a Timberwolves podcast where the owner A-Rod was on, and he basically said: the hints he gave were, Cheryl calls me, I go out to lunch with Fee [Aerial Powers], and then sometimes I write a check. And so it’s like, yes, Cheryl and Fee are doing something there. They know what they’re doing. And I think we can trust what’s going to come out of that no matter what. And we saw Olivia Miles drafted tonight.

Caitlin: Yeah. I think Cheryl Reeve has earned the right to just run the ship how she wants to run the ship. She’s been coaching the Lynx for 17 seasons. She has written the book on how to construct a championship team and attract the right talent. And it’s also very clear they are building around this new CBA era. They were able to re-sign Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride, which were kind of their core along with Aerial Powers. I think adding Miles is going to be great. They have had the success they had the last couple of seasons without a true point guard. They’ve started Courtney, who can do it but she’s more of a two, a shooting guard. So I’ll be really curious to see how they show up now. What I’m also extra curious about is the state of Miles’s recovery.

Alex: Yeah. A few weeks ago she was still in a cast. People were saying she’s not starting the season. So we’ll see how that goes.

Caitlin: We shall.

Alex: Unless she was faking it and she’s like, nah, gotcha.

Caitlin: She just wanted to be pushed around on the sand on the beach for the SI swimsuit in a wheelchair.

Alex: She was loving the cart.

USWNT vs. Japan

Alex: All right, let’s go into this U.S. Women’s National Team game.

Caitlin: All right. First game of three against Japan. Such a unique challenge to play three games against the same team in succession. And then also that the team is Japan, who are just so disciplined. So technically sound. They will wear you down just by making you be patient. If you can’t be patient, they take advantage of your misstep. Decent quality win against a really good team. Was it the best win ever? No. There are things we still need to work on. You could clearly see the mission was to build out of the back. Japan actually held a really high press, which created some weird moments. But we were able to navigate through that. I felt like Lindsey Heaps was nonexistent for most of the game until she scored.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: I don’t recall hearing her name. And so I don’t know what that’s a symptom of, or if it’s just how she plays sometimes. I get a lot of flack for being a super Heaps fan. But like I said, great leadership quality, I just don’t always love her style. Someone needs to talk to Trinity Rodman. I don’t know what is going on with her, but it feels like ever since she signed her big club-and-country deal, she seems a little flat. She had an assist, right? So she did contribute. But I just haven’t seen the same energy from her. And I don’t know if it’s a her problem or a scheme problem.

Alex: Yeah, but I was wondering.

Caitlin: Something to watch. And the other thing: that back line. Do we have a left back? What’s going on with center back? Tierna was back in but didn’t play. Emily Sonnet also didn’t play because she took a knock. So they had Naomi Girma in the middle with Casey Wermuth, which is kind of cute because they actually played together at Stanford in college. Alyssa Thompson looked really good. I am loving Gisele Thompson at left back. I especially love Emily Fox. I don’t actually think you can score in the run of play against our defense. Because Naomi is Naomi. Secretary of Defense. And then Gisele and Emily are so fast. I showed you that video of the Japanese attacker who was like alone and then out of nowhere Gisele Thompson comes across and takes the ball off of her. They’re so good.

What’s really cool going forward: the strength of our roster when you think about the players Emma was able to bring on in that first game, she started a pretty senior, experienced roster. It’s likely that in the second game, it’s going to be a pretty close to completely different starting 11. The fact that you can start Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson, and Alyssa Thompson, and then bring on Emma Sears and Ali Centner and Jameese Joseph and Jaedyn Shaw, like the depth of talent. Thank goodness we don’t have to make these decisions. I think we’ll see a completely different lineup in game two, and maybe a different tactic as a result. And when we get to that third game on Friday, I expect that’s going to be Emma Hayes’s best of. She’ll have done her assessment from games one and two and say: OK, I know the pieces I need. Let’s try this now.

Alex: Is the Trinity Rodman thing like a system thing where they know we’re going to go to her, so let’s try and exploit a weakness somewhere else?

Caitlin: Yeah, possibly. What I’m talking about is she just doesn’t seem to be able to find her moments where she can impact it in a more direct way. The fluidity between her and Sophia on the field again together was so good, they’re moving all over and both equally threatening wherever they are on the pitch. So it could be that was her first time playing with Sophia back and it was kind of getting that out of the system. I just look at the games I’ve seen her play recently and she seems a little stuck. She might be worried about her back. She hurt her back at the SheBelieves Cup, or maybe even the friendlies before that.

Alex: The other question I had: it was a really efficient game, less volume overall in the shots. Nine shots USA, 12 Japan. Are they looking to up that volume or stay efficient on the chances they do have?

Caitlin: I would say against a team like Japan, it’s about efficiency. I don’t know that you’re going to generate a ton of shots on goal because possession is at a premium against them. And actually I think we did out-possess them. There’s a statistic that if you out-possess Japan, you will beat them. So you need to make sure you have the time on the ball. I like the efficiency piece. If you’re not putting them in, you’re not going to win. I hope to see that continue.

PWHL Playoff Race and What to Watch

Alex: All right, let’s move on. PWHL potential announcements coming.

Caitlin: Yeah, so two weeks ago they had that game at Madison Square Garden, 18,000 fans. And prior to the game they had a little panel with Billie Jean King and Stan Caston. Stan Caston is a member of the advisory board. He is a co-owner of the Dodgers with Mark and Kimbra Walter, as well as the Los Angeles Sparks. He was actually talking about how, on a nightly basis right now, the PWHL is in the red. They don’t make money. But his tone and attitude was so bullish. Almost like: we’re about to get there. Which made me think you’re signing a broadcast deal. That’s one way to bring in a lot of money quickly. Now the pushback on that is: do they have enough teams to warrant a broadcast deal?

Alex: And so then it goes to what expansion is going to look like.

Caitlin: And we are expecting that expansion announcement any day now. He also said that the league is tracking ahead of schedule financially. When you start a business, you expect not to make money for a certain amount of time. They’re ahead of that schedule. His vision is for the schedule to expand: right now they play 30 games in the season, and he’s anticipating that over time they’ll go to 40 and eventually 50. What he was very clear to say was: inherent in all of this, we have to be able to pay the players.

Alex: Really important part of this.

Caitlin: Yes. And you think about who else sits on that advisory board: Billie Jean King, whose whole thing is fighting for exactly that. So that gets me really excited.

Alex: All right, we’re going to talk about this fourth playoff spot. Like we said, Seattle is officially out. We knocked them out this past weekend. Ottawa has three games left at 36 points. Toronto has four games left at 34 points. And New York is at 31 points with four games left. The max amount that New York could get is 43 total points, which means they need Ottawa to win at most some combination giving them only six points more.

Caitlin: Are you all following this at home?

Alex: Toronto is a little bit more in control. They could win all of their games and overtake Ottawa if Ottawa wins all of theirs. So Toronto kind of controls their destiny here.

Caitlin: Fully.

Alex: Here’s the other wrinkle. Ottawa plays New York, Boston, and Toronto. Toronto plays New York twice, Minnesota, and Ottawa. And New York plays Toronto twice, Ottawa, and Boston.

Caitlin: So what’s really funny about this is none of them play Montreal, or Vancouver, or Seattle. They all have to play each other at least once in this last bit.

Alex: They somehow got all boxed together against the teams they need to lose to.

Caitlin: And it’s going to be extremely, extremely messy how this turns out. You have to be glued to your TV. And you have draft implications on the line, right? You’re still trying your hardest to get into that fourth spot.

Alex: So you want to do everything to get into that fourth spot.

Caitlin: Well, we saw that. We played New York and we had already clinched. New York took it to us from the beginning. They were winning that game. We looked so flat-footed. They definitely looked like a team that needed to win a game. And so they got some points. We do have the highest points in the league. But yeah, it’s going to be a race to the finish. And the playoffs are going to be nationally televised. We are planning to try and go back to a playoff game. We’ll see if we can go to another championship game that ends in triple overtime.

Caitlin: I would love to see a championship finish before we have to leave the stadium.

Alex: All right, let’s jump into What to Watch. We have three PWHL games this week. Toronto at New York on Wednesday, April 15th at 6 p.m. Central. New York versus Ottawa, 1 p.m. Central on Saturday. And Toronto at Minnesota, 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Caitlin: So all of those have fourth-place implications.

Alex: I think we talked about this already: you’ll be listening to this podcast the day after the second game.

Caitlin: Maybe just a few hours after. It is very late. 9 p.m. Central.

Alex: And then the third game is on Friday at 8 p.m. Central, and that’s on TNT and HBO Max for the U.S. Women’s National Team.

Caitlin: It’s your popcorn. That’s going to be Emma Hayes’s best of.

Alex: I believe they’re playing it in Commerce City, which is the temporary home of the Denver Summit.

Caitlin: Yeah, until later this year. Could have big attendance numbers there.

Alex: We also have NCAA gymnastics this week. Two semi-final matches on Thursday, April 16th on ESPN2, one at 4:30 and one at 9. And then the national championship on Saturday.

And then like we talked about, LOVB, if you want to watch volleyball: Salt Lake versus Utah. Two matches. Thursday, April 16th at 7 p.m. Central on USA, and then Saturday, April 18th at 7 p.m. Central on USA.

Caitlin: Some good championships coming. Once the hockey playoffs are over, WNBA starts right away. Training camp starts on Sunday.

Alex: Yeah, there we go.

Caitlin: We’ll have teams by then because we don’t seem to have full teams yet for the WNBA. All right. Let’s wrap it up with winners and losers. Losers first. You got one?

Winners and Losers

Alex: Man, I had actually thought about these and didn’t write them down. Terrible.

Caitlin: That doesn’t work well for you.

Alex: I was kind of thinking Chicago Sky to start out. We’ll see how that works out. I think they’re going to gel for the first quarter of the season and then it’s going to be interesting.

Caitlin: I think there’s too much ego. Something’s going to happen there. Those will be entertaining games to watch, I will say. If you have the opportunity to watch the Chicago Sky play, I would tune in.

My loser goes back to one of our headline topics: holding up the bid for the Women’s World Cup in 2031. The plan is for the U.S. to co-host with Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. The fact that we’re turning this amazing opportunity into a political pawn over something that is a non-issue, from the perspective of affecting the large majority of people, there are so few trans women in soccer, in any sport. It just makes no sense to me. I have seen a lot of advocacy for: maybe Mexico just hosts it. And I’m like, that’s close enough, and frankly that’d be fun to travel to. The Men’s World Cup is here this summer and it’s already been a bit of a mess with ticket sales and some things that aren’t actually tickets. I don’t know that we’re putting our best foot forward as a host nation. Going back to that thing about community and cause: I would much rather it be in a place where everybody can feel accepted, included, and a part of the community.

Alex: Winner.

Caitlin: My winner is the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team. They just had a record five first-round draft picks. If you extend it out to the top 18 picks, they had six. One out of every three picks in the top 18 came from UCLA. We talked about how special that senior class is. And it was really cool to watch. They do a great job with production. The women looked fantastic, dressed up, and it’s just so cool to hear them talk about realizing their dreams. And Holly Rowe speaks French.

Alex: Yes! What happened there?

Caitlin: I don’t know. She was talking to one of the international draft picks from France and asking her questions in French, and the woman was answering in English. But Holly’s bilingual.

Alex: Woman of many talents.

Caitlin: Always, always. What’s your winner?

Alex: My winner. Hmm. I think Taylor Heise and Grace Sumwinkle, who became the 13th player in the PWHL to get to 50 points.

Caitlin: Kelly Pannek is really close. She tied, I think she tied the points for a season.

Alex: Yeah, I think we’ll see here. And one of my kind of funny winners: I saw a video of Courtney Williams at the draft and she said, “I probably look like a million bucks.”

Caitlin: I feel like I look like a million bucks.

Alex: Which was amazing.

Caitlin: Which is funny because she does make a million dollars.

Alex: Yeah, exactly.

Caitlin: Love it. Again, leaning into the personality, leaning into the individual, connecting with the people. So I love it. All right, that’s it. Where can they find us?

Alex: RTG underscore pod, Instagram and Threads and YouTube and Substack. Raising the Game. raisinggamepod@gmail.com. RTGpod.com for the website.

Caitlin: Sign up for the Substack newsletter. It’s in your inbox every Friday.

Alex: Every Friday morning.

Caitlin: And we’ll see you next week.

Alex: Bye.

Caitlin: Bye.