Consulting
Is your organization the weak link of your league?
Worse, is it the laughingstock?
Women’s sports are soaring in popularity, and that is an exciting though overdue social trend. But some teams and leagues, in the WNBA and NWSL specifically, have recently experienced public backlash over preventable missteps including questionable firings, botched rollouts, and misalignment with league culture and values. (A great deal of my reporting has focused on dubious hiring decisions in the WNBA.)
Teams, and the leagues that govern them, owe it to the women who play for them to align their organizational values to theirs. And the ticket-buying, merch-wearing fans of women’s sports now expect organizations to move away from the sports-world status quo that thwarted the growth of women’s sports in the first place.
Image-tarnishing events are avoidable.
The old ways will not work anymore, and history — in the form of failed women’s sports leagues of the past — shows how quickly momentous enthusiasm can fade into disinterest and nonexistence. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated that the reasons the league needed to play the 2020 season despite the covid-19 pandemic were “existential.” In just five years, the WNBA climbed from the precipice of collapse to sold-out arenas and record-shattering television viewership. The league’s own history shows that vast gains can unravel just as quickly, if not faster.
Evidence is engraved on headstones in the Graveyard of Professional Women’s Teams Past.
An industry colleague in 2021 asked me why I can’t ‘play the game’ like ‘everyone’ else in sports media. My reasons are simple: The ‘game’ is rigged by frequently shifting goalposts and ruled by fake transactional relationships. I won’t compromise my core values for anyone, and my primary concern, in any endeavor, has always been to effectuate positive change. Lasting change is borne of a We > me mindset, and prioritizing long-term success over quick fixes.
—Tamryn Spruill, industry trailblazer & maker of good trouble
LATEST SCREENS
2024 WNBA All-Star Voting: Skimming the Crème de la Crème from the Cream of the Crop
Choosing six frontcourt players and four backcourt players for the WNBA All-Star Game is never an easy task and casting a media ballot in 2024 feels almost daunting. To separate the cream from the very elite crop, we did not consider players who led the league in turnovers or personal fouls for games. Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever were early cuts.
We can stop this history from repeating.
Stability in women’s sports requires that decision-makers develop a keener understanding of their athletes and the fans who cheer for them. A HARD SCREEN Audit + Report™ from me, an industry trailblazer, will widen your lens. Learn what fans want that your organization is not delivering.