A Revolution in Women's Sports

A Revolution in Women's Sports

NOTE: While this transcript has been reviewed, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript.

Jill Wiltfong:

Women's sports have made a quick and stunning leap forward.

Jenna McLaughlin:

There's been progress over the last 50 years.

Jill Wiltfong:

Why now?

Jenna McLaughlin:

Investing in women's sports is not goodwill, it's good business. The perspective of a female needs to be at the table.

Jenna McLaughlin:

Who are the key investors in women's sports right now?

Peter Lauria:

You have money coming from everywhere and in pretty much every direction. But where is it going to grow to?

[Announcer]:

The phenom from Cincinnati is on the offensive. She dribbles, swerves, shoots for the game winner, and nails it at the buzzer. What a champion. I don't think I've ever seen anything like her.

[Athlete]:

Yes, over there in the blazer.

[Audience Member]:

Hey there, great game. Truly inspirational. Listen, my shoe company would like to offer you an exclusive deal that I think you'll find very attractive. Do you have a few minutes to chat after this?

[Athlete]:

Wait, sorry, this is a press conference and you're not a reporter. Over there in the blue shirt.

[Businessperson]:

Hi, I'm a huge fan. Look, my private equity firm is looking to buy a stake in the WNBA team. Any chance you know where you might be heading during your free agency?

[Athlete]:

Is anyone here an actual journalist? So, you're all here to invest in women's sports?

[Audience Member]:

Yes.

[Businessperson]:

That's about right.

[Audience Member 2]:

Bingo.

[Athlete]:

Huh, then I have a question for you.

[Audience Member]:

Yes.

[Businessperson]:

Of course.

[Audience Member 2]:

Ask anything you like.

[Athlete]:

Where were all of you 10 years ago?

Jill Wiltfong:

Hi, I am Jill Wiltfong, Chief Marketing Officer for Korn Ferry, and this is "Briefings," our deep dive into topics that corporate leaders need to care about. To many of us, it seems like women's sports have made a quick and stunning leap forward. Just look at the scoreboard. One WNBA team valued at a record $151 million, a first-ever stadium dedicated solely to a women's professional soccer team, and a women's college basketball final that had four million more viewers than the famous men's March Madness Championship. It seems we're in a whole new ball game where the stakes are higher than ever. So, how did all of this happen so fast? And how long can this winning streak go on? Time to play ball and find out as we explore the revolution in women's sports. Before we start, of course, if you're watching us on YouTube, please be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on this topic. So, joining us today is Jenna McLaughlin, Korn Ferry's Head of Collegiate Athletics. She has a pretty unique level of experience and insight here as a former college basketball player and coach. Hi, Jenna. Thanks for being here today.

Jenna McLaughlin:

Hey, Jill. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the time.

Jill Wiltfong:

I'm glad you're here. Let's go back in time first. Talk to us a little bit about your experience coming up as an athlete. Do you think teammates had the same level of treatment as men did when you were back playing and coaching?

Jenna McLaughlin:

The equipment certainly was not the same on the men's side as it was in the women's side, and that's demonstrated by what was on display in March of 2022 when the women had a handful of dumbbells, and the men walk into their March Madness experience with an 80,000 square foot facility of a gym, right? So I do think that it's continued to change over time, but it didn't just happen, and there's been progress over the last 50 years, and now we're just seeing true equality in what's provided to student athletes, both at the collegiate level and the professional level as we pursue that.

Jill Wiltfong:

Those are really good examples, and it's interesting to kind of look back and think about those other female athletes that definitely kind of pushed us ahead, right, and got us to where we are today. What do you think was a deciding factor? Like why now? Why is this women sports movement upon us? Is there something that's made this time kind of ripe for this kind of transformation?

Jenna McLaughlin:

I think there's some major contributing factors. One, investors. What we've seen is that investing in women's sports is not goodwill, it's good business. I think we're right now at a crossroads where, wait, we've seen some of the numbers. You just brought them up earlier before, and there's so many more that we can demonstrate, and I think people are grasping onto that.

[Pat]:

You said the women's game is at a place it's never been before. The draft the other night was the highest rated draft by 307%.

[Caitlin]:

Yeah.

[Pat]:

Do you feel an onus to like take women's basketball and carry women's basketball and help it get to another level through the WNBA?

[Caitlin]:

I don't feel like any pressure to like take it to a place it's never been before. Like I think that's just gonna happen with the way, you know, we're on TV more, with the way people are, you know, following from college game to the WNBA. I think expansion in the WNBA will certainly help.

Jill Wiltfong:

That's Pat McAfee speaking with basketball phenom Caitlin Clark. Jenna, Caitlin does seem to be suggesting here that this movement forward in women's basketball could happen even without her. Do you think that she needs to kind of carry the league just a little bit? Or do you think that this momentum really could go on even without somebody like her in the position that she's in?

Jenna McLaughlin:

Do I think Caitlin's carrying the torch a little bit? I think everyone would agree that absolutely. There are arenas being sold out across the country because she's coming to town. But when she moves on, I believe that the game and the viewership will be maintained because she's just really been opening a door to what exists out there.

Jill Wiltfong:

It's been mentioned that women's tennis is much further along than other women's sports. What did tennis do right that maybe other women's sports leagues can learn from?

Jenna McLaughlin:

Well, the US Open is paid equally, the prize is, and I think Coco Gauff made $3 million and the men's winner last year also made $3 million. That is the only sport we know that the winners making the exact amount of money, and credit to Billie Jean King for the work that she did 50 years ago. Now across the world, tennis is not being paid equally, but in the United States it is, which is phenomenal example for the rest of the country and the rest of the professional leagues.

[Jennifer]:

I was really young. And I remember turning to my parents and saying, "I want to be the athletic director at the University of Washington." I have really tried to not think about my gender really my whole career. That being said, I recognize that there's so few of us that are in leadership positions, so it really hasn't been until I had this opportunity and I've seen how it's motivated and inspired other women and little girls, that's cool.

Jill Wiltfong:

That's the University of Southern California's athletic director Jennifer Cohen talking about how her childhood dream to become an an athletic director came true really against all odds. Jenna, why is it so critical that colleges have more female athletic directors?

Jenna McLaughlin:

I think representation matters. Over 50% of student athletes are females who are gonna go on to be leaders on their own. And I think perspective, the perspective of a female needs to be at the table.

Jill Wiltfong:

A telling stat, the number of female directors of athletics in Division 1 programs increased from 9% to 15% between 2011 and 2022. That's absolutely progress. But it does seem there's still some work to be done. You talked a little bit about how this comes down to an issue of poor pipeline building. Can you unpack a little bit about what's going wrong, maybe how do we fix that kind of pipeline of talent issue?

Jenna McLaughlin:

Yeah, so for the last few years, probably five to 10 years or so, one of the main focal points for a profile of someone who's going to be a director of athletics is revenue generation. And typically, the pipeline of that position was dominated by mouth. So what the focus moving forward is preparing two things. One, preparing women, hey, this is a success profile. You need to have some external experience in fundraising, in sponsorships, in negotiations. And the other part of it is equipping leaders, like university presidents and saying, "Hey, women that have internal operations roles or COO are still very capable leaders. They're still very capable visionaries."

Jill Wiltfong:

Jenna, thank you for coming on, for all your perspective. Definitely an exciting time for girls and women everywhere, which is terrific.

Jenna McLaughlin:

Awesome. Thanks so much, Jill. I love talking about women in sports and can't wait to see how Korn Ferry can contribute to it.

Jill Wiltfong:

After the break, we will talk to one of our writers who specialized in sports and break down the whole financial side of this amazing growth in women's sports today. Will it keep soaring? Or has this investor gold rush peaked? Stick around.

Rupak Bhattacharya:

Hi, and welcome to "This Week In Leadership." I'm Rupak Bhattacharya, and here's a quick look at what else is happening in the world of business.

[Interviewee]:

We have five generations interacting at work.

Rupak Bhattacharya:

Some 40% of employees over age 55 haven't directly spoken to a Gen Z employee in the last year, and one in five Gen Zers haven't spoken to someone over 50. Experts say leaders should be concerned that this trend could lead to ageism in the workplace and poor collaboration.

[Reporter]:

So why does it feel so hard to get a job right now?

Rupak Bhattacharya:

The number of open jobs in the US has declined a massive 30% since March 2022. However, firms are still having trouble finding the right talent due to being understaffed on account of a spate of HR department layoffs that happened over the last year.

[Reporter]:

Struggling to find physicians,

Rupak Bhattacharya:

The number of adults with no primary care doctor has jumped by 21% in the last decade due to a scarcity of primary care physicians. Many other fields are facing equally alarming shortages, including accountants, teachers and construction workers. Experts advise leaders to address this problem before they reach a point of no return. For more insights on business and leadership, head to kornferry.com/insights. Now back to Jill and our episode, "A Revolution in Women's Sports."

Jill Wiltfong:

With us now is Peter Lauria, a Korn Ferry writer and a former founding business editor at Buzzfeed. He wrote a feature on the boom in women's sports for Briefings magazine called "She Got Game". Peter, that last clip was from "Bend It Like Beckham," one of the first big movies to feature a women's soccer team. It was released in 2002 when merely aspiring to play soccer professionally as a woman was a big deal. Fast forward to today and we have a women's professional soccer team open their season to a sold-out crowd of 11,000 people in the first-ever stadium built for the exclusive use of a female professional sports team. A big stadium, of course, requires big investment, but where is all this money coming from, Peter? Who are the key investors in women's sports right now that are making this happen?

Peter Lauria:

You have money coming from everywhere and in pretty much every direction. So broken down specifically, you have private equity funds and venture capital investors that are buying into teams and leagues. Then you have celebrities, you have business leaders like Michael Dell and you even have other professional athletes, like Patrick Mahomes doing the same. Then you have media and technology companies that are willing to pay millions of dollars for the broadcast and streaming rights to these games.

Jill Wiltfong:

We are definitely having a moment, right? A women's sports moment for sure. You mentioned private equity firms, why specifically are they becoming such a large player and do you think is there an impact that private equity in particular could have on women's sports?

Peter Lauria:

Oh yeah, for sure. On the good side, you take the positive first. You got money coming into the teams and leagues, which increases their valuations and their worth. The injection of capital helps them, you know, fund stadiums, fund practice facilities, even round out their player rosters with contracts and whatnot. Now, on the flip side, and anytime you're bringing in outside investors, you're creating more risk and giving up control. Now, private equity is not getting involved in this for charity. They're gonna hold the businesses and the operations to metrics that maybe they haven't been before. That can create challenges down the line.

[Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro – ‘Air’ movie]:

A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. Then it has meaning. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness and we need you in these shoes, not so you have meaning in your life, but so that we have meaning in ours. Everyone at this table will be forgotten as soon as our time here is up, except for you. You're going to be remembered forever because some things are eternal. You're Michael Jordan and your story is going to make us want to fly.

Jill Wiltfong:

That's Matt Damon playing Sonny Vaccaro who convinced Michael Jordan to take a shoe deal that forever changed the relationship between retail business and men's sports. Peter, it feels like we're at a similar tipping point in women's sports and in fact, you have a rather ominous quote in your article that reads, "This is the moment for women's sports leagues, but they have to be careful not to kill the golden goose." Talk about that. How exactly could this golden goose be killed?

Peter Lauria:

Looking at the women's college basketball ratings this year. So the championship game got 19 million viewers, right? The average viewership for a women's pro basketball game on TV is only 500,000. So now when you're an investor, you're assuming the audience is gonna grow, but where is it gonna grow to? Is it gonna be 19 million? Is it gonna be half a million? Depending on how you did your models, that could really mess up your investment thesis. So that's one way that the golden goose could quote, unquote be killed.

Jill Wiltfong:

So do you think given all of that, that some of the firms that have gotten really heavily involved with this will scale back if they don't see quick enough returns? Do you think there will be that kind of knee jerk reaction?

Peter Lauria:

Well, like I said earlier, nobody's doing this for charity, right? If the returns aren't there, I don't think they would hesitate to get out. But I do think they'll probably bring a lot more patience to this than they would some of their other investments 'cause you do have a built-in audience and you do have what is pretty much like a cultural zeitgeist right now around it. So it's a good time to get in and also, it's good for their branding quite honestly.

Jill Wiltfong:

Looking forward now as we look ahead, the experts that you spoke with mentioned that the current sports business model is built for the men's game, right? which you're saying and designed for male fans. If we're going to see a women's sports thrive over the next many years, does all of that need to change?

Peter Lauria:

I don't know if all of it needs to change, but it has to be like tweaked or twisted in some respects. You got to think about the live event, the game day experience that you're giving. And if you think about sports like an NFL game, an Eagles game or a Jets game, isn't necessarily the most family-friendly thing around. If you're a mom with two daughters and you have some disposable income and you wanna do something, how are you going to think about or change the stadium experience and the game day experience to get that fan to come to your game or to spend their dollars with you over something else?

Jill Wiltfong:

Nice. I like it, I like it. Well, we'll see if the world likes it and continues to like it. I'd say either way, I need to get my daughter practicing her penalty kicks again 'cause it does feel like there's a moment that we all can capitalize on. Peter, thanks for all your insight and your energy and for coming on today. Really appreciate it.

Peter Lauria:

Thank you so much.

Jill Wiltfong:

The Executive Producer of "Briefings" is Jonathan Dahl. Today's episode was produced by Rupak Bhattacharya, Nadira Putri, and Teresa Allan. And it was edited by Jaron Henrie-McCrea. It contains reporting by Russell Pearlman , Arianne Cohen, and Peter Lauria.

Our video segment contains original artwork by Frazer Milton, Hayley Kennell, Jonathan Pink, and Sasha Kostyuk.

Don't forget to read our magazine, available at newsstands and at kornferry.com/briefings. That's it for Korn Ferry’s “Briefings”. I'm Jill Wiltfong. See you next time.

Jill Wiltfong:

If I get a date with Matt Damon out of this, all is well. All is well.