Women's Sports Leagues Battling for Talent

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1:43Carolyn Tisch Blodgett:You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. All right. We're already talking. We're already going because we're excited about this. I almost feel like we should just jump in. Let's do that. Bloomberg News sports reporter Vanessa Perdomo is with us. She joins us along with Carolyn Tish Blodgett. She is governor and lead owner of Gotham FC, the football club, the National Women's Soccer League, NWSL team. And she's founder and CEO of Next3 Ventures. It's an investment firm in sports media and entertainment. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I was going to start it off because, Vanessa, you and the sports crew, they put out a great story about, like, trends to watch in 2026.

2:23And one of it is kind of labor battles in women's sports. and talking about it getting messy, especially as you see escalating salaries and you see more stars leaving for Europe. So I kind of, Carolyn, want to start that with you. I mean, are you concerned about kind of losing players to European teams as we've seen salaries escalate? And welcome. And happy to be here. We're diving right in. That's how we roll it. Happy to be here. Let's dive right in. So I'm a firm believer that rising tides lifts all boats. we are if you think about where women's sports was when we came in as new owners two years ago they were not being talked about on Bloomberg they were not no one was investing in it and when we came in 99 % of investments in sports went to the men's went to men's teams and so you're starting to see that shift we you know we came in in 2023 there have been several new owners that have come into the National Women's Soccer League that we're in as well as the WNBA and other so you're starting to see a real shift and with that comes challenges and you start to see you know it wouldn't I don't think our league would be as successful as we have been if there weren't other leagues that were competing for talent so this is good so yeah I think competition is good but are you afraid of losing some key players yes I mean obviously there are uh there has been news of players leaving for Europe I think you'll continue to see that you'll also see players coming back.

3:51I mean, Lindsay Horan, Lindsay Heaps just signed with Denver. We've had players go play in Europe and then come back. So part of it, I think, you know, when you zoom in, I think it feels like, oh my God, the sky is falling. Everybody's leaving for Europe. If we pull back and say, this is actually the, we're competing for global talent in a global game. This is kind of the natural evolution of this.

4:12Carolyn Tisch Blodgett:So let me ask the question in a different way. And it's about a strategy for making sure those players don't leave. It's a strategy for keeping those players on your team how do you do it without breaking the bank so that is something we talk about on a daily basis our general manager uh yael aver bush west has put together um an incredible roster over the last year so we've won two championships in the last three years and when we think about why would a player want to come a question we ask ourselves daily is why would a player who could play anywhere want to come play for gotham and part of that you know what they have in Europe is obviously these brand legacies that it's hard to compete with.

4:49Chelsea's been around forever. If you want to go, if your dream has been to play for Chelsea, that's hard to compete with. What we have is, I think, some of the best coaching staff in the business. We've been very much at the forefront in terms of investing in medical. So we probably have arguably the best medical director in women's soccer, if not women's sports today. We've invested in mental health. We've invested in a performance coach. So we're kind of investing. And if you want, if you're sitting here today as a player and you say, where can I get better? I would arguably say Gotham is the best place to go.

5:21And so we're really thinking about what is our competitive advantage and where can we compete? And let's go invest there. Well, I think the interesting thing is obviously Gotham had made this really big effort to sign these huge stars. The U.S. Women's National Team, there was four or five stars. You have Jane Shaw, who just came in last year with Midge Purse, Emily Sonnet, Rose Lavelle, the NWSL 2025 MVP, you know, for the championship game. You have these massive stars. And it felt like a concerted effort to do that, to make sure you have these big stars. And the league used to rely solely on the U.S.

5:57Women's National Team stars. Tell me about where that's gone. Why is it still important to the business to have stars like that? But how much it's grown over the last couple years. So, yeah, I think it's a really good question. So I'm a big believer that stars drive viewership and stars drive particularly a casual fandom. I built my career in marketing. I used to run marketing at Peloton. And that was really our model was help these instructors turn into stars. That is something we've brought to Gotham. And we've taken not just the stars that we brought in, like a rose and a sonnet, but also helped someone like a Jalen Howell kind of find her voice and become more of a star.

6:35Like Robin Arzon, I was thinking. Like Robin Arzon, yes. Yeah, Robin and I worked very closely together. Killer. Killer, right. But we helped her, and she really knows how to build her own brand, so I don't want to get any credit of that, but we helped these instructors really turn into household meetings. But you guys appreciate it, certainly as part of the Peloton brand. Exactly, and that's what we're helping to do, I think, for a lot of our stars at Gotham. I think that really, again, that drives viewership. The U.S. Women's National Team is an opportunity to bring a casual fan in. If you think about how many people watched the Olympics last year and the U.S.

7:09team win a gold medal, I think it was like 9 million people. We have an opportunity at Gotham. Six of those players played for Gotham at the time. We can help bring those people and bridge that gap from U.S. fandom to Gotham. Nuts. I mean, six people is amazing to have that kind of power. I mean, let's talk a little bit more about the overall business of the NWSL. You had mentioned it before. You have new owners coming in. And one of them is a colleague from the NFL. Arthur Blank paid$165 million to bring an NWSL team to Atlanta. How big this business has got from 2019 from a$2 million expansion fee to$165 million.

7:44What's the next step? How does that keep going? And how do you make sure that it doesn't plateau after such a big year? Yeah, we, right. There's been so much news in the NWSL. We haven't even talked about the Blank's coming in. Yes, we're so happy that Arthur and his son Josh have joined us in the league. I think one of the real bright spots of the league, I think, is the boardroom and is the compilation of owners in this room. You have owners like the Wilfs from the NFL, the Blanks now, and obviously our family. You have owners from the NBA, from MLS, from European League. So you really have a – Which means they believe in it.

8:22They believe in the NWSL product, right? These long-term sports owners. You very much feel that. There is the conversations at the board are about how are we going to grow sustainably? How are we going to reach the next level as you asked? It is not about like, how can I make a quick dollar and turn around and sell it? This is a group of owners that want to be there and want to, you know, invest in its future. Like building out their portfolio. Yeah. In a big way. And deeply care. Yeah. You talk about investing in the future. Before we got going, I talked about growing up, watching the Giants, season tickets my dad had, and we all kind of went to games.

8:55They've had some highs and lows. they need a new head coach. Any update? And I'm just curious, Jason Harbaugh. Are you guys talking to him? John Harbaugh, sorry. Are you guys talking to him? I definitely cannot be the one to break any news here. We did not time this interview with the coaching search, so nothing to say but excited, obviously, for the Giants' future. But there'll be a new coach soon. Well, obviously there won't be a coach. I just won't be naming who it is.

9:21Carolyn Tisch Blodgett:Do you have one? I cannot. No. Hey, listen. I have nothing. I've just been in my office all day. It's John calling. No, no, no. Hey, just quickly, 20 seconds. You have invested in volleyball. You invested in SailGP, which is something we've covered here. Anything else you're looking at for your portfolio? Just got about 20 seconds. Yes. Yes, nothing to announce today, but we're continuing to look at emerging leagues, look at emerging sports. We're very focused on youth sports and who are the leagues that are really building up the kind of grassroots sports from the ground up. Okay. Will you come and tell us when you go?

9:55I'm going to run right over. Thank you. Thank you, Vanessa. Also, Carolyn. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Carolyn Tish Blodger, lead owner of Gotham Football Club, and of course, our Vanessa Perdomo. She's Bloomberg News Sports reporter. Thank you. Thank you. If you missed any of it, check it out on our podcast.

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