Time to attack

The GIST: Athletes Unlimited (AU) is getting ready to serve up its fourth season of AU Volleyball, the month-long pro league that’s changed the game for the world’s top women volleyball players. While the sport is already highly popular in other countries, new U.S. pro leagues can offer American exposure through media, marketing, and sponsorship.

• AU’s director of volleyball Cassidy Lichtman spoke with The GIST on Wednesday about the company’s winning strategy as a pioneer in the volleyball space, especially with two new U.S. pro volleyball leagues joining AU this year. Killin’ it.

The why: Lichtman noted AU started with softball and volleyball because these sports had “a lot of growth potential on the women’s sports side,” and the absence of a pro volleyball league created an “entire open space.” Domestic numbers backed up AU’s mission: Both sports have cultivated strong collegiate pipelines yet had no U.S. pro leagues at the time of AU’s launch.

• Despite volleyball’s universal popularity — Lichtman said there’s almost 1B global players and noted avid fandom in Thailand and Japan — minimal coverage has limited pro fandom stateside. This is changing fast, however, as ESPN just signed a multiyear deal with AU last season.

The ecosystem: While AU Volleyball began play alone in 2021, there are now two other major players in the space. This January, the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) kicked off and reset pro volleyball’s attendance record three times, while LOVB Pro is set to launch — with 75% of Team USA committed to the league — next January.

• LOVB Pro and the PVF clash on the calendar, but AU’s autumn season allows players from both leagues to join in. This includes Thai fan favorite Nootsara Tomkom, who played in the PVF this season and is now entering her third AU season. Notably, a third of the league’s audience comes from her home country, per Lichtman.

The takeaway: Though pro leagues exist throughout the world, playing stateside gives players unique access to American audiences, networks, and brands. Athletes are recognizing opportunity in the U.S., but sponsors should come next — especially when it comes to AU, which has four leagues brands can activate around. Time to attack.

The GIST: Last Thursday, women’s track meet Athlos NYC took off at Icahn Stadium in Manhattan, and seemed to be everything founder Alexis Ohanian billed it to be. As we wait for official viewership and attendance numbers, immediate IRL impressions suggest Athlos could be the next major event on the Big Apple’s sports calendar between the US Open and the NYC Marathon. That tracks.

The background: Ohanian announced the event back in April alongside Olympian Gabby Thomas, who was the first athlete to sign on out of an eventual 36 total participants. Ohanian’s goal for the meet was not only to reward women athletes, but to activate in a space that’s faced a dearth of competitive leagues and sponsorship opportunities.

• And they were rewarded: With a record prize pool of $663K, athletes who placed first in one of the six track events were guaranteed $60K. Specifically, 200m Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Brown earned $85K for 33.13 seconds of racing at Athlos NYC — more than the $54K she made off racing five Diamond League meets this year.

The marketing: Beyond touting the record prize money, Ohanian utilized some big names to build hype for the meet. He secured rapper Megan Thee Stallion as a headliner and tapped his wife, tennis GOAT Serena Williams, to narrate an intro video for the event. Plus, DJ D-Nice played music for the crowd, which included celebs like Flavor Flav and Lupita Nyong’o.

• And Ohanian, who also co-founded the NWSL’s Angel City FC, knows how to bring in top brands. One of the event’s first sponsors was luxury brand Tiffany & Co., which gifted winners custom crowns, while women-focused clothing brand Oiselle was the official apparel sponsor and Vogue provided in-depth coverage. Strike a pose.

The viewership: While final numbers haven’t been published for the meet’s livestream on ESPN+, DAZN, and World Athletics’ platform, social media metrics give some insight into the online interest. As of last night, the broadcast on X had 2.5M views, while the YouTube stream boasted over 84K viewers.

Zooming out: Track & field has long had a sponsorship problem, but Athlos’ success could shift the way marketers see track. Billing meets as a cultural event could entice new sponsors the way finance brands have increasingly activated around the US Open, but the sponsors so far reflect a compelling intersection between sport, tech, and culture — and that’s where Gen Z fans live.

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