Do you have a fever?
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
Happy AAPI Month!
Iconic snowboarder Chloe Kim is living her best life after being one of the first two American athletes to officially qualify for 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, a boon for someone who earned $3M in sponsorships leading up to the last Games.
- The halfpipe queen just wrapped up a World Cup season, winning her eighth X Games superpipe gold, tying none other than snowboarding legend and Snow League founder Shaun White.
- Kim is one of the many celebrated AAPI athletes commemorated during Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month — here’s to the trailblazers and the progress that’s been made, this month and beyond.
Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball
🥞 Counting (pancake) stacks
The GIST: Yesterday, Athletes Unlimited (AU) Pro Volleyball revamped its volleyball championship with an exclusive, invite-only tournament featuring 44 of the world’s top players. For the first time ever, AU is splitting up its season across two cities known for their love of the game: Omaha, Nebraska and Madison, Wisconsin.
- By tapping into passionate volleyball markets, AU is developing a transferable playbook on how to take advantage of niche and local fandom. Striking.
The changes: Now dubbed the AU Pro Volleyball Championship, the five-week competition will spend two weeks in Omaha, followed by three weeks in Madison. ESPN platforms will exclusively broadcast 15 matches, with additional streaming partners to be named.
- While last year’s tourney was hosted in Mesa, Arizona, city rotation is nothing new for AU, which has market-tested in Rosemont, Illinois, and Nashville, Tennessee for its softball and basketball competitions, respectively.
The hotspots: Both Omaha and Madison are massive women’s college volleyball hubs. Nebraska set the sport’s attendance record with 92K fans in 2023 and made $2.22M in ticket sales for the 2022-23 season. The Wisconsin Badgers also perform well, finishing behind only Nebraska in average attendance last season (7.3K) and in 2022-23 ticket sales ($1.54M).
- And AU isn’t the first to take advantage. League One Volleyball (LOVB, pronounced “love”) launched two of its inaugural six teams in these markets, and one of PVF’s eight franchises plays in Omaha.
The precedent: AU’s market-testing has worked wonders, with Nashville’s avid college fandom keeping AU Basketball in the city after posting major YoY boosts in viewership (96%) and attendance (89%). Other women’s sports leagues have acted similarly: The WNBA tested Toronto with an exhibition game before awarding the city a team. The PWHL’s Takeover Tour is how it scoped out cities for its two newest franchises.
- In Omaha, LOVB has built a dedicated facility and has seen brands like Rebel Girls partner with the Nebraska team. With PVF and LOVB out of season this fall, local and national brands will be able to activate in a primed volleyball market with a built-in audience.
- This is similar to Eugene, Oregon, which has been marketed as TrackTown, USA. With the city being synonymous with running, both legacy brands like Nike and up-and-comers like Bandit Running routinely activate around tentpole events like the U.S. Track & Field Trials.
Zooming out: Marketers should consider taking a page from AU’s playbook and show up where niche sports fans already are — in passionate, often overlooked hubs. Leading sports companies have seen unmatched visibility by activating at major events in these high-energy, under-the-radar markets, adding to the hype and fanfare. Way to rally.
WNBA
🎟️ WNBA ticket sales: By the numbers
The GIST: WNBA ticket demand is at an all-time high: This year’s All-Star Game sold out within a day, and according to ticket sales platform StubHub, the W is much more popular this season. At a time when the industry needs to know where W fans are showing up, here’s more insight from StubHub’s data as we approach May 16th’s season tipoff.
The WNBA is reaching new fans. StubHub ticket sales are up nearly 2.5x YoY, with first-time buyers increasing 28% YoY. Huge. The W’s reach extends beyond U.S. borders, too: This year’s ticket-holders hail from 29 different countries, up from the 12 countries represented last year. Talk about globetrotters.
The Fever is still burning. Indiana remains popular, with Caitlin Clark drawing even more interest in 2025. There’s been an almost 6x ticket sales boost for Fever games YoY, and it’s not just at home. Nine of the top 10 best-selling W games are Fever away games, a phenomenon that prompted the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics to level up to bigger arenas in 2024.
Dallas is getting its Wings. After finishing second-last in 2024, the Wings are now flying high thanks to No. 1 Draft pick Paige Bueckers joining star Arike Ogunbowale (pronounced Ah-REE-kay Oh-goon-bow-WAH-lay). Wings sales are up 4.5x from last season, with StubHub site searches for the team shooting up 4.5x within 24 hours after the team drafted Bueckers.
Fans are eager for Bay Area rivalries. As the W’s first expansion team since 2008, the Golden State Valkyries have enjoyed the hype with record season ticket sales. The team’s best-selling game is their June 19th bout against the Fever, which more than doubled sales for its second-best-selling game against the LA Sparks.
The most in-demand teams and games are no surprise. The most popular team is the Fever, followed by the Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, New York Liberty, and the new-look Wings.
- The Fever stars in all of 2025’s 10 best-selling games, with its July 15th game against the Sun ranking No. 1. The Wings, Seattle Storm, Las Vegas Aces, Sky, and Liberty feature in the remaining nine matchups. All hits, no misses.
Together With The GIST
🎙️ Sound on
If you love The GIST’s newsletters, you’re going to love our twice-weekly podcast, The GIST of It. Hosted by besties Ellen Hyslop and Stephanie Rotz, it’s the women-produced and -hosted sports pod you’ve been waiting for.
El and Steph dive into current sports topics and how they intersect with society and pop culture. They cover everything from season previews to calling out the sexist BS that’s rampant across the industry.
Join the conversation by subscribing to The GIST of It wherever you tune into podcasts. Happy listening.
🥂 Kendall Jenner’s tequila taps NASCAR’s Toni Breidinger in inaugural sports partnership
Jenner’s award-winning 818 Tequila brand has entered the sports chat in its first national sports partnership with none other than NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger, the sport’s most-followed driver with over 5M followers.
- Breidinger has the most top-10 finishes for any woman driver and is now the first woman in racing to ink a deal with a tequila brand.
- Briedinger was also featured in a recent Coach ad for the luxury brand’s new Soho Sneaker, a reflection of her impact as NASCAR attempts to diversify fandom and make a bigger impact on pop culture. Cheers.
🚫 Women’s sports sponsor Barclays follows UK policy with anti-trans ban
UK-based bank Barclays — a prominent Women’s Super League (WSL) sponsor and the namesake of the NY Liberty’s WNBA arena — is adopting the nation’s new policy regarding trans folk by banning trans women from using its women’s bathrooms. This follows the bank’s latest anti-DEI moves after it recently eliminated its gender and ethnicity targets for its U.S. staff.
- Barclays, which has a large presence in UK women’s soccer, could suffer the consequences of losing the loyalty of fans, who often perceive brand partners in women’s sports as promoters of equity.
- For example, 71% of Women’s World Cup fans believe sponsors of the tournament are committed to gender equality, with 69% of them saying sports sponsorships make brands more appealing. On the wrong side of history.
📈 Miu Miu’s New Balance collab believed to have boosted YoY sales
Italian luxury fashion house Prada Group shared fantastic Q1 results Wednesday with revenue increasing 13% YoY to $1.52B. The brand credited its subsidiary Miu Miu for its success, with the women’s luxury brand seeing a 60% boost in Q1 sales YoY driven by leather goods sales and the brand’s new footwear collection.
- Coordinating since 2022, Miu Miu and New Balance have released several co-branded collections, the latest being a campaign advertised by tennis and NB athlete Coco Gauff. Gauff is slated to wear the new gear at upcoming tennis stops in Rome, Berlin, and Cincinnati.
🗽 Liberty Mutual Insurance announced a multiyear partnership with the New York Liberty yesterday that includes a jersey logo, on-court signage, and branding on seatbacks and kickplates. It just makes sense.
🎬 Netflix announced the development of The 99’ers, a feature film inspired by Jeré Longman’s 2000 book on the 1999 Women’s World Cup (WWC) winners. The streamer is seemingly going all in on women’s soccer, as they’re also the sole U.S. broadcaster for the next two WWCs.
👀 Renderings dropped for the first-ever dual NWSL/WNBA training facility in Portland with the Bhathal family owning the Thorns and the yet-to-be-named 2026 W expansion team. Listen to a recent episode of The GIST of It about how improving amenities are changing the look of women’s sports.
💰 Investment bank Mizuho Americas renewed its title sponsorship of the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open through 2030 and committed to upping the 2026 prize purse from $3M to $3.25M, marking one of the largest outside of women’s majors.
✨ The city of Columbia, South Carolina honored South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley with her own statue this week. In elite company.
🏆 Chelsea Women won their sixth straight WSL title Wednesday, signaling to brands interested in benefiting from sports dynasties that sticking with the champs means flying high.
Here’s what has The GIST team currently hyped:
🐘 Who’s teaming up (again)
Ellie the Elephant and Essie. New nails, who dis? The viral NY Liberty mascot slays this fresh collab.
💁🏾♀️ Who to know
Brittany Hampton. She’s the stylist dressing the future of women’s basketball—think Gen Z WNBA stars and major playoff fits. Cool, creative, and always on the move.
🎧 What to listen to
This episode of The World following Kenyan runner Mary Ngugi and her mission to create a safe space for girls to train at Nala Track Club.
Today's email was brought to you by Aryanna Prasad and Briana Ekanem. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Editing by Dee Lab. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam and Marga Sison. Ads by Katie Kehoe Foster, Alessandra Puccio, and Lisa Minutillo. Managing edits by Ellen Hyslop. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.