{"id":419642,"date":"2026-01-20T23:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419642\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T23:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:21:08","slug":"a-promising-shift-in-approach-is-afoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419642\/","title":{"rendered":"A promising shift in approach is afoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his monthly Finance column<\/a> in the SBJ magazine, my colleague Chris Smith<\/a> ID\u2019d some 2026 trends in sports finance. No surprise, women\u2019s sports made the list. But what\u2019s different this year is a more sophisticated shift to greater nuance in where the women\u2019s sports ecosystem investors want to put their dollars.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Chris uncovered:<\/p>\n

Sources were unsurprisingly bullish on women\u2019s sports across the board, but investors are being more thoughtful in a sector often painted with a broad brush. Inner Circle Sports\u2019 Maddie Winslow described the NWSL and WNBA as emerging into a separate asset class from earlier stage women\u2019s properties.<\/p>\n

The WNBA\u2019s New York Liberty sold a minority stake at a reported $450 million valuation, and the league\u2019s expansion teams (Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland) were acquired for $250 million apiece. The NWSL last year sold expansion teams in Denver and Atlanta for $110 million and $165 million, respectively.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, startup volleyball league LOVB recently sold three expansion teams. Financial details were not revealed, though a source noted the league was seeking around $20 million per team.<\/p>\n

Thanks in part to that kind of meaningful difference in valuations and risk profiles, Winslow said there\u2019s now greater stratification among potential investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging that I\u2019m getting fewer calls that are simply, \u2018I want to be in women\u2019s sports, where should I invest?\u2019\u201d said Winslow, who has advised the NWSL on its expansion efforts. \u201cInstead, people are coming in with much more distinct points of view: \u2018I want to be in the WNBA,\u2019 \u2018I want to be in the NWSL,\u2019 or \u2018I want to invest in a more emerging property.\u2019 That tells me the ecosystem is starting to better understand the nuances between these leagues, the underlying business models, and that there is more to these investments than just an overarching thesis of growth in women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his monthly Finance column in the SBJ magazine, my colleague Chris Smith ID\u2019d some 2026 trends in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434,1765],"class_list":["post-419642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}