The Business Case For Women's Sports

In Ep. #26, Caroline talks with Lexi Trumble, a Title IX Gender Equity Associate Attorney at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. In her role, Lexi helps counsel colleges and universities across the country on legal and compliance matters such as Title IX athletics and sexual misconduct, athletics strategic planning, and school and university law. June 23, 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of Title...

In Ep. #25, Caroline talks with Dr. Joseph Galasso & Dr. Michael Farber from Baker Street Health & Human Performance. Baker Street is a multi-disciplinary, integrative health center, providing medical care to professional athletes across New York & New Jersey.  In the last few years, Baker Street has formed first-of-its-kind partnerships with the New York Liberty of the WNBA and the Metropolitan R...

In Ep. #24, Caroline sits down with Jenny Nguyen, the Owner of The Sports Bra - a women's sports bar in Portland, OR. In this episode, hear Jenny tell the full story behind the creation of the world's first & only sports bar that is fully dedicated to showing women's sports.  The idea for  The Sports Bar started in April 2018, when Nguyen and about a dozen of her friends wanted to watch the NCAA W...

Introducing a new special edition sub-series of The Business Case For Women’s Sports that coincides with The Goal Post report. SHOT:CLOCK, The Collective at Wasserman, and GOALS recently published the first edition of The Goal Post - which looks at key moments in women’s sports and aggregates the most significant stats & facts related to those moments. The #GOAL of the report is to indisputably pr...

In Ep. #23, Caroline talks with Jenna Mielnicki - the Senior Vice President and Head of Partnership Strategies for LEARFIELD - about the growing influence and presence of women within college athletics.  In March of 2022, LEARFIELD published the Empowering the Influence of the Female Fan Intercollegiate Fan Pulse Report, which leveraged tens of millions of data points to demonstrate the growing ec...

In Ep. #22, Caroline sits down with Carolyn Braff, the Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy at Gatorade. In this episode, Carolyn breaks down why it's a business imperative of Gatorade's to invest in creating a more inclusive sports world - and specifically, why they're working to create equal opportunities for girls in sports. In her role as Gatorade's Head of Brand Strategy, Carolyn has made inv...

In Ep. #21, hear Laura Youngson & Ben Sandhu, the co-founders of Ida Sports , talk about their journey to create  football (or soccer) cleats & shoes specifically designed for female athletes. The story of Ida Sports begins in 2017 when Laura and her team at the Equal Playing Field initiative led a group of women to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to play a record-breaking football match to highlight g...

In Ep. #20, Caroline sits down with Missy Park, the CEO & Founder of Title Nine. Title Nine is an American manufacturer of clothing for women athletes. Missy founded Title Nine in 1989, and has grown the brand to become the largest independently-owned and operated retailer of women's fitness clothing. Title Nine’s mission is to encourage women to own, risk, and lead in the world of sports, busines...

Ep. #19 of The Business Case For Women's Sports was recorded LIVE, on-stage at the 2021 Lead Sports Co. Summit and is presented by  Nav.it . In this episode, Caroline sits down with Natalie Hinds in front of 150 teen female athletes to hear Natalie tell her incredible comeback story, and talk about what it's like to be a professional athlete and fight for sponsorship dollars and visibility in the...

In Ep. #18, Caroline welcomes Angela Ruggiero, the CEO & Co-Founder of Sports Innovation Lab, back on the podcast to discuss the findings of The Fan Project -  and the untapped business potential of women's sports.  In February of 2021, Angela & her team at Sports Innovation Lab launched The Fan Project,  which was a coordinated effort across the sports industry to collect and analyze women's spor...

Before the start of the 2021 WNBA season, Caroline sat down with Erica Ayala, a New York-based freelance journalist, to discuss why it's (past) time for brands to create more signature shoes for WNBA players & women athletes. In August of 2020, Erica wrote a power piece for Sports Illustrated called, The Legend of Air Swoopes and the Quest for a New Women's Signature Shoe , where she dug into the...

Ep. #16, Caroline and Amir Zonozi, the CEO & Co-Founder of Zoomph, reflect on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and how women athletes dominated both in athletic competition - and when it came to social media reach & impact.  Zoomph is a leader in digital intelligence at the intersection of sports and sponsorship analysis​. During the 2020 Olympics, Amir and his team measured the power of influence of Team...

Ep. #15, hear Caroline catch-up with Thayer Lavielle, the Executive Vice President at The Collective, which is the women’s division of the sports marketing & talent management company, Wasserman. On August 2, 2021, Thayer and her team launched The Collective® Marketplace : the first & only online collectible & memorabilia marketplace that is dedicated to women’s sports.  The Collective® Marketplac...

In Ep. #14, hear Matt Peek, the Co-Founder and COO at Parkside Collectibles, tell the story behind the creation of the first-ever trading cards for the National Women’s Soccer League.  In 2018, Matt & his business partner Eric Christensen, made the very deliberate choice to invest in women’s soccer after Matt's daughter pointed out that it was "dumb" that there weren't trading cards for profession...

In Ep. #13, Caroline sits down with Chrissi Sanders, a thought-leader in the women's sports industry. In addition to being a Licensed Mortgage Banker, Chrissi is the founder of Next Play, a global full-service sports advisory firm. Chrissi is dedicated to helping her clients increase their brand footprint, market share & wealth.  For a long time, women have been discouraged from discussing money....

In Ep. #12, Caroline interviews Jason Bergman, the Co-Founder & CEO of MarketPryce . Jason is a firm believer that all athletes should have fair access to marketing & endorsement opportunities. At MarketPryce, Jason and his team work to remove many of the institutional barriers that are in place between women athletes and their ability to capitalize on their talents. The rise of social media has c...

In Ep. #11, hear from Alyse LaHue, the General Manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC of the NWSL. Before joining Gotham (formerly known as Sky Blue FC), Alyse spent 5 seasons as the GM of the Chicago Red Stars. Under the leadership of leaders like Alyse, the growth of women’s soccer in the U.S. is arguably the most exciting trend in the sports industry right now. In 2020, NWSL viewership was up 493% (while m...

In Ep. #10, Caroline interviews Meredith Cash , a women's sports reporter at Business Insider. Meredith is a full-time, salaried women’s sports reporter, which is a rarity in the world of sports media. Currently, only 14% of sports journalists are women, as there are significant barriers in place for women that want to break into the boys club of sports media - and even more barriers in place for...

In Ep. #9, Caroline talks with Tully Bevilaqua, a former WNBA player, an Australian Olympic silver medalist, and a member of the Western Australia Basketball Hall of Fame. Tully began her basketball career playing in the WNBL, and came to the US in 1998 to play in the WNBA for the Cleveland Rockers. Tully went on to play in the league for 14 seasons with 5 different teams, including the Seattle St...

In Ep. #8, Caroline sits down with Kelsey Trainor to discuss the many ways that NCAA is failing women athletes - and how they've gotten away with it for so long. Kelsey is a lawyer, producer, and writer who currently serves as in-house counsel & head of Business & Legal Affairs for Abrams Media. As a two-sport collegiate athlete and former college coach, Kelsey often writes for national publicatio...

In Ep. #7, Caroline sits down with Anya Packer, the Executive Director of the National Women’s Hockey League Players’ Association.  In advance of the 2021 NWHL Playoffs & Isobel Cup Championships, Caroline & Anya discuss why it’s good business to invest in women’s hockey - and the right thing to do in terms of gender equality. As the head of the NWHLPA, Anya serves as the voice of the players. In...

In  Ep. #6, Caroline sits down with Anya Alvarez, the Director of Content & Digital at Athletes Unlimited . During this episode, Anya & Caroline discuss how Athletes Unlimited is disrupting the women’s sports industry by offering new professional leagues for the world's best athletes. Their new model of play is fantasy-inspired, and has a radical new scoring system with points - and money on the l...

In Ep. #5, Caroline sits down with Jan Receski, the Founder & CEO of OnPar Now - a brand new state-of-the-art indoor golf facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After an incredibly successful 30-year career, Jan is entering the women’s golf business. She started OnPar Now to create an inclusive space where no one would be excluded from the game of golf. Jan recognized that the women's golf industry...

In Ep. #4, Caroline sits down with Angela Ruggiero, the CEO & Co-Founder of Sports Innovation Lab to talk about The Fan Project, and how Angela & her team are harnessing the power of fan data to show media companies & brands the power of women’s sports.  The Fan Project is a coalition of sports leagues, brands, & communities dedicated to creating equality and opportunity for women’s sports. During...

In Ep. #3, Caroline sits down with Maggie Ntim, a FIFA USSF soccer agent, and the CEO & Founder of Trinity 3 Agency to discuss women's sports business through the lens of an agent.  During this episode, Maggie and Caroline discuss how Maggie serves as an advocate for her clients at every turn; especially for her female athletes who have to fight harder for their piece of the sports industry pie. M...