Level from the start: Pro sports reimagined
The 2025 WNBA season is upon us, and it's already making waves. From Caitlin Clark draining logo threes to Paige Bueckers debuting for the Dallas Wings, and the Golden State Valkyries hitting the court for the first time, pre-season coverage has been electric. For those of us who've spent years advocating for women's sports, the buzz surrounding this season isn't just exciting, it's a powerful reflection of the league's progress and promise.
Rising viewership. New sponsorships. Sold-out arenas. Long-overdue increases in minimum salaries making their way into collective bargaining agreements. These are signs that the tide is turning. But let's not mistake momentum for a final destination. The truth is, we're still playing catch-up inside systems that were never built with equity in mind.
Earlier this year, I sat on a panel during NBA All-Star Weekend titled, 'It's Not Women's Sports, It's Sports, Stupid.' I loved the sentiment of this framing. If you're into professional sports, it doesn't matter whether you're watching men or women play—the competition has the same power to captivate and inspire. It's why some of us dare to dream of a future where the label 'women's sports' is no longer needed. But while we may aspire to treat all sports equally, pretending the playing field is already level overlooks decades of systemic inequity built into the longer-running, more prominent sports structures.
Build equity into the foundation
Take the WNBA. While the league continues to break new ground, it operates within a framework borrowed from a time before it existed. Revenue sharing, salary caps, travel accommodations, facilities, and even All-Star Game bonuses—none were designed with parity in mind. Even the most groundbreaking updates to collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) represent incremental fixes within outdated architecture.
A stark example: The NBA's salary cap is orders of magnitude higher than the WNBA's, despite surging fan engagement with the women's game. These legacy constraints hamper growth, no matter how bold the vision.
But what if it didn't have to be this way?
At Parity, we work with a community of 1,100+ professional women athletes across 85 sports, from alpine skiing to American football, wheelchair basketball to windsurfing. From our broad vantage point we see what happens when emerging sports properties reimagine structures, athlete resources, and rewards to build equity into the foundation from day one.
Consider Grand Slam Track. Born from the minds of Olympians, it offers equal prize money and visibility for men and women in every meet. Or CrossFit Games, which has featured equal prize money since its earliest days. Premier Rugby Sevens goes even further, with men's and women's teams competing for the same club, their scores aggregated to decide the championship, and all athletes paid equally. Then there's TST (The Soccer Tournament), where both men's and women's brackets offer a $1 million winner-take-all prize. When the women's tournament launched, organizers didn't scale the prize down—they matched it.
These aren't just feel-good stories. They're working models.
Transparency as a baseline
Many up-and-coming leagues didn't inherit inequity; they sidestepped it. They launched with transparent pay, athlete revenue shares, integrated maternity leave policies, and athlete ownership stakes. Sponsorship and content rights are structured to empower players, not just teams. Media distribution is increasingly direct-to-consumer, giving fans deeper access and athletes greater control.
And guess what? Brands are noticing. These properties are fast becoming hidden gems of sports marketing, attracting culturally relevant sponsors and a younger, values-driven fan base hungry for authenticity.
Now imagine if all sports leagues had started this way.
Picture revenue-sharing models that prioritize athletes. Governance that centers the athlete voice. Pay transparency as a baseline. Media rights split equitably. Built-in support for mental health, parenting, and career transition. Fan experiences designed for an inclusive, digitally native audience. This isn't wishful thinking. It's a blueprint for sustainable growth.
The opportunity is clear
For brands and media companies, the opportunity is clear. The next generation of sports fans is demanding more than entertainment. They want alignment with their values. They want to invest in systems that elevate, not exclude. The organizations that recognize this shift and act now will be the ones who define the future of sports marketing.
Of course, we should celebrate the WNBA and NWSL for pushing forward. Their recent CBAs matter. And yes, tennis has made strides too, with equal prize money at Grand Slams, even as disparities persist in smaller tournaments. But we can't limit our ambitions to what can be retrofitted into the past.
The real question is: What could we create if we built it right from the start?
Let's stop thinking about women's sports as the undercard. Let's stop asking athletes to work twice as hard for half as much. Instead, let's imagine—and build—a future where equity isn't an afterthought. It's the foundation.
To the investors, brands, and media companies: The future of sports won't wait. The blueprint is here. The audience is ready. The question is, are you bold enough to build it?
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