Margaret Fleming on LinkedIn: Investment in WSL Could Be ‘Spectacularly Successful’ (2024)

I attended Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut last night in Connecticut, where she played in front of a sold-out crowd at Mohegan Sun. In addition to being the home of a WNBA team, the complex also houses a casino, bars, restaurants, shops, and hotel rooms.“From a revenue and from a fiscal perspective, this is the best Connecticut Sun game that we’ve had since we started ownership,” said Mohegan Sun president and GM Jeff Hamilton, who compared the level of demand for the game to last month’s Bruce Springsteen concert.My story on my trip to the capital of women’s basketball for Front Office Sports:https://lnkd.in/eVKKM-24

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After winning games in the NCAA tournament, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley meets with local media reporters for one-on-one interviews. It's a media strategy that isn't typical for a coach at her level of success, but Staley tells Front Office Sports she prefers speaking with local media outlets over national ones.“I’d rather spend my time with the people that really know our team, that’s going to report back to our fan base and give them the real," she says.The local reporters, meanwhile, know how special that access is, and cover the team heavily. One local station sent five staffers to the Sweet Sixteen and Final Four weekends.My story on how Staley created one of the most passionate fanbases in college sports by leaning into local media coverage:https://lnkd.in/eXNVfdw2

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As a record 12.3 million viewers tuned into Iowa-LSU last night, they got to watch the fan favorite trio of Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike. I spoke with Duncan about this exciting moment in her career.“It’s just an investment in women, and watching it come to fruition, and it is coming from all the sacrifices of the women that played before, of the women that sat in boardrooms before and begged and pleaded for more investment and resources,” Duncan says. “And now they are seeing all the fruits of their labor.”Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/e_jg-G7y

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I wrote about how NC State, DJ Burns, Jr., and the head men's and women's basketball coaches are making money from their March Madness runs:https://lnkd.in/ewJUfp_2

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Teams like NC State that go on magical postseason runs can boost ticket sales, donations, and admissions. But in the long-term, especially at smaller schools, things can get complicated.On the one hand, teams uplift their entire athletic department to compete at a higher level, leading to changes in conferences and new facilities. On the other, schools face an immediate scheduling and budget issue because they’re “a little bit to dangerous” for large schools to schedule them as a “buy game.”I spoke with Davidson, Loyola Chicago, and Oral Roberts to learn all about the post-Cinderella era for my Front Office Sports feature:https://lnkd.in/e3zumbCj

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In the current era of college basketball, March Madness and NIL collectives are intertwined. Collectives back rosters that can compete at the highest level, and March Madness gives the perfect platform for fundraising to maintain a tournament-caliber team.While I attended the NCAA tournament in Brooklyn over the weekend, I spoke about this dynamic with collective operators for Northwestern and Wisconsin. One of them told me the current collective system isn't sustainable, but it's important to keep up while this framework exists."We don’t want to be the reason why Chris [Collins] or David Braun can’t compete,” NU's collective operator Jacob Schmidt says, referring to the school’s men’s basketball and football coaches. “If you don’t compete in the NIL world, your best players will not stay at your place.”My latest feature for Front Office Sports:https://lnkd.in/dZanQM2r

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When the NWSL season kicked off on Saturday, teams debuted all new kits, and none of them included white shorts. It's something athletes have advocated for years, and another example of how the equipment, training, and uniforms used in women's sports are finally adapting to women's bodies.“We’re living through an era where pro women’s sports are really taking off, and people are realizing there’s a business case to be made for tailoring products and certain practices to women,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke tells me.My weekend feature for Front Office Sports:

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The Stephen vs. Sabrina three-point contest was a lot friendlier and less dramatic than the “Battle of the Sexes.” Still, showcasing Ionescu in front of millions of basketball fans last night could have huge cultural and financial implications for the WNBA—You can already see it with her rising Instagram following since the competition was announced. My Front Office Sports Sunday feature (thank you to Caroline Fitzgerald, Sara Gotfredson, and Danette Leighton for your insights!):https://lnkd.in/eNvyTNAf

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