NCAA Women's basketball has soared in popularity over the past couple of years. Sports Innovation Lab co-founder and CEO Josh Walker joins Yahoo Finance to discuss this tendency means for the business of women's sports.
Walker states that building media support for women's sports involved more than an appeal for equality, but data that demonstrated surging engagement: "The infrastructure is a ground swell of emotion that is now being translated into an ROI in terms of investing. I think when that transition happened, when we started looking at the data behind this narrative, it started to be something these brands could get behind. The media companies now are spending real money on media rights. Then you have Morgan Stanley (MS), you have Klarna, you have Scripps (SSP), EA Sports — lots of other brands are leaning in now trying to make an investment to make sure women's sports is funded correctly going forward. "
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JOSH LIPTON: Women's college basketball has soared in popularity over the past few years.
But the question remains, can women's sports continue to build on this hype?
Joining us now to discuss, Josh Walker, Co-founder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab.
Josh, it's good to see you.
So there does, Josh, seem to be this real shift underway in women's basketball.
Josh, just the energy and the enthusiasm that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are kind of generating right now.
What do you think bottom line, Josh?
This is really going to mean just for the business overall women's sports.
JOSH WALKER: Yeah, I think you need to zoom out a little bit.
So first of all, it's really cool that their names.
Because I think in this day and age, it's like they've become part of the common vernacular when you're talking about sports, and that's phenomenal.
We saw this trend coming about three years ago.
And you really have to zoom out.
This is not an overnight success.
This is not just a Caitlin Clark story.
This is a phenomenon that has been building for a while now.
Women's sports has actually been like a startup.
And it's not an overnight success.
We say that all the time in our business, we've been looking at this since the inception of Title IX and really starting to create equality in terms of the media distribution, the salaries, the college game.
Even in the amateur and youth level, it's really taken decades for the women's sports infrastructure to be built up so that we can now have this moment that we're all talking about.
JULIE HYMAN: And so it's interesting then, because it sounds like it has been a deliberate effort.
Although certainly, there must be an organic element to it, too.
But talk to me about the deliberate part.
What is that infrastructure look like?
What are the efforts that various folks out there like yourselves who have been trying to build this fan base?
How do you how have you done it?
JOSH WALKER: Yeah, well, we've done it with data.
And we've started with evidence that I think the industry has been missing for a long period of time.
A lot of the selling of women's sports was done on the equality and emotional.
It's the right thing to do kind of message.
My co-founder is Angela Ruggiero, one of the best hockey players of all time.
She's in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Very good friends with Billie Jean King.
She's really taken the mantle and said this is about the business of sports.
This isn't about the right thing to do.
This is the right investment.
And my CMO, Gina Waldhorn, runs a group of women that's about 300 women called the Women's Sports Club.
And I only mention that because that's 300 executives that get together, talk about women's sports, and talk about the opportunities to invest in women's sports.
So when you ask me about the infrastructure, the infrastructure is this groundswell of emotion that is now being translated into an ROI in terms of investing.
And I think when that transition happened, when you started looking at the data behind this narrative, it started to be something that these brands could get behind.
The media companies now are spending real money on media rights.
And then you have Morgan Stanley, you have Klarna, you have Scripps, you have esports.
Lots of other brands are leaning in now and trying to make an investment to make sure that women's sports is funded correctly going forward.
JOSH LIPTON: And, Josh, I'm interested what you think women's college basketball could mean for the WNBA.
As a business, Josh, do you think it's going to help the league gain more traction?
JOSH WALKER: Without a doubt.
We shared a lot of data with folks this week just showing how the WNBA is trending as a result of some of the momentum around March Madness.
Now, remember, March Madness wasn't a logo or a mark that the women's game could use in the past.
That even just putting a stamp on what's really legitimized this tournament, which has been going on forever is now just giving the WNBA that kind of momentum as it leads into the draft into the next season.
The WNBA has been doing a great job.
They have a new app, they've been doing a lot more with their marketing, and with the team level.
So we work closely with the WNBA are really impressed with how they're professionalizing the game.
But make no mistake, they're benefiting from these big names that are coming out of college basketball.
JULIE HYMAN: And also, Josh, who is the fan here?
Is it mostly women?
Is it young women?
And what's the spending power of this cohort?
JOSH WALKER: We spend so much time disavowing people of the idea that it's just the dad and his daughter going to the games.
We show that there's really a tremendous amount of interest in all women's sports.
And it's not just basketball, it could be softball fan that also watches basketball that tends to go out because they enjoy a night out with their family.
This is a very well-rounded fan base.
It's not one demographic.
It's not one type of fan.
And I think that's the most powerful thing that the data shows, which is that they're actually buying a lot of products and services.
We did a really great study with the WNBA to show them that when they started working with CarMax, CarMax consumers rewarded the WNBA with their business.
And I think that there's a really nice connection when you look at the data that says that they want these brands and they want these leagues to be working together very closely.