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00:22This is my first time seeing the arena and I think it looks amazing and this is the first
00:26that they even put anything in. I'm so excited to see it finish. I think people are going to be
00:31so
00:31happy with the final product because it already looks great so can't wait.
00:42Playing in women's sports for so long you kind of see areas that need improvement and so that's
00:48when we started planning and forming and fleshing things out about what Unrivaled would come to be.
00:59We wanted to raise the ecosystem of not only women's basketball but women's sports in general.
01:04We wanted to change what it meant to be a woman's athlete.
01:10Women's elite sports around the world have generated more than a billion dollars in revenue
01:15for the very first time. There's a group of brilliant mavericks writing an entirely new
01:22playbook for professional sports. The old playbooks don't need to exist. They don't work.
01:27They're reimagining what women's sports can be, not a smaller sidekick to men's sports.
01:33You can't just shrink it and pink it. But a juggernaut unto itself.
01:40There's billionaires and CEOs, super fans and elite athletes.
01:47They're leveraging their power and position to blow up the sports world from the inside,
01:52to build a new empire under our noses.
01:55During the NCAA women's basketball tournament, at least two of the games were the most watched
02:01women's basketball games ever. More viewers even than last year's world series or NBA finals.
02:08The money is following the eyeballs.
02:12We're there. It's worth it. And the powers that be, now you see it.
02:17But the business of sports is cutthroat.
02:21And leveling up will take more than raw ambition.
02:25It will take imagination and innovation.
02:29It's not a women's product for women. This is an incredible product for everybody.
02:35To pull it off, these Mavericks will have to prove that reaching the billion dollar mark
02:39is only the beginning.
02:45And Unrivaled will have to bet everything they've got to get women athletes a seat at the table.
02:52The explosion that is happening in women's sports right now,
02:55I felt like everyone was profiting off of that except for the women in the sports.
03:00It was time to make real waves in this space.
03:33Rise up!
03:34Are you going to put the DJ right?
03:35Where are you going to put the DJ?
03:36DJ will be able to meet the squad for you.
03:38Oh, nice.
03:39Yeah, that's perfect.
03:40Got a little DJ booth.
03:41It looks awesome.
03:46This is a player-led, player-owned league.
03:49We had this idea.
03:50We're like, if we're going to do this, first of all,
03:52we need the best women's athletes in the world
03:54to make this, where people want to watch it.
03:56Who's the best women's athlete in the world right now?
03:58Stewie.
04:00We explained the vision.
04:01She saw it.
04:01She got it.
04:02She wanted to be a part of it.
04:04I think I'm going to be that look.
04:05Mine.
04:11Having C and I be the co-founders is amazing.
04:14We're taking off our player hat,
04:16but also we have those experiences
04:18that we know what it takes to make this thing really go.
04:22Honestly, for me, it's been a long time coming.
04:24This is my why.
04:25This is a part of what we do in the WNBA.
04:28We're trying to continue to grow the game
04:29individually and collectively.
04:32Hi.
04:33Starting a new league is not easy, first of all.
04:35Like, it is a little bit risky, because if it fails,
04:37then that is, you know, your name is attached to that.
04:41But we felt like we had no choice.
04:49So today is Tuesday, March 22nd, and today I'm officially seven and a half months, 30 weeks.
04:56So only around 10 more weeks to go, which is so crazy.
05:00It's going by so, so fast.
05:01I can't even believe it.
05:03A little baby bump update.
05:05It's getting big.
05:08I did always want to be a young mom.
05:11It was honestly just way harder than I thought.
05:14I was like, I'm an athlete, and I'll bounce back right away.
05:18That is the opposite of what happened.
05:20It really showed just, like, the vulnerability of my body, and honestly, like, the mortality
05:25of my body.
05:32I think a lot of people don't realize that we make most of our money in the offseason.
05:40For so long, women's basketball players would play in the WNBA, and then they would go overseas.
05:46Six months in the W, and six months overseas somewhere.
05:51Once you start having kids, it adds a whole new layer of hard to that.
05:57We are uprooting our family, and through that, you have to worry about childcare.
06:01Like, who's going to watch your child in this foreign country?
06:03Are you going to go to daycare?
06:04They don't speak the language.
06:07Kind of a scary time for my career in that point, because there's a lot more on a line.
06:11This is, like, how you make money for your family.
06:15If you would talk with our legends, if you talked with the pioneers who started the WNBA,
06:21I think you would hear from them that they weren't paid very well.
06:29In fact, it's the reason why they were going overseas.
06:33And when you went overseas, you were probably making three times, four times, five times or more what your WNBA
06:43salary is.
06:44And so you had to go overseas in order to support yourself and your family.
06:50You had to.
07:04And it's not just the money.
07:08Brittany Greiner could face up to 10 years in prison in Russia.
07:11The WNBA star has been held for nearly six months since her February arrest in a Moscow airport,
07:17carrying allegedly cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage.
07:21In 2022, when we get the call from BG's agent that she's been detained in Russia, I felt like my
07:32legs had gone out from under me.
07:34So when is she not going to be detained anymore? When is she coming back?
07:38This was a dangerous situation at the highest level.
07:44Understand her story. Understand why she was there.
07:49To go overseas, you make so much more money.
07:57How can we make it better?
08:11Please welcome to the stage the best to do it in the world in the women's game right now,
08:17U.S. women's national team coach, Emma Hayes.
08:26First of all, I just want to say it's so great to be here.
08:36I think it's important to look at how far we have come.
08:41But when we take it back and we say, hang on a minute, we've been playing a sport for this
08:45length of time
08:46and everything from a technical, tactical, social, emotional, psychological perspective
08:55has been designed entirely through a male lens.
09:00Fuck!
09:04I've been involved in a sport for 40-odd years and we've spent too long saying,
09:10oh, well, you know, don't push for too much, don't ask for too much.
09:14Oh, God forbid we want to learn a little bit more about ourselves.
09:18I feel like we've been robbed, we've been denied, we've been cheated for so long.
09:26And it just drilled it in me.
09:28You change it, change it, change the conversation, change the narrative, change the conversation.
09:32OK.
09:34Well, now I'm in the position where I really can and I'm not going to stop.
09:38Imagine a world, and it's not far away, just so we're clear, where, whether you play, whether you coach,
09:46whether you officiate or you lead, it's supported through an entirely female lens.
09:51Where we're putting together a technical team, medical team, performance team, operations team,
09:58mental fitness team, in and around the player, delivered in a way where we're not treated like small men.
10:05It isn't as simple as just correcting one thing or the other.
10:09It's the entire system that needs changing.
10:12Maybe, of course, taking the best learnings from the men's game,
10:16but actually just rewriting it and just saying, this is what works for us.
10:22And remember, if you cannot change the system, change the fucking system.
10:33Thank you, Emma.
10:45Like, I'd never been in a business space before, but we had to at least try.
10:51In women's sports, we've kind of been pushing this narrative, like, you know, this is a charity.
10:55Like, come out and support us.
10:57No, this is a good business decision.
10:59And so we wanted to be the ones to go out and show people that.
11:05Unrivaled is a new three-on-three condensed full-court basketball league for WNBA players to work on their craft
11:11in the offseason.
11:15So we decided to build Unrivaled as a whole new concept.
11:18Like, we're playing full-court three-on-three.
11:20That had never happened before.
11:21Every game ends on a game winner because it's to a point total.
11:25We wanted to make it super fun and fast-paced.
11:29The games will be all in one facility.
11:32And then also, we really wanted to make sure that we were offering really competitive salaries.
11:36This was a new form of basketball.
11:38It had never been done before, and so explaining that to people, you really have to kind of paint a
11:42picture.
11:46No one wants to see women play three-on-three basketball.
11:49People are just warming up to seeing them play five-on-five.
11:53What is going to help women's basketball, in my view, is not having rival leagues.
11:58They might cannibalize each other to a certain degree.
12:01They need the WNBA to be as strong as possible.
12:03I don't believe there's enough good women's basketball to have two leagues.
12:06I really don't.
12:08There's that trope, oh, well, I guess nobody cares about women's sports.
12:12There isn't an audience for women's sports.
12:14For so many decades, the audience for women's sports was completely discounted.
12:22But, you know, women's sports have been popular.
12:25Not across the board, but we've had glimpses of an audience for women's sports for the last 100 years.
12:35We obviously know about a league of our own. That was an actual league.
12:40And then you have Gertrude Ederle, who swam the English Channel back in 1926.
12:45When she came back to the United States after committing this incredible feat of athleticism,
12:50she was given a ticker tape parade up Broadway, the Canyon of Heroes.
12:54You don't think of necessarily a woman being given that at such a long time ago.
12:58But that was the way people cared about women's sports.
13:02Women's sports have been popular. They can draw fans.
13:05But instead of an investment, they're sometimes literally made illegal.
13:11Our sport was banned for 75 years. Like, and that cannot be understated.
13:20During the First World War, men were going off to fight,
13:24and women were filling football stadiums across England.
13:29They could get 50,000 fans.
13:31And when the war ended, and the men came home from the battlefield,
13:35the UK Soccer Federation made it illegal for women to play on those fields.
13:41It was such a threat to the male game that they banned it,
13:45even with sold-out stadiums.
13:48They thought it would distract from the men's ability to play professional soccer
13:52and to get the audience.
13:54The English FA not only banned the sport,
13:57they ensured that every football association around the world banned the sport.
14:07The reality is, our starting point is different.
14:11We have been sold short at every stage.
14:15And we all know this is so much more than just a game on the field.
14:21This isn't just about football.
14:23This is about the contributions women make societally
14:28in a myriad of different ways.
14:29So, I think this is why the whole system needs a reboot.
14:47You can have all these dreams, but if you don't have the money, it won't happen.
15:05and what's happening in women's sports now is people are starting to invest in us and not look
15:10at us as a charity through my whole lifetime every time somebody does something for us
15:17we're treated like a charity and it's not fun because we're really business people and we love
15:24love investment i mean it just it makes a difference in people's lives there are so many good things that
15:32come when girls and women play sports the women's sports foundation has been absolutely
15:37key on a lot of this and it's amassed all kinds of data and research we've done a lot of
15:43studies now
15:44for girls and women who get in sports and we know that girls when we can get them in sports
15:49we make leaders
15:5494 of the female executives played sports and 52 of the c-suite played at a university level which
16:01was even at a higher level and they achieved even greater things in the business world
16:05they know how to win they know how to be resilient in life
16:11builds their egos up it builds their confidence
16:18you become selfless you have a lot of humility determination and grit
16:22she shoots she scores and ultimately if everybody around you is amazing and you win
16:28that's a win for you jesse comfort opens the scoring there's a community across women's sports
16:36oh my they know each other they understand each other particularly at the college level they're
16:42probably in the same boat fighting for the same kinds of resources fighting for gym time
16:47fighting for the weight room so there's that common bond that they have they're always rallying
16:53for each other they also do better in science and math they have better body image they don't get
16:59pregnant too young it's going to help their whole life so that makes me really happy too any amount of
17:05time playing sports is going to position them better for their later life it's proven
17:10but there's no way we have this great success without the funding
17:25when we started forming unrivaled so you and i came in as like the experts in the basketball field
17:31um you know i think our team did a really great job of knowing the areas that they were good
17:36at in the
17:36areas that they need to get other experts specifically like sports funding is really important
17:43vian stewie said we're looking for a commissioner and we think you should be it
17:48and i said i think so too
17:59my career started in professional tennis and in 2014 i was named president of the wta
18:13the women's tennis association the wta is by far the most successful league for women
18:20you can make a very good living as a professional
18:27the wta was founded by billy jean king in 1973.
18:33the original idea for the wta came up just a couple years earlier when billy jean king went to a
18:40tournament and the winner of the men's tournament was getting i believe 12 times more in prize money
18:46than the winner of the women's tournament and so in this moment she sees that the value for women's
18:52sports has been capped billy jean king got eight of her colleagues together they're known as the
19:02the original nine and said we're gonna have to fight for equality because as professional athletes we
19:09have an important platform that goes beyond professional sports billy jean king and the
19:16original nine started a new league and then she goes to look for a big sponsor at the time
19:23uh what else who's looking to capitalize on the women's movement philip morris
19:42and philip morris for a long time were underwriting the ability for women to have their own tour
19:51and that's the start of it really then in 1973 they were able to go back to the u.s
19:56open and
19:57advocate for equal prize money they had to build their sport from the ground up i do see a lot
20:05of
20:05similarity between what the original nine did and what stewie and fee did they took matters into their
20:13own hands to build something new for everybody starting a new league is not easy first of all
20:27like how do you convince people that it's gonna work i feel like every day was there were so many
20:32highs and so many lows everyone loved it they thought it was a great idea but it was hard to
20:36get people
20:38to invest you know it is not easy to find a lead investor it is even harder to find the
20:45right lead
20:46investor this is a new form of basketball like we're playing full court three-on-three that never
20:50happened before they liked it in theory but getting the actual dollars behind it was hard at first
20:56we were trying to do two things at once you know trying to play in the w trying to get
21:00on these zoom
21:01calls trying to go meet new investors and some people at first i think they were skeptical
21:05and like getting the fundraising and the backing behind it you know like really trying to sell
21:10it was hard most investors really want to return right away and the expectation is well
21:25if they don't have the fan base that the nba has next year it's just not important enough
21:29and that's not the way to look at it all right let's go now let's take it up
21:35it's hard with the consistent comparison to the men's leagues because they're so well established
21:41and have such a head start there's ups and downs with all these leagues it's easy to look at now
21:45and feel like they were always multi-billion dollar industries and entities and they weren't
21:51major league baseball being fully founded in 1901 to fill it up your fans went wild
22:01people forget that the nfl was not a monolith when it launched
22:05You look at the old footage, and it's just half-empty stadiums.
22:14The NBA took generations to get where it is.
22:17They started it in really small towns
22:20like Syracuse and Rochester and Fort Wayne.
22:30These were very small beginnings,
22:32and they grew over decades before they got to the place where they are now.
22:37And it requires the patience to be able to last through the lean years
22:41before you get to the land of plenty.
22:46Women's sports are a business.
22:49They produce value for companies, and I've got the receipts.
22:58Probably the biggest heartbreak for me as an athlete
23:02was the fact that when I graduated from Michigan State,
23:05there was no path in athletics.
23:08There was nowhere to go.
23:09No national team, no professional league.
23:11It just ended.
23:13And I remember even then thinking,
23:17if I get an opportunity to make sure
23:20that no girl ever has to feel this again,
23:23I'm gonna take it.
23:26Many, many years later,
23:27it was the 50-year anniversary of Title IX.
23:34It was the perfect timing to honor the progress that we've made
23:38on the anniversary of Title IX,
23:41but also acknowledge the work that still had to be done
23:44to really create sports equity.
23:48At the time, women's sports were getting less than 10%
23:52of the media coverage.
23:55And we did some quick back-of-the-napkin math
23:58and realized we were part of the problem.
24:01I thought, shame on me.
24:02I can't believe I never asked the question.
24:05But it dawned on me, why would I ask the question?
24:08It was so outside of the realm of the way
24:13that anybody was thinking in the marketing world.
24:17The reason for that is the media platforms,
24:19they have to make money.
24:20Media is the biggest revenue driver in sports,
24:23and women were receiving less than 4% of media coverage.
24:26And the reason they were receiving less than 4% of media coverage
24:29was because brands weren't investing in it.
24:32But brands weren't investing in it
24:33because media outlets weren't covering women's sports,
24:37and somebody had to blink.
24:38And so that's where we really felt
24:41we had this opportunity to truly change the world.
24:47Yay!
24:49Andrea, look at you!
24:51Hey, what do you got going on behind you with all the shirts?
24:53We are going to commit today
24:54that over the course of the next five years,
24:57for every dollar that we spend in media, in men's sports,
25:01we're going to match that one-for-one in women's sports.
25:08That's a large endeavor. I love it. How do we do it?
25:12We didn't have anything figured out.
25:14We didn't know how we were going to do it.
25:16The team was freaking out.
25:18There was definitely mixed feelings across the board
25:22around the risk appetite.
25:24I said, you guys, we're going to figure it out.
25:25Because I knew if we just made the pledge,
25:28then we had to figure it out.
25:30Let's go!
25:32You realize, particularly as you get older in your career,
25:37that you have to lead from the front.
25:38You also realize, like,
25:40what's the worst thing that could happen?
25:42It's okay to be bold.
25:44It's okay to do big things.
25:46It's okay to take these risks.
25:48And it's okay not to have everything figured out.
25:52Thanks for having us. Thanks, you guys.
25:56I remember that night, my boss sending me a text and saying,
26:00I love the idea, really cool, big pledge,
26:05but you probably should have told your boss
26:07before you made such a big announcement.
26:12And what we're most excited about introducing today
26:15is our new partnership with Ally
26:16and the CMO of Ally, Andrea Briller.
26:23Unrivaled has been just an incredible part of our 50-50 pledge.
26:28The innovation that went into what they've built.
26:31It's creating these new playbooks, ripping up the old ones,
26:35and not having to be tied to legacy ecosystems
26:39that don't work in women's sports.
26:42It was a marriage made in heaven
26:44and also a pivotal point in our history.
26:49You're all in, we're all in,
26:51and we're excited to help lift this league
26:53and help catapult it.
26:58When it comes to a new league,
27:01you know, there are so many ways to fail.
27:03There are real stakes here.
27:05Like, I think you could probably do a case study
27:08with soccer and women's soccer.
27:14In the US, women's soccer has been very successful,
27:19much more successful than the men's team,
27:21especially since the late 1990s.
27:24The 99 World Cup was the first time
27:26in modern women's sports history
27:28that you absolutely blew through the paradigm, right?
27:33You shattered the ceiling of what was considered possible.
27:38My dad was at the Rose Bowl watching the game.
27:42He called me and he said,
27:45Emma, you've got to come to America.
27:48And I said, why, Dad?
27:50He's like, it's amazing.
27:52There's sold-out stadiums.
27:54Everybody's here.
27:55Everybody talks about the players in a way
27:58where the men's team doesn't even matter.
28:00I just had this picture, as he described it,
28:04of the scores of people walking up to the stadium
28:08in white shirts.
28:10Fowdy, Chastain, Ham, whomever on their backs.
28:14It was so profound for me.
28:17I'll never forget watching the 99ers win the World Cup
28:21and Brandi Chastain ripping off her kit
28:25and sliding down the field.
28:26Women win the gold, and then Brandi Chastain,
28:29in a moment of celebration, takes her shirt off
28:31and she celebrates on the field.
28:33It's the international symbol for,
28:35we've just won something big.
28:37And the cameras go nuts.
28:39It's the cover of Sports Illustrated.
28:41And what it proved was that there is a fan base.
28:45There are thousands of people that want to see
28:47the U.S. women's national team win a gold medal.
28:49It proves that there is audience out there
28:52that can be reached.
28:53You know, in that moment, we thought, this is it.
28:57We've done it.
28:58We're gonna flip the switch now.
29:00And women's sports are gonna be huge.
29:11And then it was crickets.
29:13Nothing happened.
29:14It just ended.
29:17All of a sudden, it was just over.
29:23There were a number of failures with these leagues,
29:26and what happened or didn't happen.
29:31USA Soccer folded.
29:32And then, subsequently, two additional leagues folded.
29:36What are some of the fundamental issues that happened
29:38with the failure of these leagues?
29:39I think return on investment,
29:41expecting a return on investment almost immediately.
29:44They really didn't have a setup that allowed them
29:47to build a generational fan base,
29:49to be patient capital.
29:51Those investors were expecting a return right away.
29:54The narrative used to be that you were investing
29:57in women's sports because it's nice to do,
30:00or because you have a daughter,
30:01or because you think your granddaughter might be proud of you.
30:05It's not a bad thing to want to make your daughters
30:07or your granddaughters proud of you,
30:09but it's not a long-term business strategy.
30:12Finding the right owners is critically important.
30:16You can reimagine what an ownership structure looks like.
30:19It doesn't have to be, like, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys.
30:22You can have something like
30:23the new Professional Women's Hockey League.
30:26They're really trying to reinvent the paradigm
30:29with a single owner for all those teams.
30:33The fact that we were able to create a model
30:36with single entity ownership,
30:39have parity, not have to worry
30:41that one team wouldn't have the resources
30:44that another team had,
30:45that is the right way to go.
30:59What's up, y'all?
31:00One of the biggest parts of running a business
31:03is nurturing stakeholders,
31:05people of importance or concern,
31:08basically the players.
31:13So we knew from the very beginning,
31:14like, when we had this idea,
31:16that we wanted players to have equity.
31:19The whole reason that we are creating this
31:21is because we wanted women's athletes
31:23to profit off of the work that they're doing.
31:26So that was something that we knew right away
31:28we wanted to happen.
31:28Especially in this first year,
31:30we wanted every player to have it
31:31because they were part of the inaugural group.
31:34Like, we are valuing women.
31:36Like, we're not just doing this
31:37so we can make a buck.
31:38We're trying to get everyone paid.
31:40There it is. I mean...
31:42I'm rivaled.
31:43We're like, if we're gonna do this,
31:44first of all, we need the best women's athletes
31:46in the world.
31:49I can't tell you the amount of players
31:52that are like,
31:53how do we get involved?
31:54How can I be a part of this?
31:55I mean, they have everything you can want.
31:57Makes me almost wanna lift.
32:00You know, we're just trying to be, like,
32:01really cognizant and, like,
32:03look into the details of what we need.
32:06So we had childcare providers
32:08before and after games and practices.
32:09Yeah, we're going through another package.
32:11We are mothers in here
32:13so we need to make sure that,
32:14first and foremost,
32:14the kids are taken care of.
32:15It allows you to perform on the court
32:17knowing that they're safe and happy and healthy.
32:19It allows you to do your job.
32:22And then what would be fun
32:23and elevate the experience?
32:25And so we have, like, the glam room
32:27where people get ready before the games,
32:28before any of our photo shoots.
32:30Like, you have a whole room
32:31full of mirrors and makeup.
32:32Like, literally,
32:33what could be better than that?
32:35And then we had an esthetician.
32:36I do massage,
32:39mycotherapy, mycloiderm, red light,
32:41all the fun stuff.
32:42Then once the word of mouth happened,
32:43it seemed like it's, like,
32:44this person, and this person,
32:45and this person, and this person.
32:46Now everybody wants to be a part of it.
32:48The food is bustin'.
32:49The chef, 10 out of 10.
32:50Isn't it good?
32:51The chef hasn't missed yet.
32:53Isn't it good?
32:53Everything here is fire.
32:55We get hospitality.
32:57This is Ms. Vogue right here.
32:59Let me tell you.
33:00I'm late here.
33:01No, don't leave.
33:02You got your autograph.
33:04Bye.
33:05I'm going to get an asylum.
33:08Something that was really important to us
33:10was the medical side of Unrivaled.
33:13We are professional athletes.
33:14Like, our body is where our money's at,
33:15so taking care of that is paramount.
33:18We're doing rehab.
33:19Go.
33:20I'm going to kick my butt today.
33:23Pray for me.
33:26So we knew we had to get the best of the best
33:28in our medical staff, in our facilities.
33:32Like, the tech that they're using, the machines,
33:35the weight room, making sure that we had everything
33:37that we needed to keep our bodies strong.
33:39We had, you know, massage therapists.
33:41You know, we had like a red light bed.
33:43We have massage chairs.
33:45We really wanted everything at our disposal
33:47to make sure that we were our healthiest
33:48and feeling our best to play.
33:59Only 6% of all sports science research
34:02has been done on women.
34:04I mean, that's absolutely mental.
34:07So we've got to do a lot of research in this area.
34:12There are different female-led ownership groups
34:16investing in the research and innovations
34:19in and around the best recovery methods
34:22and the dangers that might face us with regards to injury.
34:26And they are developing those insights
34:29so that we give the tools for our players
34:32and our staff, I might add, to be able to do their jobs
34:36in a way that is bringing the best out of us.
34:39I will be with you primarily this season,
34:42so if you need anything, give me a shout.
34:45Basically, anything and everything you need
34:47in sports modalities, gobes, shopways, magnets,
34:49ultrasound, STEM, HIPOMAD.
34:52So, this is who you got.
34:54That's the phone.
34:56Appreciate it.
34:56See ya.
34:57I'm trying to raise the bar.
34:58No, y'all raising the bar.
35:00The bar need to be raised.
35:02Yeah, that was cool.
35:02I gotta say, you're fit during the final.
35:11Oh, my God.
35:12This is, like, historic.
35:15That was real.
35:15Getting the right broadcast partner was huge for us.
35:23We wanted to make sure that we were partnering with someone
35:25that knew the value of women's sports,
35:27was willing to pay that value,
35:30and then I was genuinely interested
35:32in, like, what we were trying to build.
35:34They came in at $100 million.
35:37I know.
35:37It's nuts.
35:39It just validated, like, what we were doing,
35:41and it kind of set the market value for us.
35:47Broadcast, I think, is super important.
35:49I mean, we're in 2025, and still there isn't a lot of programming,
35:53everyday programming on broadcast TV for women's sports.
36:00Last year, the WNBA didn't have any preseason games
36:03on national broadcast TV.
36:06The Chicago Sky, Angel Reese and Camila Cardoso,
36:09they were having their preseason pro debut
36:11against the Minnesota Lynx, and the game was not available at all.
36:16And so a fan took her cell phone
36:19and held it up for about two hours to record the game
36:22and got over 2.5 million views.
36:27For so many decades,
36:29the audience for women's sports was completely discounted.
36:33And when there wasn't social media,
36:35you couldn't prove that that interest existed.
36:37But all of a sudden, with social media,
36:39two million people, that's an audience.
36:46I remember the first year that we came on as an NWSL sponsor,
36:52and we went down to the championship game.
36:55I think it was a 12 o'clock noon game.
36:58And I thought, this is nuts.
37:00Why is this game not in prime time?
37:03Rocky start to this one for Chicago.
37:05And then looking at the numbers,
37:07and I think it was 300,000 people that watched,
37:09and hearing again, well, of course, nobody watches women's soccer.
37:12Well, of course they're not going to watch it at noon.
37:17That became a huge rallying cry for the team and I.
37:21We said, we've got to get the game moved to prime time.
37:27In 2022, Jessica Berman came in as the new commissioner of the NWSL.
37:32And I remember meeting her for the first time.
37:35We went and had drinks.
37:36And I said, I want to work with you to get the championship game moved to prime time.
37:41So when I took over in 2022, there was a very, very, very, very, very long list of things that
37:48we felt needed to be fixed.
37:57One of the things that we identified as being low hanging fruit was getting our game to be played in
38:04prime time on a Saturday night for our championship, which had never before been true.
38:10I haven't really had it yet.
38:12It historically had been a daytime game and felt less important to the players and less important to our sponsors
38:19and less important to our fans.
38:21During big network games, those networks want to sell advertising for top dollar.
38:25And that's where it broke down for women's sports because they're not selling as much advertising around women as they
38:33are around men.
38:35In 2022, we had to figure out how we were going to get it funded.
38:39It was definitely daunting.
38:41And I surprisingly felt that I had prepared for this basically my entire life.
38:49We brought with us a significant pool of sponsors and brands who were historically committed to the NWSL and willing
39:00to show up as advertisers.
39:03That's part of the recipe of success here, which is senior women executives in positions to say yes to this.
39:11CMOs and CEOs and women in power supporting this movement, supporting these entities.
39:18The only ones that can really break the cycle are brands.
39:22And so the brands have to force change in terms of the media.
39:27They have to come to the table with real dollars.
39:29They have to invest.
39:31We leveraged our position as an advertiser to get the championship game moved to prime time.
39:37It wasn't easy for any of the people involved.
39:40It wasn't easy for CBS because they needed to sell the media.
39:42They needed to move around programming.
39:44It wasn't easy for us because we needed to step up and it wasn't easy for the league.
39:50Working together, the three of us were able to construct a financial model that allowed for our game to be
39:58flexed to a Saturday night on prime time in November that felt really big.
40:04The stage is now set.
40:06The stage is now set.
40:06Primetime matchup in Washington, D.C.
40:09The moment is finally here.
40:14Weaver.
40:16French.
40:18Smith one on one.
40:20Put it away.
40:21It wasn't easy, but we did it.
40:23And it was the first time in 2022 that a women's championship game in any sport had been played in
40:31network prime.
40:31I'm not talking about 1970.
40:34I'm talking about 20, 22.
40:36Crowd building with the process of the ball.
40:40It's in the goal.
40:422-0 pulling.
40:43And it was the proper way that a match should be played.
40:47And I remember being on the field for the start of the match and how emotional that was and just
40:52looking up at the stands.
40:54And, you know, I had tears streaming down my face because I thought, wow, we did it.
41:01And it was this full circle moment back to young Andrea, whose career dead ended.
41:10And I looked at these young female athletes and I thought, none of you are ever going to have to
41:14feel that again.
41:18Can't believe I got through that story without crying because it gets me every damn time.
41:28I grew up with so many amazing women athletes and I was confused because why wasn't anybody telling their stories?
41:38Why was it such a hassle to try to find online on networks?
41:44There are always more stories to be told.
41:46There's always a person out there who isn't getting the microphone.
41:50So social media opens up opportunity for visibility.
41:54I'm on my way to Vegas.
42:14Social media makes the shift in mindset of, hey, this is something that I'm good at in sports, to this
42:22is something I can monetize building a business.
42:26And it starts in college.
42:40NIL, name, image and likeness, is incentivizing players to really capitalize off their brand while they have the fandom of
42:47collegiate athletics.
42:48Women historically have not had adequate money in compensation for what they put out.
42:56The bodies go through so much wear and tear over the years for you to have to walk away from
43:02your sport in your mid-30s.
43:03And that's if you're lucky.
43:06NIL and social media set players up to have a landing place, a bed of financial comfortability once they do
43:16walk away.
43:16Hey, here we are.
43:24Walk in, Ilona. Walk in.
43:27I'm Ilona Mar. I'm a USA rugby player.
43:30I am a social media influencer, I guess.
43:35As female athletes, we have to do more. It's not enough to just be a great player. Which is sad
43:42because you can put your body on the line, work so hard to be amazing. And really there's not much
43:48fulfillment financially from that. Some people do that by being teachers, by working consulting jobs. I do that by posting
43:57videos on social media.
43:59Hey everyone, this is the coolest I've ever looked in my entire life. So I thought I'd do a little
44:03foot check for you all.
44:03I think it's funny that this was the way I chose to do it because I have a nursing degree,
44:08I have a master's in business, but maybe it was the master's in business that told me this was the
44:13way to go and this is how you can make a real living and a real impact on people.
44:24It definitely frustrates me that it will never be enough just what I do on the field.
44:30If I was paid millions of dollars like an NFL player, I don't think I would bother to post on
44:36social media and to constantly think of funny videos and fun things to say and make sure I get the
44:42right picture when I'm out.
44:43I don't think I would do that. I think I would be like, don't worry guys, I got this on
44:48my million dollar salary, but that's not in the future for me.
44:52Most of us step on the field for nothing, even for our national team. I think some get $250 and
44:58that's what you're kind of betting on.
45:00You're putting your body on the line. You're playing one of the most physical sports in the world for that.
45:05It can be hard to justify it sometimes. I mean, we really have to do more. And that is a
45:11lot on our bodies, on our soul, on our mental.
45:18The whole reason that we are creating this is because we wanted women's athletes to profit off of the work
45:24that they're doing.
45:25You should get paid for what you're doing on the court in this skill set that you have that you've
45:29worked so hard to acquire. Just, we need more.
45:54In Miami, the biggest stars in women's professional basketball unite for a new style. It's full court, three on three.
46:03Let's take a journey inside Wayfair Arena.
46:06Unrivaled on TNT, presented by Samsung Galaxy. Missed Basketball Club faces the Lunar Owls Basketball Club.
46:15A two and a half year project, thanks to Nafisa Collier, Brianna Stewart. She's bought in from the jump.
46:27Obviously, all the work that's gone into it. You know, years of just planning this and just like from having
46:34it be a seed of an idea to having it turn into an entire league.
46:37It's just like a crazy thought, something I never would have dreamed of, you know, growing up or in college
46:42or even a couple of years ago.
46:45We worked so hard to get up to that point. And now it was do or die.
46:56Half it into half. The two rivals from the finals tip it off.
47:07Backing down Gray. It's the first field goal in unrivaled history by one of the co-founders, Brianna Stewart.
47:15Of course it is. It's three doing a nice shot with that.
47:21Green. He's got rain.
47:32Blocked by Carrington. The seat belt season has moved to Miami.
47:36What an amazing feel and buzz and energy in this building.
47:40You could see that the people in the venue were extremely passionate about the product, the sport, but also about
47:47what it signified.
47:49You know, the meaning behind it, the mission behind it.
47:53We are doing this for the good of basketball. We're really trying to elevate women's basketball players.
47:58This is something that we're so passionate about, not only for the morality part, like empowering women, paying us what
48:04we should be paid.
48:05But we also are trying to further what it means to be and treat women's athletes and pay them, you
48:10know, accordingly.
48:10That will hopefully, you know, create generational wealth when the league continues to grow.
48:19Well, let me just tell you, folks, while you're watching, if you can't tell that something is on the line
48:23every single possession, I'm not sure what you're watching because these women are battling.
48:29A lot of people say women's sports are having a moment. I don't think women's sports are having a moment.
48:33I think women's sports are a movement.
48:36Carrington leaped over some fans and they love it here in Miami.
48:40Anyone with a smart mind will invest in women's sport. Anyone. Because that's where the biggest growth is likely to
48:48be.
48:49It's that time, Lisa. It's right time.
48:56We're in a historic shift.
48:58You know, Deloitte just shared their latest projections, which was at $2.3 billion for the industry. It's a 25
49:07% increase in their former projection, which is wild.
49:14We have so many significant moments coming so quickly right now, whether it's in sponsorship money, partnerships that are being
49:22announced, new leagues.
49:25We're going to have a women's flag football that's going to be played in the Olympics for the first time.
49:30You've got the hockey league, you've got volleyball, you've got softball.
49:342026 is just the beginning of exponential sustained growth and the numbers are just going to continue to go up.
49:43I think the moneyball metaphor for where we are with women's sports is interesting. You know, the beauty of moneyball
49:51was to do something different.
49:53Gray walks into a three. That one's good.
49:56She is in a zone.
49:58To not adhere to the same model. To look at the game differently.
50:02Sykes in. Traffic scores. Nothing but net.
50:06And I do think that's an apt metaphor for women's sports.
50:09Howard fires the three. Bullseye.
50:12I think we have to do things differently. I think we have to create our own platforms. I think we
50:15have to create our own model.
50:17And now it's starting to happen.
50:19Tonight.
50:21And now it's full.
50:22They're just planting seeds.
50:25Since then, balls to the occasion.
50:28Browns basketball club is the first Unrivaled champion.
50:34Unrivaled champion!
50:36I am so thrilled with year one of Unrivaled.
50:39Even with the ups and downs of like, you have to basically jump over hurdles the whole time.
50:44Like everything is brand new.
50:46You know, we had $27 million in revenue.
50:49Which was huge for us.
50:50And it allowed us to be able to expand a lot faster.
50:53So, we're already fleshing out, you know, the next couple of years and what those are going to look like.
50:56So, it's really exciting.
50:57Give me that picture, everyone!
51:00To be able to say after season one that we came this close to profitability is incredible.
51:08And so, I think we should be very, very proud.
51:12My God, you know, we delivered.
51:19I do see a lot of overlap and similarity between what the original Nine did and what Stewie and Fee
51:27did and continue to do.
51:29You do need leaders who take that torch and, you know, carry it with pride.
51:41They laid dollar short.
51:44I'm gonna get that money, that's for sure.
51:47Get that money.
51:49Get that money.
51:52Get that money.
51:53Get that money.
51:54Get that money.
51:55That's for sure.
51:56Get that money.
51:58Get that money
52:01Get that money
52:02Get that money, that's for sure
52:04I'm gonna get mine, just you wait and see
52:09Late, late, dollar short
52:11I'ma get that money, that's for sure
52:14Get that money
52:17Get that money
52:19Get that money, get that money
52:22That's for sure
52:23Get that money
52:25Give that money
52:27Get that money
52:29Give that money
52:31Give that money
52:31That's for sure
52:32Give that money
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