Sue Bird: “There’s No Better Business Than Women’s Sports.”

(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

By Christan Braswell

Seattle, WA - The Seattle Storm announced last week that basketball legend Sue Bird was joining the team’s ownership group, Force 10 Hoops. Speaking to the media for the first time since the announcement of her investment, Bird told reporters Monday, “I think women’s sports is in a place where there’s really no better business.”

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Seattle had sold minority ownership stakes at a historic $151 million valuation to raise capital for the team’s new practice facility and headquarters, which opened its doors for the first time last week.

In 2022, Bird joined Gotham FC of the NSWL as an investor while playing in her final WNBA season. She co-founded a media and clothing company, TOGETHXR, with fellow athletes Alex Morgan and Chloe Kim. Also in her portfolio is “A Touch More,” the production company she launched with fiancée and retired Seattle Reign FC forward Megan Rapinoe. Bird’s off-court investments focus on advancing women’s sports to new heights, and she is ecstatic about the opportunity to be part of the charge.

“A lot of times I tell people if you were to remove women’s sports or women’s basketball or women’s soccer or whatever sport you’re talking about from the name of the business or the company, and you just looked at the numbers, the growth, the trajectory, all the things people would be jumping at this opportunity,” Bird continued. “And that’s really how I see it. I think I view it as a great investment, so it is less of an accomplishment but more of something that I’ve always believed in and more of something that I’ve always wanted to help grow. I touched on this before as a player; I did as much as I could on the court. Now that I’m a retired player, I still feel like I can have an impact bringing all of that experience with me. But at the end of the day, these are just good investment.”

Women’s sports are expected to grow exponentially in the year ahead. The Professional Women’s Hockey League kicked off its inaugural season in January, with potential expansion talks already in the works. At the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, there will be an equal number of male and female athletes, a first in the Games’ history. Throw in growth in women’s rugby; those are just a few examples of how women’s sports are booming.

Deloitte predicts that in 2024, for the first time, women’s sports will generate a revenue that surpasses $1 billion — a 300% increase on the industry’s evaluation in 2021.

Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark introduced the mainstream audience to women’s college basketball, and the sport was left better for it as they ascended to the professional ranks. Corporations will continue to line up to work with the best the game has to offer. While the boom of women’s sports, particularly women’s basketball, is a joy to witness, the hunger for access has always been there.

Players like Chamique Holdsclaw and Sheryl Swoopes are just two names on a list of highly qualified legends who carried the sport before nationally televised games were a near daily occurrence and a record level of investment.

Sheryl Swoopes and Sue Bird during a Seattle Storm practice during the 2008 season, the only year that Swoopes spent with the franchise. (Photo from Getty Images)

Fans have long urged for more access and equitable coverage, and still, in 2024, we simply aren’t there yet. The path of growth of that women’s sports is on, the near future could deliver what has been sorely desired for decades.

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