Momentum building for female majority ownership in sports
IN 1960, WOMEN EARNED 61 CENTS for every dollar of men’s wages. Sixty years later, women make only 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (CNBC. com, May 19, 2022).
Women have fought for 22 cents on the dollar for 60 years, and the wage gap persists when comparing women to men across similar education levels, occupations, incomes and races. The cumulative impact of women earning less than their male counterparts extends far beyond the immediate impact of lower wages. Because women earn less than their male counterparts over the course of their careers, it also means they will receive lower retirement, pension and social security benefits. Moving beyond the pay gap, women also pay more for their everyday lives. Products and services marketed to and made for women — everything from shampoo to dry cleaning — cost more than the same products and services made for men.
Unconscious bias informs what types of careers are “suitable” for women versus men. Women face even wider pay and opportunity gaps in male-dominated occupations and industries, and professional sports is no exception.
For example, NFL ownership rules (the most restrictive in sports) require “the lead investor of an NFL ownership group to have at least a 30% equity stake in the purchase.” In 2022, the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion to Walmart heir Rob Walton, the 12thwealthiest person in America with an estimated net worth of $60.6 billion.
To put this into perspective, the 2022 Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans includes just 58 women. Of those, the richest is Julia Koch (the widow of David Koch, Koch Industries), with a net worth of $56 billion. The 10th richest woman in America has a net worth of $1.3 billion (Forbes.com, Sept. 27, 2022). Considering these numbers side by side, one can see how astronomically barring the NFL ownership rules are for female ownership consideration.
Thus, ownership in professional sports teams has historically gone to people who checked three boxes: rich, white and male.
However, that’s starting to shift across the country as current and former female athletes invest in the next generation of women’s sports, buying into teams and leagues, and playing as crucial a role off the field or court as they did on it. As former athletes join forces with powerful businesswomen and push their way into sports leadership and ownership, they are slowly redefining the landscape of how professional sports owners lead teams.
WNBA teams the Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream represent the only two (out of 12) teams with at least partial female ownership. Since 2008, when the three-female-owned agency Force 10 Hoops took ownership of the Storm, the franchise has pioneered the concept of combining sports, business and social justice into one powerful model for change, as evidenced by the Feb. 8 minority stakes sale in the team that valued the franchise at a record $151 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In women’s soccer, the progressive model set by Angel City Football Club positions the team as one of the only majority female-founded-and-run professional sports teams in the world, according to the club’s website. The club was originally founded by three female cofounders, and of the 41 named investors, 30 of them are female. “Its owners are a diverse group of younger, savvier investors whose wealth has been generated in technology, sport,
Hollywood and new media. Unlike traditional owners, these investors aren’t just bringing money to the team — they’re also bringing star power, reputation, connections, brands, and an entirely new audience to it, too.” (ESPN. com, Nov. 4, 2020).
While this progress is inspiring, it’s impossible to overlook the fact that we are able to find fewer than five examples of majority female ownership in professional sports. We have a long way to go before leveling the playing field in professional sports ownership, but thanks to the women who have shown us what is possible in spite of the gender-based wealth gap, we have hope, a strategy, and the momentum necessary for continued change.
Nona Lee is the founder and CEO of Truth DEI, a consulting firm helping organizations determine growth opportunities and strategies in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a 2018 SBJ Game Changers honoree.