Swimming against the stream
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Feeling hot hot hot
The U.S. just logged its warmest month ever, begging the question: Are even more hydration breaks headed our way as summer leagues like the NWSL and WLL continue? There’s money to be made, after all.
- Thankfully, this newsletter always stays cool under pressure, so grab your iced bevvy of choice and let’s take a dip in the business of women’s sports.
Sports media
👀 Watch us if you can
The GIST: Sports Poll by SSRS — the world’s longest-running market research study on sports fandom — dropped some data proving what we’ve known all along: it shouldn’t be this hard to watch women’s sports.
- A July poll revealed that nearly 20% of respondents had no way to watch the women’s pro and college sports they are interested in, with only 42% saying they have access to all or most games. We need to talk about this.
The problem: Established leagues like the NWSL and WNBA — both of which touted lucrative media deals as part of their recent collective bargaining agreements — require complicated and costly combos of paid streaming apps like Prime Video, Peacock or Paramount+, cable or satellite access, live TV streaming, and other paid subscriptions if your team is out of market.
- League-specific apps like NWSL+ or WNBA League Pass don’t show every game as they have national blackouts for marquee matchups. These extensive lineups run between $50 to $100 a month and, in addition to the cost, it’s a major inconvenience to not even easily know which of the seven apps has the game you want.
The effect: It gets even worse when you look at new leagues where this lack of accessibility disproportionately affects their ability to grow. Less than two days before its season started, the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) announced its games would no longer be free, a last-minute switch that frustrated fans. With the majority of games behind a paywall, casual watchers are inhibited from exploring a new, exciting product.
- People are similarly angered that WAFCON, African women’s soccer’s biggest tournament, is nearly impossible to watch in North America and the games that are available to stream suffer from a lack of quality announcing — a huge loss for what’s been an excellent tournament.
Zooming out: It’s worth noting that the hybrid model of free and paid can work when it’s simple. Both the PWHL and F1 Academy rely on YouTube for the majority of their calendar and after seasons of turning casual viewers into fans, also offer premium content on paid platforms like Prime Video, TSN, or AppleTV.
- It all comes back to access. If fans can’t watch, leagues won’t have a chance to make it out of their infancy — media deal or no.
🩸 Columbus, OH, sets the bar for menstrual products in major sports venues
With 165 free period product dispensers across seven local sports venues, Columbus is going with the, ahem, flow, by becoming the first American city to provide free menstrual products in all major sports venues. It should come as no surprise that period accessibility brand Aunt Flow is behind the infrastructure updates, supplying and stocking all 165 dispensers.
- And this is a film we’ve seen before: More sports teams are offering free menstrual products in their venues, further proof that period care should be a basic operating standard — not an amenity. Period.
💸 What does PWHL owner Mark Walter’s LA Lakers sale mean for women’s hockey?
In short, TBD. Walter turned a mind-boggling $2.5B profit with yesterday’s deal, opting to sell the storied NBA franchise just one year after acquiring it. The unexpected sale could point to Walter’s desire to turn a quick profit (unlikely) or better manage his portfolio amid health concerns — but could also be connected to the federal investigation into Walter’s alleged financial improprieties.
- Whatever Walter’s reasoning, the sale’s impact on the PWHL — which will enter its fourth season with four new expansion teams this fall — remains unclear as the young league embarks on an unprecedented growth period.
- Interested in learning more? Become a member of The GIST Plus. Tomorrow’s members-only episode of The GIST of It podcast features co-hosts Ellen Hyslop and Steph Rotz’s hot takes on the topic. *winks*
🏀 Project B to adopt Olympic gender policy ahead of end-of-year launch
The upstart international basketball league will effectively ban transgender athletes from participation, a move that aligns with the IOC’s recent policy. The IOC intends to enforce this policy with genetic sex testing — namely a controversial SRY gene test — while Project B has yet to explicitly state whether it will require players to undergo similar invasive procedures.
- The announcement comes in the midst of the WNBA’s trans athlete saga, and Project B co-founder (and former W hooper) Alana Beard didn’t mince words when discussing the league’s handling of the situation. Ugh.
🌈 Seattle Reign FC collaborated with queer- and women-founded apparel brand Wild Fang for a Pride capsule collection, and as expected, every piece is a must-have. *adds to cart*
⚾ The WPBL handed out the first pink slip of its inaugural season when Boston Hunters manager Keith Foulke was fired after just three games at the helm.
🏐 The Minnesota Forge have arrived: One of four Major League Volleyball expansion teams ready to hit the court in 2027, the Forge debuted its name and branding yesterday. Bump, set, slay.
🎓 The NCAA is continuing to fight the injunction of its recent age eligibility ruling (see: the Wisne v. NCAA lawsuit), a new policy that limits college athletes to a maximum age of 24 years old.
🎾 Teen tennis phenom Alex Eala is the newest face of Marriott Bonvoy, as the multinational hotel company aims to capitalize on the 19-year-old’s massive social media following.
⚽ Calls for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign are intensifying after three of the globe’s largest soccer federations — AFC, CONCACAF, and UEFA — issued an open letter accusing the FIFA leader of deception.
🏀 WNBA viewership on ESPN is up 5% YOY through 22 games, highlighted by the network’s second most-watched regular-season broadcast ever: Saturday’s spicy showdown between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky (2.6M viewers). If you build it put it on national television, they will come.
Today’s email was brought to you by Rachel Fuenzalida and Lisa Minutillo. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam. Ads by Ali Haberstroh. Managing edits by Molly Potter, Katie Foster, and Lisa Minutillo. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.