Just in time for the Paris 2024 swimming competitions… 👀🏅

Episode #104 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, featuring Shana Ferguson from USA Swimming.

USA Swimming has had quite a year leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

ICYMI, the 2024 USA Olympic Trials took place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana – which is typically the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

The venue allowed for the biggest crowd in history for an indoor swim meet, and viewership across every night of the Trials averaged 3.4 million viewers on NBC, making it the most-watched Olympic Trials since 2016.

In this episode, hear Shana share valuable insights around championing gender equity, and why marketing & uplifting women’s swimming has been a golden marketing strategy.

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In episode #103 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, hear from Phil Thomson, the Chief Data Scientist at Parity.

Parity just released what could be the largest study of women’s sports fandom ever.

In partnership with SurveyMonkey, Parity polled over 14,000 global consumers to find out who’s watching women’s sports, why, and what they think of women athletes.

Their research revealed that:👇

• 📺 73% of people watch women’s sports at least a few times a year, and a higher percentage of *men* watch women’s sports more frequently than women.
• 🛒 Women’s sports fans are 2.8x more likely to purchase a product recommended by a female athlete than by another type of influencer.
• 🛍 32% of *all* women's sports fans are more likely to purchase from a brand that supports women's sports or partners with women athletes, and that number jumps to 44% for U.S. *female* fans of women's sports specifically.
• 📈 25%-33% of women’s sports fans are watching more women’s sports this year compared to last year.
• 💰 50% or more of respondents believe that brands are not investing enough in women’s sports compared to men’s sports.

In this episode, hear Phil & Caroline dig into the glass-shattering research, and hear the newest data behind why it’s good business to invest in women’s sports.

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In episode #102 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, hear Dr. Jessica Hammond-Graf & Katherine Aversano tell the story behind the formation of Women’s Elite Rugby: a new professional women’s rugby league launching in 2025.

Women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing team sports in the world, with more than 2.7 million women playing across the globe in professional leagues, at the Olympics, and at universities.

The team at WER is looking to capitalize on the growth of the sport and build a strong presence & pipeline in the U.S. ahead of the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup - which will take place in the United States for the first time in history.

In this episode, hear the story behind WER, and why women’s rugby is poised for considerable growth in the U.S.

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In episode #101 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, Caroline sits down with Megan Gokey, the Head of B2C Marketing for North America & the U.K at Klarna.

Megan’s team at Klarna recently partnered with Sports Innovation Lab to study the untapped potential of the women's sports merchandise market.

Their study, titled: Rep Her: Revealing the Unmet Demand for Women’s Sports Merchandise revealed that the potential market size is $4 billion, and that there are significant disparities when it comes to availability & quality in women’s sports merchandise compared to men’s sports.

A few of the key findings include:

• Women’s sports fans make more purchases per year than men’s sports fans -- and spend more per year on merchandise than men’s sports fans.
• For every 9 pieces of men’s sports merchandise that are available for purchase, women’s sports have just 1.
• 79% of surveyed respondents reported they would purchase more women’s sports merchandise if there were more options available to them.

In this episode, hear Megan & Caroline dig into the research and discuss why it’s bad business to neglect creating merchandise for women’s sports fans.

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Today, we are celebrating an incredible milestone at GOALS: the 100th episode of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally. 🎉

To mark the moment, we are flipping the script & putting Caroline in the guest chair to share the story of how GOALS and this podcast got started.

As a special treat, our friend Ellen Hyslop - Co-Founder of The GIST and host of The GIST of It podcast - will serve as a guest host to interview Caroline about her entrepreneurial journey.

In this episode, hear Caroline share the founding story of GOALS and 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, and hear Ellen & Caroline talk about why it’s good business to go all-in on women’s sports.

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In episode #99 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, meet Esther Wallace, the CEO & Creative Director of Playa Society.

Playa Society is a streetwear brand known for one-of-a-kind, hand-drawn women’s sports merchandise.

In 2018, Esther merged her core passions - design, fashion, and basketball - to create Playa Society.

Today, Playa Society is a leading women’s sports merchandise brand that has raised the standard for the whole industry by centering design, quality, and storytelling for female athletes + their fans.

In this episode, hear Esther tell the whole story behind the creation of Playa Society, and why she believes it’s great business to invest in women’s sports.

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In episode #98 of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, meet Grace Ahrens, the Executive Director of Women in Soccer.

Women in Soccer (WIS) is a free network that supports all women and underrepresented individuals connected to the soccer industry.

WIS is a hub of resources to help individuals find job opportunities, professional development resources, and like-minded folks in soccer.

In this episode, hear Grace & Caroline discuss why Women in Soccer exists, and how the team is working to get more women & diverse voices working in the beautiful game.

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THE US WOMEN ARE YOUR 2024 TST CHAMPIONS! 🏆

To celebrate, we have a SPECIAL episode of 🎙️The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, for you.

LIVE from this year’s TST, meet Heather O’Reilly - a former USWNT member, the Captain of the US Women’s team at TST, and one of the key leaders behind the creation of the 1st-ever Women’s TST.⚡️

TST (aka The Soccer Tournament) - is a men’s & women’s 7v7, winner-take-all, professional soccer tournament.

In 2023, Heather entered the only all-women’s team in the 1st iteration of TST - before there was specifically a women’s edition of the tournament.

Fast forward a year, and Heather & the leaders at TST worked together to establish the 1st-ever Women’s TST and bring on Ally as the Official Retail Banking partner of TST – which included sponsoring Heather O’Reilly + her TST team ‘US Women.’ (Ally Bank, Member FDIC)

Thanks to Ally’s help, the winner of the 2024 women’s bracket - which this year was the US Women! - took home $1 million – the exact same as the winning team of the men’s tournament.

In this episode, hear Heather & Caroline discuss how the Women’s TST came to be, and make the business case for investing big in women’s soccer.

This episode was recorded on-site during The Soccer Tournament in Cary, NC at WakeMed Soccer Park.

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