Why someone like Adele needs to buy into women’s game
Just imagine a world where multi-grammy award winner Adele buys a stake in Tottenham’s women’s team. Or actor Emma Watson leads a group of British film stars investing in Chelsea Women, alongside Soccer Aid supporter Olivia Colman, as Keira Knightley – of Bend It Like Beckham fame – snaps up her beloved West Ham, bringing celluloid royalty to elevate the domestic women’s
Turning tables: Tottenham fan Adele could invest in the women’s team to add a touch of stardust game. Perhaps some of England’s most iconic players get involved: Rachel Yankey, Kelly Smith and Alex Scott entering the boardrooms to push a female agenda.
It seems an unlikely notion when you say it out loud. An alternative reality where prominent women take ownership of football clubs, instead of oligarchs, nation state rulers and global corporations running the show.
But that is what is happening in the United States. This week, ESPN analyst Sarah Spain became the latest high-profile investor as she announced her stake in the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women’s Soccer League. The news followed Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush Hager – daughters of former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush respectively – who became minority shareholders in Washington Spirit last month.
The headline-grabbing moves are part of a rising tide of female ownership in the NWSL, sparked by the launch of the league’s newest club, Angel City, in Los Angeles last year. The first majority-female owned major sports franchise in the world boasts an A-list of backers including Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, and World Cup winners Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm.
In January, Naomi Osaka announced her investment in North Carolina Courage, the four-time major tennis champion’s global reach immediately lifting the club’s profile and capturing the world’s attention in a way no marketing strategy ever could, as her fans engaged with the team for the first time.
As a result, three out of 10 clubs in the NWSL now have high-profile women in their ownership groups. Next season, that will rise to four of 11, as Angel City officially join the ranks. Best of all, this new wave of investors have spoken about their priorities of community outreach, female participation and amplifying the message that women’s sport matters, alongside winning on the field.
Such a reality in England could not happen in the same way, of course. While in the US the NWSL franchise clubs are separate entities to their male equivalents in Major League Soccer, England’s Women’s Super League clubs are intrinsically linked to, and in the majority of cases, kept afloat by, the finances and backing of the corresponding men’s club. Delia Smith is the only female celebrity with a stake in a prominent English club – Norwich City, where the women’s team operate independently from the main club.
Still, humour me for a moment as I dream of a new horizon for women’s football in this country. One in which Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall, a staunch Newcastle United supporter, could buy a stake in the club’s women’s side, or Everton fan Judi Dench could get involved in their women’s team.
What changes could happen if women were at the helm and prioritising the interests of their women’s teams? What benefits could the women on the field experience? That is the experiment playing out in the US, and ideas such as better pay, retirement plans, exciting marketing and more ambitious broadcasting deals are being bandied around at the clubs with high-profile female leaders.
It is a move towards women taking control in sport, with a vision to use their fame and influence to finally elevate female sportswomen.
It is not dissimilar to the movement in the Women’s National Basketball Association, where players have in the past year fought for better contracts, pay and working conditions. They led a social justice movement that pushed out owners who failed to stand behind them at the Atlanta Dream, and this week two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery became part-owner of the team. It is what spurred World Cup winner Alex Morgan and WNBA champion Sue Bird to be part of the launch of a media company this week, Togethxr, which aims to ensure more comprehensive coverage for women’s sport.
“We got tired of waiting for someone to build it, so we did,” read their launch statement.
All are acts of reclaiming a male-dominated landscape where women have too often figured only in supporting roles. This movement across the pond is like a scene playing out from a Hollywood script Longoria or Portman thought up for the big screen. The difference is that we can all watch in real time to see how American female players and women’s sport could be all the better for it.
In the US Naomi Osaka has lifted North Carolina Courage’s profile in a way no marketing strategy ever could