The WNBA Star Game Week, Jess Smith, president of Golden State Valkyries, shares how the team has quickly built a brand identity in its first year in the seasonal ticket records that lead the league, expatriates of templates on the court. Smith deepens the commercial impact of “Caitlin-Mania”, how sports is a reflection of broader trends in society, and the critical lessons learned in a race covers the MLB, NHL, Major League Soccer, the National Women League.
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We are in the middle of the opening season of Valkyries in the WNBA. How are you doing so far? I mean, the team is solidly at the table in the classification. Is that better than you expected? Did you expect more?
Superviso the commercial side of the Valkyries, but I know that we hired the general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and she hired the Natalie Nakase coach that the culture they were building was one of the teams about itself, where anything is possible when they can work together.
And I think, as a fan, see this team join, the defense they play, how they address each one by one, has a remarkable leg. And I think it is a joy to feel what fans feel in those surprises compared to many expansion teams, regardless of sport, only in the history of sport. It is a great trip.
How important has it been for the League and for the business of your “Caitlin-Mania” team? I mean, your moment for a new franchise could not have been better. You broke records for the sale of season tickets even before the season began. Is it because the moment or there are other things you were doing?
Before my time here in the Valkyries, I was part of Building Angel City Football Club (The Women’s Soccer Club in Los Angeles) from the first day, along with Natalie Portman, Julie Uhrman and Kara Nortman.
So different sport, different league, different market and the same play book in many point, where you build without apologies and altering to serve a base of unique admirers that has been waiting for something powerful and selling record noise merchandise that really translates into lifestyle merchandise. You see unique audiences to pour.
Growth has been here for a long time, and no growth is linear, right? Soverever I Talk about Growth, I also like to make surre Full-Level, Full-Level, This Full-Level, This Full-Level, This full level level level level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level Level level. There is no longer the “Will the League survive?” Type or comment.
I think Caitlin [Clark]”The records that I was breaking in the university and how you can shoot the ball, the three logo, it’s fun, right?” But what has brought the League is that traditional sports fan. . . Someone who tuned because there was a great basketball and then followed the WNBA and say: “This league is great.”
And certainly, she personally has a lot of fans, as she should. She is a great strength and a great athlete inside this league. But I think you are also seeing it as part of continuous growth.
For us here in Valkyries, we are the first expansion team since 2008, and we said from day one, well, maybe they said and made everyone else say it, that is a great responsibility. People have their leg asking the W for a long time, more than all. We want more teams, we want more list points, we want more visibility, we want more, more, more.
Well, Golden State was the first response to more. And then the world, as soon as that happened, the son of turned and said: “It’s fine, what are you going to do?” To know that as the first expansion team since 2008, we were going to be what people looked at what standard beer, not only for us, not only for the Bay area, but for the future state of this league.
For us it was a really monumental moment that welcomed Indiana to the Chase Center and what we call “Ballhalla”. Because while talking with different media that week, much of what I said, Caitlin is used to traveling and having a ton or fans of nothing, and I think he will always do it, but I don’t know that it was a sea of sea. In an advantage of the homemade court they could gather together with our fans and the community in a short period of time.
I am curious about the differentiation of that audience. You worked at Angel City FC, you’ve worked at Major League Baseball, you’ve worked at the NHL, you worked at Major League Soccer. You have a leg in many different leagues. What has different W fan than those other leagues, and what is different about the Valkyries fan specifically in their market?
Well, I think that first, from the outside looking in, her son or simply assumes that a sports fan is a sports fan, right? If someone is a traditional fanatic, they will be fans of the 49ers, the giant fan, shark fan. You go to the child to go through the main sports franchises. Well, sometimes that’s true. How those fans act within those different kingdoms [is] Very different. And each league [has] Demographic data profiles that are more likely to be their fans.
So that is a science. The NHL and the major leagues of baseball are not approaching things in the same way. And I think that having experience in multiple different leagues cools the confidence of understanding and wanting to build things in a unique way, because that is real what makes each league powerful in their account. Specific for the W and specific of women’s sports, but even more widely than the W, it is the female sports fan who I think has been undervalued and alternate for a long time.
Then they are probably not in people’s databases. I cannot tell you the number of people who would come to me before we left, before we really had a brand, and simply say: “Please see me an experience of the prime minister. I want the club with cold food and the seats on the floor. I do not get an association of Asses Asse that they wanted them to serve me something like that … Traditionally I would see in the sports of men.
We understood that it really does not matter what, whether WNBA, NBA, MLS, NWSL, that you were watching a fans with tickets, of a seasonal ticket holder, less than 10% of a crossover, so why would you build you?
When I arrive at the Valkyries, I think the opportunity was so great in that construction center of Golden State, they have won some championships along the way, and know how to be really affectionate and genuinely talented talented in what they do on and off the court. I feel that I have joined the avengers in many different ways when you walk on these walls.
How is innate confidence or the state of gold and, nevertheless, is built exclusively for this audience, this young audience that is probably not closely following the NFL, the NHL and the major baseball leagues? Maybe they go to the games, maybe they know a little, maybe they chose one, but it is a really reflective audience at this time where they spend their time and money. They want to be in things that believe they are building a better tomorrow, things that believe they bring them community. They want to be close to related ideas organizations.
And I think for bay, this is a woman sports. The leg of this market waiting for something powerful to arrive. And Bay FC has obviously done a tremendous job by throwing himself right before us. But this market is also where the world seeks to see what comes next. It is innovative.
The people here do not have Neding’s mentality to see something proven before buying. In fact, they are proud to want to buy from day one and be the first and first users simply by the region of which we are part.