Findings Shared From SheIS Panel on How Leagues Persevered During Pandemic
May 18, 2021 – Some of the most powerful and empowering executives in professional sports recently met as part of the SheIS Collective to exchange ideas, inform and celebrate how women’s sports persevered during the pandemic and will continue to thrive as we begin on the path to the complete return of fans to venues.
The panel discussion was produced by SheIS – the pioneering organization behind the #WomenWorthWatching campaign to drive viewership and attendance – and featured the following executives:
Liz Dalton: Managing Director of Operations and Player Affairs, NWSL
Bethany Donaphin: Head of League Operations, WNBA
Ricki Lasky: Chief Tournament Business Officer, LPGA
Laura Petrucelli: Vice President of Brand, WWE
Stacey Allaster: Chief Executive, USTA (moderator)
Brenda Andress: SheIS President and Founder
Allaster kicked off the discussion by saying of women’s sports, “I know we should be further along than where we are in 2021, but with organizations like SheIS, I am optimistic that the future is infinite.” Here are just some of the highlights of the multi-layered discussion:
THE BIG PICTURE
Petrucelli (WWE): “In sports, women will continue to lead the way. During the pandemic, the momentum around women’s sports has been incredible, and I know it will continue.”
Donaphin (WNBA): “This is a moment where all of us are together because we are energized by what is happening in our respective leagues and sports. There is a storm brewing in terms of where our leagues can go, and it is exciting to be part of it.”
Lasky (LPGA): “I look at this group of accomplished women and what they’ve done in their areas of expertise, and I know we’ve just begun. My ten-year-old daughter Grayson watches Carli Lloyd and Sue Bird and Lexi Thompson compete at the highest levels and she believes if they can do it, she can do it, too.”
Dalton (NWSL): “We’ve come so far, but we cannot relax. We still have so much that we need to accomplish.”
LESSONS LEARNED
Donaphin (WNBA): “One of the things that was remarkable about the WNBA bubble was how safe the players felt in the environment we established for them. That was a resounding piece of feedback we received. And there was something, particularly in the moment we were in, about being able to have our entire league in one place, and particularly from a social justice standpoint, and the priorities the players had around that, in conjunction with actually executing a season.”
Dalton (NWSL) on the 2020 Challenge Cup in Utah: “We were the first American team sports league back in action during COVID. There was a great weight that we carried, but afterwards we felt a lot of pride in pulling it off. So much of it was the professionalism of our players. They took it seriously. There was pressure. We all felt it. Our medical task force was a tremendous outlet. The other women’s leagues represented on this panel were also a great resource.”
BEST PRACTICES
Lasky (LPGA): “In March of 2019, we launched our new brand positioning, Drive On. As we went from March 2020 into the COVID world and those months we were not playing, it really amplified our ability to tell the stories of our athletes. We were able to provide for the fans who are hungry for content. We produced vignettes of 23 different players on our tour and really poignant, meaningful stories of their journey. That has really taken off for us. We also had Women's Leadership Days. We built that into the packages for our partners because it was very meaningful for them from a D&I perspective. We did the events virtually and were able to share the content with our fans as well. So we took what we usually held in a ballroom for 200-300 people and shared it with many more folks around the world.”
Donaphin (WNBA): “One of the coolest things we did from a fan engagement standpoint was an initiative called Tap to Cheer. It allowed fans to engage with the games and support their favorite teams and we ended up with 140 million taps over the course of the 2020 season. It actually led to an 85 percent year-over-year increase in downloads of our app. We're continuing to think through how we can innovate and create more player fan engagement during games. There are incredible opportunities, particularly once we advanced in our wearables exploration. We want to think about how you can overlay broadcast enhancements using wearables. That's the next frontier.”
Dalton (NWSL): “Twitch is one of our broadcast partners and they handle our international content. This has brought a whole new fan base to us. The interaction on Twitch…we've had a lot of fun with it. It led us to host our draft this year on Twitch. We also use Google Meet for our matches. Being first out of the box with Challenge Cup, who knew that a playground on the corner of the field, or a coffee truck, would have taken off the way they did. We made the most of it and it's been fun and light and we're going to continue to really focus in that area.”
PACKAGING & MARKETING
Petrucelli (WWE): “It’s an advantage for us to highlight the best athletes, regardless of gender. They are all superstars, right? So who are the best athletes? And what are the best stories we want to tell? We're very data driven, so what our fans want, that's what we want to give them. We've seen such an increase of male fans, but also young boys, as supporters of our female superstars. When you see a little boy wearing a Charlotte Flair shirt, that is so awesome because it's not the way it was ten years ago. Our male roster is incredibly supportive of our women and vice versa. That's also been incredibly helpful as our business has grown.”
Donaphin (WNBA): “When we unveiled our new brand and identity two years ago, part of the exercise was saying, ‘We're over 20 years in now – if we were to start from scratch, what would we do?’ Where we landed was, we need to carve out a really strong identity, and part of our mission was to be a progressive league that boldly stands for the power of women. Being really clear in that identity has helped us as we've tried to drive a business model transformation. In 2020, our entire season – except for one week – overlapped with the NBA season. We still got viewership. We still had attention. We had a 350 percent increase in merchandise sales driven in large part by the success of the orange hoodie. That first week, because all of the NBA players were together in their bubble – an hour and a half away from Bradenton where we were having our season – it really showed solidarity. And it propelled the orange hoodie into this iconic thing people thought was cool.”
CLOSING COMMENTS
Allaster (USTA): “The one thing about sport is that during challenging times, we all came together and shared. I could call up any commissioner in the U.S. or abroad and everybody wanted to help. It has built confidence amongst players and partners. So with that, this was a moment of just sharing and getting together and being inspired. I'm certainly inspired by the work of Liz and Ricki and Laura and Bethany. So, rock on. History is our future, and our future is infinite.”
Andress (SheIS): “I could not be prouder than this moment, with all of the top leagues and the USTA being on this call. We're just beginning to build. Sharing this information is essential for everyone. To every one of the panel members: thank you so much for being on this with us. We're so moved by it. SheIS was built on positivity. It was built to bring people together. Women's sports are taking off. There are indicators showing there's a change. The women were successful. The viewership was outstanding. I cannot thank you as our collective members for the Women Worth Watching campaigns we've done together. Also, for your 2020 leadership as you put women's sports on the map during COVID, and persevering and making it happen. I'm so happy that in 2020, women led the way.”
About SheIS
Founded in 2017 and launched to the public on May 1, 2018, SheIS was established with a vision to use the power of sports to create a future of, by, and for strong women. Its mission is to connect with and mobilize fans to grow women’s sports. This is achieved through driving attendance and viewership of women’s sports at all levels, connecting through storytelling to inspire fans to take action, and centralizing resources to create sustainable growth of women’s sports. The SheIS Collective includes leaders from every major sport, and represents the first time in history that all of these sports leagues and organizations have stood together in support of one cause. To learn more, visit www.sheissport.com or follow the team on social media @teamsheis.