Like many things, it all started with a rage tweet.
In 2019, Alexis Ohanian, aka Serena Williams’ husband and co-founder of Reddit, ranted that women’s sports was undervalued. He couldn’t believe that Seattle Reign FC, the National Women’s Soccer League team in Seattle sold for only $3.5 million when he thought its star player, Megan Rapinoe, was worth at least that alone. It led to his investment in Angel City FC, which now has the highest valuation in the league.
And his latest investment is Athlos, a highly produced, women’s only track meet with the highest prize purse in history. On Thursday, September 26, 36 of the fastest women (they have 30 Olympic medals between them) compete in six events, ranging from the 100m to the 1500m plus the 100m hurdles.
Every lane won prize money, from $2,500 for sixth place to $60,000 for first. The winner took home double the amount awarded to the winner of the Diamond League final, the culmination of the sport’s current circuit for elite athletes.
But he says that his investment isn’t about charity and it isn’t about doing “the right thing” or “the nice thing.” He looks at women’s sports from purely a business perspective and he thinks there’s a lot of upside. After all, Deloitte forecasted that women’s sports will surpass $1 billion in revenues this year, which is 300% higher than its forecast three years ago.
Running needs an infusion of energy to help grow the sport and sometimes you need to do things differently. We’ve seen some innovative models this year like the 1v1 race between Mondo Duplantis, Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the pole value, and Karsten Warholm, Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the 400m hurdles. They raced a 100m exhibition at the beginning of September and it generated a lot of excitement.
Read the whole article here: https://christinemyu.substack.com/p/a-night-at-the-track?r=h9c68&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
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