It’s Grow Time

⛹️‍♀️ The WNBA completed its first-ever capital raise, the league announced yesterday, sneaking its way into the three-comma club by securing $75 million at a $1 billion valuation.

• Investors include Nike (who made a significant investment), Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Laurene Powell Jobs (the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs),
• CONT’D: Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, and WNBA champion Swin Cash.
• According to the league’s press release, it’s the largest capital raise for a women’s sports property… ever.

+The big picture: Last year’s season saw a large jump in TV viewership, according to ESPN. Regular-season viewership increased 49% compared with the 2020 season, and 24% compared with 2019 before the Covid pandemic. The postseason and WNBA Finals both saw their highest viewership figures in years.

+So what’s next?... “It’s really a lot of growth initiatives,” Engelbert told CNBC. Those include sports betting as more states legalize it and “marketing our stars into household names both here in the US and globally.”