Three friends bought the Seattle Storm in 2008 for $10 million and vowed to run it like a business. Now the team is worth $151 million
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Prosecutors aim for a September retrial of Harvey Weinstein, WNBA ticket sales are up 93% from this time last year, and the owners of the Seattle Storm run their team like a business. Have a restful weekend!
– Business of basketball. Every day, it seems, more money is pouring into women’s sports. Across soccer and basketball, billionaire owners are starting and revitalizing franchises from the New York Liberty to Gotham FC.
In Seattle, a group of WNBA owners has been doing things differently for 17 seasons. Lisa Brummel, Ginny Gilder, and Dawn Trudeau teamed up to buy the Seattle Storm in 2008 for $10 million when Seattle’s former NBA team, the SuperSonics, were moving to Oklahoma City and put the women’s team on the block. The trio weren’t billionaires, but a group of basketball fans, feminists, and executives with a passion for the Storm—and who wanted to see the team stay in Washington.
Brummel was a 25-year veteran of Microsoft, where she ran human resources; Trudeau was also a Microsoft alum. Gilder was an investor seeking more connection to a community of women in Seattle. Just this week they added the Storm’s longtime star, Sue Bird, to their ownership group.
Without endless financial resources, the original three owners came up with a strategy for running the team “like a business.” From the start, they vowed to make money—and one day sell the team for a profit. Last year, the franchise earned a league-record valuation of $151 million.
“We’ve always believed women’s sports is valuable. And we’ve always believed you should pay to watch women’s sports,” Brummel says. The owners quickly realized they wouldn’t operate the team like an NBA owner might, in which “you just assume the market is going to grow,” Brummel says. “If you came to a Storm game, you’re going to pay for your seat,” she adds. “In return, we will give you an amazing experience.”
And Seattleites love the Storm. While the team has four championships, last year it finished near the bottom of the league. And yet, it topped the WNBA in ticket sales. The owners credit Seattle’s midsize market, strong college basketball program, and the team’s past winning record.
The trio of original owners divide and conquer. “I don’t know how other teams do it,” Gilder says of solo owners. Trudeau, the original convener of the ownership group, oversees its social responsibility initiatives. Gilder liaises with the WNBA’s board of governors. Brummel, with her HR experience, leads on operations in partnership with the team’s executive leadership. Bird has said she’ll contribute her experience as a player and the perspective on the Storm’s growth and challenges she gleaned during her playing days.
As wealthy owners have come into the league, they “spend differently than we do,” Brummel says. “They have the money to do it, and they choose different investments than we might choose.”
One investment the Storm has chosen is a new $64 million practice facility, unveiled last month. The facility allows players to train, practice, eat, and socialize in one place, a big change from shuttling between gyms with limited availability. The owners have been closely involved in the facility’s development, down to picking out what silverware to buy from the restaurant supply store.
“There’s a lot to like about the billionaire investments—they’ve put a validation on all the things we’re doing, with new ideas and new ways of spending,” Brummel says. “It’s great for the league to have new ways of thinking and people who want to invest to grow.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Trying again. After Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned last week, prosecutors asked a New York court to start a retrial of the former Hollywood producer in September. Jessica Mann, an actress and one of Weinstein’s accusers, was present at the hearing and is prepared to testify again, according to her attorney. AP
– Ticket uptick. A season preview report from Stubhub shows that ticket sales for WNBA games are up 93% from this time last year. Ticket sales for Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever are 13 times higher this year; sales for the champion Las Vegas Aces are up 190%. Forbes
– Waking up the Beast. Joanna Coles is facing a newsroom divided over her trend-focused editorial strategy less than a month after joining The Daily Beast as chief creative and content officer. Coles has rankled staff with a fake job opening for a reporter to cover Jeff Bezos’s fiancé (with a $200,000 salary) and controversial story ideas related to the ongoing protests on college campuses. New York Magazine
– Fundraise malaise. Cofounders Roseanne Wincek and Renata Quintini are eyeing new investments in 20 companies after Renegade Partners, the venture capital firm they founded in 2020, raised $128 million for a second fund. The raise is $28 million larger than their first, but the cofounders say an industry-wide slowdown curtailed their fundraising. Wall Street Journal
– Changing gears. Kristen Faulkner is racking up major cycling victories in Europe after leaving a career in venture capital to chase her childhood dreams of competing in the Olympics. Faulkner, who didn’t cycle competitively until after college, left her VC job in 2021 and is a member of the EF Education First-Cannondale cycling team. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Sandra Stangl is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of Banana Republic.
ON MY RADAR
Priced out of parenthood: The women having abortions to escape the cost of childcare Cosmopolitan UK
Poppi is making soda cool again Texas Monthly
‘I will never forget any of it’: Brittney Griner is ready to talk New York Times
PARTING WORDS
“We don’t know the future chapters of our lives, and it is important to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
— Former professional soccer player Carli Lloyd describing her struggles and ultimate success with in-vitro fertilization
