September 19, 2025 • 46 mins
Women’s Tennis Association CEO Portia Archer joins Sarah to discuss her first year on the job, the role players have in WTA decision-making, and understanding and advancing commitments made before her time, including a partnership with Saudi Arabia and tournaments taking place in China. Plus, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is unstoppable, a busy week for the NWSL, and women’s college hockey is BACK, baby.
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The WNBA playoff schedule is here
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The NWSL schedule can be found here
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The college hockey schedule can be found here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where I'm still
getting absolutely wrecked by jet lag from my trip to Africa.
If anyone has any hacks to get my brain and
body back on track besides sunlight and coffee and all
those things, please let me know. It's Friday, September nineteenth,
Happy Friday. Slices. On today's show, We're going to be
(00:20):
chatting with Women's Tennis Association CEO Portia Archer about her
first year on the job, the role that players have
in WTA decision making, managing a global organization, and understanding
and advancing commitments that were made before her time. Plus
Sidney McLauchlin Lavroni is unstoppable, a busy week for the NWSL,
and women's college hockey is back Baby, It's all coming
(00:43):
up right after this Welcome back. Here's what you need
to know today in WNBA playoff news, the top seeded
Minnesota Lynx became the first team to advance to the
(01:05):
w semi finals on Wednesday night, coming back from a
seventeen point third quarter deficit on the road to beat
the Golden State Valkyrie seventy five seventy four and finish
off the two games sweep. It was a hard fought
game and the Valks were in control for a majority
of it in front of a sellout crowd of eighteen thousand,
five hundred and forty three fans yep, the home court
(01:26):
Juice traveled. The game was played nearly fifty miles south
of the Chase Center at the NHL San Jose Sharks
SAP Center because of scheduling conflicts, but the Valx fans
still showed up despite their support, and a FISA collier
wouldn't be stopped. She went ten for sixteen from the
field on the night, scoring fourteen of her twenty four
points in the second half Golden State's to Chilia Zandalasini
(01:47):
had a chance to give her squad the win with
a mid range jumper at the final buzzer, but it
was just a little strong. As she sat on the
court in tears being consoled by her teammates, the fans
serenaded her and the whole organization with cheers and applause
in recognition of their incredible inaugural season. Kind of made
me emotional, actually. Congrats Tofi and the Links for moving on.
(02:09):
They'll face the winner of the four to five series
between the Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty. We're recording
this before Game three in that series on Thursday night,
so we'll get you all caught up on the action
next week. More hoops news. The awards announcements keep coming,
and we've got a first time in WNBA history moment
for Minnesota Links forward Alana Smith and Las Vegas Aces
center Asia Wilson. They've been named the co Defensive Players
(02:33):
of the Year. Smith and Wilson received twenty nine votes apiece.
It's the first KIA WNBA Defensive Player of the award
for Smith and the third for Wilson. Smith posted a
league best ninety seven point five defensive rating, helping Minnesota
finish the regular season with the top ranked defense. She
also finished second overall in combined steals in blocks, third
in blocks per game and total blocks, and tied for
(02:55):
tenth in total steals. Meantime, Wilson led the WNBA in
blocks per game, total resounds, defensive rebounds, and combined steals
and blocks. She also ranked second in total blocks and
rebounds per game, and she was third in total steals
and fourth in steals per game. More hoops. WNBA Legend
Elena Deladon is making her way back to the hardwood,
(03:15):
becoming the first ever managing director of the USA Basketball
three x three women's national team. The USA Basketball Board
of Directors unanimously approved the selection of Deleadon, a twenty
sixteen Olympic champ and twenty eighteen World champ, and announced
her selection earlier this week. Teleadan will select the team's
coaching staff and players for major international competitions including the
(03:36):
LA twenty twenty eight Olympic Games, FOBA three x three
World Cup, PHOEBA three x three Champions Cup, FOBA three
x three America Cup, and the PHOBA three x three
Pro Circuit, as well as the program's training camp participants
through twenty twenty eight. The two time WNBA MVP's journey
with USA Basketball began with a gold medal win back
in twenty eleven at the World University Games while she
(03:57):
was playing at Delaware, where she was a two time
ap All American. Since officially hanging up her sneakers at
April twenty twenty five, dell it On has served as
a special advisor to Monumental Basketball, the parent company of
the Washington Mystics, to the Track and the World Track
and Field Championships. After shattering a nineteen year old American
record in the four hundred meter during her semi final heat,
(04:19):
running forty eight twenty nine, Sidney McLaughlin Lavaroni was even
faster and winning the final on Thursday, clocking forty seven
seventy eight, good for the second fastest time in history,
behind only the world record of forty seven sixty set
way back in nineteen eighty five by Marita Coch who
represented East Germany. McLachlin Lavarni, the first person to win
(04:41):
world titles in both the four undred meter hurdles and
the four undermeter flat, and the first American woman to
run the four hundred in less than forty eight seconds,
also broke the world championship record with her time. Talk
about dominance and not too shabby for someone who started
focusing on the four hundred meters just this season because
she wanted a new ChIL ange to the NWSL. There's
(05:02):
a lot at stake headon into Week twenty one. First up,
the Kansas City Current could clinch the NWSL shield as
early as this weekend. We're recording this ahead of Thursday
nights match between the Washington Spirit and Angel City, but
if Washington wins that Kansas City can clinch the shield
with a win against Seattle on Saturday night. We'll link
to the full NWSL weekend schedule in the show notes
(05:24):
and some more footy news. The Portland Thorns announced Wednesday
that the club will retire friend of the Show and
NWSL legend Christine Sinclair's jersey during her Thorns Hall of
Fame induction ceremony. The celebration is set to take place
October fourth at Providence Park before the team's match against BFC.
Sinclair was a force over her twelve year career with Portland.
(05:45):
She's the club's all time leading goal scorer with seventy
nine goals across all NWSL competitions. She's got Portland's record
for most matches played with two hundred and thirty seven,
most games started with two hundred and fifteen, most minutes
played eighteen thousand, five one hundred and seventy nine, and
most penalty goals with ten. She also tallied nineteen assists,
(06:05):
which is third most in Thorn's history. A captain, beginning
with the club's inaugural twenty thirteen season, Sinclair led the
Thorns to three NWSL Championships in twenty thirteen, seventeen, and
twenty two, and two NWSL Shields in twenty sixteen and
twenty one, and also the twenty twenty one NWSL Challenge Cup. Wow,
(06:26):
that is a legacy. Tickets are available now if you'll
be in the area, We'll throw a link in our
show notes more NWSL. On Wednesday, the league announce the
launch of its first ever combines, which will give players
the chance to flex their skills for NWSL clubs and
sign as free agents. The three day Combines are intended
to provide a clear avenue for players to join teams
now that the NWSL no longer has a draft. The
(06:48):
Combines will happen in December, just ahead at the start
of the twenty twenty six NWSL preseason, and will be
split into two groups U eighteen through U twenty three
and You thirteen to U seventeen. Thought we were finished, Nope.
Been a busy week for the NWSL. On Thursday, the
league also announced an expansion of its media rights package. First,
the league is partnering with streaming television sports network Victory
(07:11):
Plus through the twenty twenty six to twenty seven seasons
bringing in Victory Plus will add twenty five Sunday night
broadcasts in twenty twenty six, coinciding with Boston Legacy FC
and Denver Summit FC's inaugural seasons. Also part of the
new media rights package, ABC and ESPN networks will carry
weekly regular season games and hold exclusive rights to all
(07:31):
eight Decision Day matches. You remember, that's when eight matches
are contested simultaneously to close out the season. The NWSL
also announced an expansion of its agreement with CBS Sports.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
This is all good news, but I simply must quote
Andre Carlyle aka eight thirty eight Carlisle on Blue Sky,
who had a little bit of fun with the NWSL's tagline,
just watch quote NWSL Just watch. Sometimes on ESPN, sometimes
on ESPN two, sometimes on CBS, sometimes at ABC, sometimes
on CBS Sports Nuts, sometimes on Amazon Prime, sometimes on Ion,
(08:04):
sometimes on Galazzo Network, sometimes on ESPN Plus, sometimes on
ONWSILP Plus, sometimes on Paramount Plus, and now sometimes on
Victory Plus two for some reason. Tavib's Love League one
Volleyball is also making a TV money move. Media company
versuant comcasts planned spinoff of NBCUniversal's cable channels, including things
like USA and Golf Channel, has acquired the rights to
(08:25):
Love in a multi year agreement. USA Network will exclusively
air the league's match of the week in primetime on
Wednesdays at eight pm Eastern, and will provide live primetime
coverage of the league's playoffs, including the twenty twenty six
LOVE Championship match to the Ice. Women's college hockey gets
started tonight. Three official contests kickoff the twenty twenty five
twenty twenty sixth season at six eastern. Fifth ranked Minnesota
(08:47):
Duluth visits Mercyhurst, and Minnesota State travels to Renstler Polytechnic Institute.
You can catch the latter game on ESPN Plus. Then
at seven Eastern, Number thirteen Saint Cloud State host Lindenwood,
sixth ranked Colgate, and ninth rank Saint Lawrence will also
plan an exhibition tonight. There are five more games Saturday
and one on Sunday as well. We'll link to the
full college hockey schedule in our show notes, and don't
(09:10):
forget to follow a friend at the show, Nicole Hazy
for all your women's college hockey news. We'll link to
her Blue Sky in the show notes, we got to
take a quick break. When we come back, I dig
in with fellow Chicago and Women's Tennis Association's CEO, Portie
Archer back in a jim joining us Now, she's the
(09:38):
CEO of the Women's Tennis Association aka the WTA. Previously,
she worked as COO of the mnba's development competition, the
g League. A University of Chicago and Columbia Business School graduate,
she boasts two decades of experience in the global sports
and media industries, including senior positions at NBC Sports Group, HBO,
and the BBC, a member of the Board of Trustees
(09:59):
for the Women's Sports Foundering, and an adjunct professor for Columbia.
She's probably got leather patches on her elbows right now.
It's Porsia Archer. Hi, Porsche, Hi, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Do we have any academic specific blazers with elbow patches?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Nope, I don't have any of those.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
All right, it's a real missed opportunity in my opinion.
You grew up in Chicago, That's my city. Did you
play sports growing up?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Oh? Yeah, I grew up playing all manner of sports.
My mom is a huge sports enthusiast, and I, you know,
ran track and played girls of volleyball, and did a
little bit of hoops and played hoops in college as well.
Trampoline jumping, wow, tree climbing. No very active as a kid.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think I know everything about you as a person
from hearing you say I played a little bit of
hoops and then hoops in college. Yeah, there's a very
specific kind of person that expresses that kind of humility
about something before then revealing that they continued to play
at one of the highest levels. No tennis for you, though,
So what was your connection or impression of tennis growing up?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know, I did play tennis in high school, but
it was sort of a gift because I was a
pretty good athlete in high school and I decided I
wanted to try out tennis, and I was really bad,
but I was athletic enough that they said, listen, we
(11:32):
don't want to cut you. That that would kind of
be a bad look for a varsity athlete here. But
you can't play singles. You have to play doubles to
give us a chance to at least put out a
competitive field. So I did play for one year in
(11:52):
high school, and I really sucked, but it was fun.
It was fun for me. It was definitely a challenge,
And as I said, I'm a big sports fan. I
grew up watching all kinds of sports with my mom,
and yeah, watched a lot of tennis.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
What lessons did you take from the experience I mentioned
you had with big media brands HBO, BBC, NBC, Sports
All Time? Warner Like, that's a lot of spots before
you get to the WTA. Where do you see that
applying to the work you're doing now?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You know? I think some of it is kind of
under the hood. It's in the ways that those organizations operated.
They were top shelf professional organizations that taught me a
lot about how to think, how to learn, how to collaborate,
how to set up systems and processes, how to structure problems,
(12:50):
how to navigate corporate politics. So I think that there
are a lot of lessons learned through those early experiences
in my career that play in well to my time
at the WTA. But a lot of it is just
around the way the organizations operated and the way they
(13:11):
then enable me to learn how to operate and grow
in a professional setting with pretty high standards. I would say,
so you either needed to you know, sort of upper out,
You needed to advance, you needed to perform at a
high level where you needed to find somewhere else to go.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What about the G League any major epiphanies from your
time at CEO there.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, you know, the G League was a great experience
for me personally as well as professionally. As I said,
I played hoops in college, so being a part of
a basketball league was really cool for me On a
personal level. I also used to coach girls basketball team.
(14:04):
I have two daughters, and I coached their teams as
they were growing up, and so it was just really
neat to sort of align my personal and my professional life.
I hadn't had a chance to do that in that
intimate way until I arrived at the NBA. They gave
me a lot of autonomy, Sarah, So I had the
(14:26):
ability to really affect change. Now. Part of that was
the time that I joined. I mean I joined in
twenty twenty, which was the start of the year of COVID,
and I came in at a time where we were
hurting and we needed to figure some things out. So
(14:48):
I was thrown right in. I had an opportunity I mean,
I really just figured out sort of how to get
to the bathrooms without getting lost. And then Rudy Gobert
acted the virus that we now know as COVID nineteen
and Adam asked us to go home and shelter in place,
(15:11):
and then I started working from my worldwide headquarters here
in White Plains to figure out, first of all, what
is this league that I've joined, who are the people,
how am I going to build a new team and culture,
and how are we going to restand up the league
(15:31):
because actually we're not playing right now, there are no
games happening. So it was great experience to be able
to come in and offer my thoughts and ideas, and
of course, having a background in media entertainment and really
having been on the other side of the conversation of
acquiring rights from sports leagues, I completely understood what our
(15:58):
media partners answers would be expecting and could offer some
ideas as to what we could do to restand up
our league. We started with the NBA, and I had
an opportunity to be a part of a working group
(16:19):
that looked at, you know, where will we play and
what are the standards and what will be the format,
and how will we try to keep people safe in
this environment. We've got to get COVID tests in and
we've got to have a relationship with a COVID test
provider and a healthcare company and physicians.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And all the things you did not imagine would be
part of your job no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah I would have.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
But you learned how to be algail in those moments,
and absolutely you then probably don't fear almost anything that
might be coming down the pike because you know, you
handled the thing that was a literal worldwide pandemic.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So yeah, I would have told you before joining the NBA,
And I'm sure I said this, you know as a
part of my process that I am comfortable with disruption
and that I know how to manage change. Joining at
that particular time and having to navigate unprecedented change like that,
(17:23):
I don't think I could have accurately said what I
said before until after having had the experience.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Now I can say it, And now you really get
what disruption looks like.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So now you're in the just focused exclusively on women's sports.
What stands out you or maybe surprises you in this
little over a year that you've worked with the WTA
focusing just on women's sport.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, you know, it's it's a real privilege, Sarah, for
me to be a part of the WTA family. When
this opportunity came along, I kind of, you know, metaphorically
kind of pinched myself because an opportunity. I've always been
(18:10):
a champion and an advocate of women's sports and women's
athletes as you as you've noted in my introduction, I'm
on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation, and so
lifting up and championing and advocating for women through sport
is just sort of a part of how I've lived
(18:32):
my life. So being at the WTA and having an
opportunity to sort of continue in the vein of Billy
Jean King and you know, the other sort of original
eight that make up the original nine founders of the
(18:52):
precursor to the w t A is just it's extraordinary.
It's it's just so neat to be kind of a
part of extending their efforts, you know, extending their legacy.
I hope to some extent and to be able to
champion women in tennis, which is really, by a pretty
(19:18):
big margin, the leader in women's sports in terms of
the reach. Where a global organization, which I intellectually understood,
but after this last year, I've been with the WTA
a little over a year, and after this first trip
around the Sun, I mean we are global, Unlike really
(19:41):
any other sports league men or women that I can
think of were compare us to.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It's like the Olympics, but throughout a whole year, not
just every other four years ago. It's incredible, and it's
also a massive leader in terms of pay and player benefits.
We have long talked about tennis being on the forefront
of equal pay. WTA players receive the highest earnings in
women's sport, the biggest events post equal pay, but there
(20:08):
are certain tournaments that have larger purses for the men.
Is there a plan in place to try to get
all tournaments across professional tennis to be equal across the board.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah, we have a plan, Sarah, that's in place such
that over the next ultimately it'll take about ten years,
and we're a couple of years into that journey to
have equal pay across all of our top tier events,
(20:36):
which we think about is our one thousand level and
five hundred level events. And there for the listening audience
who may not be familiar. They're name that way because
of the ranking points that they provide should you win
the tournament. So, our one thousand level and five hundred
level tournaments, we have a plan in place to achieve
(20:58):
equal prize money by twenty thirty three at the latest.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And then the wtaatp Ones I believe you said you
were hoping to have equal prize money by twenty twenty seven, right, yeah, for.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Many of them by twenty twenty seven, and then there's
another trench that'll come on board by twenty thirty one,
and then the balance will be twenty thirty three. And
that's just the plan. I mean, that can certainly be accelerated.
And we do have tournaments who have raised their hands
say we're going to go in a little bit early.
(21:34):
We know what the timetable is, we know what the
plan is, but we see the value. We're ready to
make the investment a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You mentioned the kind of worldwide nature of the sport.
Earlier this year, the WTA actually unveiled a new brand
identity called Rally the World through Tennis. What inspired that
new brand approach and how is it sort of rolled
out so far.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, there was a lot of work that went into
the rebrand effort. It was a lot more than just
a new logo and sort of flashy new colors, although
those things are important, it was really uncovering the sort
of essence and ethos of the brand. And there were
(22:23):
conversations with some of the founders, like Billy Jean King
in particular, and we kind of wanted to find out,
you know, how precious she was about the brand and
the colors. At that time, it had the logo that
included an image of a women's tennis player, and she said,
(22:48):
break it. I'm not married to it. It sort of
served its purpose at that time, and you know, break it.
Go do something new, create something, create something better. And
so we thought that, you know, we always have to
announce ourselves women's sports, and we have to have women
(23:10):
in the title, and then we double that down by
having a picture of a woman in the logo. And
we said, you know, we're really aspiring to be a
global entertainment superbrand. So when you think about some of
those other global brands with three letters, you could think
about CNN, or you can think about HBO from my
(23:33):
former time Warner Family and they don't have another name
or a duplicate name in front of it or behind it,
or a picture of something in the logo. So we
took a page from the books of those brands and
thinking about who we are and also who we want
to be in the future, and we were really able
(23:54):
to lean into this campaign and tagline around Rally the World.
It's a play on the game of tennis, you have rallies,
but it's also a play on our history and what
we aspire to do moving forward. We really are created
for by women, and we're about championing women for efforts
(24:21):
on and off the court all around the world. So
if we can through sport, through tennis in this case,
Rally the World and help others inspire others to achieve
the goals that they may have to be a winner
on whatever field or court or profession that they may
(24:41):
be a part of, then we've done something you know
well worth it. So we try to use the brand
and the legacy to incorporate that concept and also not
just make it a look back, make it sort of yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And if you learned anything from HBO, you can always
change it and then change it again, and then change
it back and then change it again. Yes, some pretty
big initiatives from the WTA this year in addition to
the brand stuff, including allowing players to protect their rankings
when they take time away for fertility treatment, which is huge,
so that if you do have a ranking and you
(25:20):
want to take time for embryo freezing or egg retrieval,
you can come back and have that protected ranking, which
we love. Another big one is the maternity Fund. Can
you tell us about that one.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, So both of those are part of what we
call our family focus programs, and the PIF Maternity Fund
is geared toward WTA athletes who are either the childbearer
herself or becoming a parent. And maybe she's not the childbear,
(25:52):
maybe her partner is, or maybe she is adopting, And
so when our as are ready to start their families,
this fund is available for them so that they can
receive compensation for up to twelve months in the case
of them being the childbearer the pregnant woman in the
(26:13):
case of becoming a parent through other means, they have
two months of maternity lead payment. So it is really phenomenal.
Sarah and I love talking about it because it truly
is one of one. There is no other benefit available
(26:34):
for women in sports. There's no other benefit like this
available for women in sports who are self employed independent contractors.
And I may be reaching here, Sarah, but I'm not
even sure across all of independent contractors, whatever industry, sport,
(26:54):
or otherwise, that there is a program like this. It
is really one for one. And I have to give
a bit of a shout out to our partners at PIF.
They came along the journey with us all in that
was never a hesitation on their side. Our players have
(27:15):
been advocating for something like this for years and they
were really influential in shaping the policy, helping us understand
how much time off, helping us understand the preservation of
the rankings that you talked about having that special entry
ranking that's a part of the Family Focused program. So
(27:38):
all of this is player led and it really is
kind of its groundbreaking. There are no other parallels that
I'm aware of in sport and potentially even outside of
sport for independent contractors.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
You mentioned PIF that for folks who don't know, is
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. In addition to your work
with them on the Family Focused stuff. You've also committed
to three years of finals in Saudi Arabia twenty twenty
four to twenty twenty six. Now, some have criticized any
involvement with that country and with its public investment fund
at all. Others believe the only way to help get
(28:15):
rid of the human rights violations and the bigoted policies
is via external pressure that increases with partnerships and a
bigger spotlight that arrives when you have things like major
events there. How have you made decisions around working with them,
and how do you feel because those decisions, some of
them potentially made before you arrived. How have you been
(28:36):
able to lead through the decision to work with the PIF.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, so, PIF is our partner. They are engaged with
us on the maternity fund, as I mentioned. They're also
the sponsor of our ranking system. It's called the PIF
WTA Rankings. We have some involvement with them as partners
(29:01):
for our finals because they're based in Saudi Arabia. Our
partnership in Saudi Arabia for our finals is with the
Saudi Tennis Federation and the Ministry of Sport, and that decision,
as you noted, was made before I joined, but I
was well aware of the decision and needed to decide
(29:22):
for myself if it was something that I was comfortable
with and could support before joining, and the exercise that
I went through, Sarah, if you bear with me. So,
I didn't know, honestly, very much about Saudi Arabia apart from,
you know, things that I had read intermittently in the news,
(29:42):
and pretty much all of it was negative. So when
I learned about the finals being there and I was
going through my process, I thought, wait a minute, I
got to make sure I'm okay with this. This sort
of line up with my values, and I have to
to as I mentioned, and they're they're teenagers, and I
(30:04):
went to them, I said, look, I'm interested in this
role and you know, the finals are here, and they said,
what Saudi Arabia, Mom? Are you kidding? How could you
do something like that? Have you heard about their track record?
Their human rights track record indexes like one hundred out
of one hundred and out of one hundred or so,
(30:27):
you know, Like they gave me some of the data
and the statistics that they that they had, and I said,
I know, I need your help. I don't think we
know the full story. So I want to go on
this journey to learn more and I want to come
out on the end of it with the decision one
way or the other. And I need your help. And
they said fine. And they have their sources of information.
(30:48):
I have my sources of information. They don't often overlap.
But we came back together over probably six or seven
days at the at the dinner table. Was also my
employ to get them to the dinner table with me,
but they came and they we would start talking and
what we both learned is that yes, Saudi Arabia definitely
(31:12):
has a long way to go, but they've made a
lot of progress in the last five years and they
have this twenty Project twenty thirty initiative that one of
the tenets of it is all around women's empowerment and advancement. Now,
(31:36):
that doesn't take away the sort of human rights record,
and that doesn't mean that there isn't a long way
to go. But I saw it as an opportunity. I
saw it as an opportunity to affect change. And I
think personally, when I'm engaged in sort of opportunities for change,
(32:00):
social change in this case, you know there are a
couple of ways, at least that you can go about it.
One way is to sort of pressure and maybe agitate
and try to influence and resist, and usually that's done
from the outside. The other way is to collaborate and partner,
(32:21):
and both of those ways are valid. And I have
a lot of respect for the WTA for deciding for
itself how it wants to fight in this battle to
advance women in all parts of the world. I think
that they deserve and we deserve now to make our
(32:43):
own choice about that, and so I came out of
that conversation and process with my daughters feeling very comfortable
with the decision. I also learned about the process that
the WTA went through to involve the players. The players
had to be one supportive and they were. The players
(33:05):
visited Saudi Arabia. I saw the feedback and the reports
and a little bit of the video from their visits
to Saudi Arabia to really kick the tires for themselves
and to understand what they were getting into. One of
the things they said is that we don't just want
to go there and play tennis, and so from that
(33:25):
we made a commitment to not just be there for
the eight days of our finals, but to really engage
in community development, to do not just clinics, but to
do workforce training, to help develop women in Saudi Arabia
and in the region in sports, in sports administration. So
(33:46):
they got access to physios and our physios are wonderful.
They got access to professionals like myself and my counterpart
at our commercial entity, WTA Ventures, both of are women.
So we went to various universities, various schools. We engaged
(34:06):
about thirty three thousand young people Sarah over the course
of the year that we were in Saudi Arabia in
the lead up to our finals. So I think all
in all, the investment and the willingness from the Saudi
Tennis Federation and the Ministry of Sport to invest at
(34:27):
a high level. Last year, the winner of our finals
received four point eight million dollars at that time, that
was the highest perse available in women's tennis. The US
Open recognized that and they upped the ante this year
to five million, but at that time it was the top.
(34:48):
We're going to try to figure out how to get
back to the top this year. But they invested in
delivering a high quality product. They invested in the value
of women's tennis and the highest perse at that yeah,
in women's tennis, and they invested in making an impact
and making change.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So that's the part that I think is the is
what stands out to me because I think for me,
my cynical point of view is that sportwa washing can
only occur when the investment is big enough that people
are drawn enough to it that they're willing to overlook
the problems that have existed, whether or not they've done
the work to understand whether more change will occur because
of that partnership. But it's the follow up. It's the
(35:27):
investment in the change that's occurring daily. And some people
that I very much respect have talked to me and
shared their opinions of how getting involved in that place
is more likely to create change than continuing to ban
and prohibit partnership until they change, and so I'm respecting
their much more informed opinions than mine on that. But
(35:47):
it is a very difficult job you have because you
are operating this worldwide venture from your perspective and the
perspective of the US, which means that sometimes you know,
these decisions have to be made for athletes around the
world that impact folks from places you've never been to,
you've never seen. You know, there's another sort of bigger
decision that was made before you got there, the decision
(36:10):
to return to China. The organization had boycotted holding events
in that country after Pung Shwi had accused of vice
premiere in China's government of sexual assault. Then she disappeared
from public view. That boycott lasted eighteen months. The WTA
announced in twenty twenty three that it would return to China.
And I wonder if you have any updates on Pung,
like do we know anything about her whereabouts and what
(36:34):
ended up becoming of that whole situation over there.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I don't know about her specific situation. I have visited
China over the last year. I wanted an opportunity to
get closer to the product. And also we were returning
after some time to places like Wuhan, for example, and
(37:00):
so I wanted to be there see it, feel it,
touch it for myself. I had meetings with, you know,
various officials there to sort of understand how they were
thinking about the future of tennis in China. There were
some player relations matters that we sort of talked about.
(37:22):
They also have a top player and Olympic gold medalists
in China right now, and Queen Win herself, so I
think things are on the right track. I don't honestly know, Sarah,
the details of what happened. I obviously know that the
w t A left and that the finals which were
(37:45):
supposed to be contested there were moved elsewhere as a
result of that departure. But I think from my vantage
point at least in visiting over the last year and
having a chance to talk to officials there, to the
Chinese Tennis Association and to players in the region not
(38:05):
just when I was in the region, but throughout the
year where maybe they can feel a little more comfortable
sharing their views, I feel comfortable that we're on the
right on the right track.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
You mentioned in both cases talking to the players. It's
really interesting because in the WTA, they are independent contractors, right,
They're not employees represented by a union. So given that distinction,
what's the process sort of for the WTA in talking
to athletes, getting their feedback and making sure that as
a unit moving forward, there is a deep connection between
the players themselves and the folks making decisions on their
(38:39):
behalf at the highest levels.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, our governance is really unique. It's one of the
differences with the WTA versus other uh, you know, team
oriented sports. The players have a direct, influential and equal
(39:02):
seat in the boardroom. So player board representatives are elected
by what's what's called a player's council. The players council
members are elected by the players, and they're in our
boardroom meetings. They're advocating for the things that make sense
(39:23):
and that matter. They represent the player's voice. They have
a vote on every major decision that we make at
the board level. So when we talk about the Women's
Tennis Association, it really is the players. It's theirs, it's
(39:43):
their association. There's certainly representation, equal representation and influence from
the tournament communities that are part of the membership of
the WTA, but the players are right there. So the
relationship and the involvement is very tight with with with
with WTA management and they are a full and equal
(40:08):
partner in all of the decision making, whether I like
it or not.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Sarah, benevolent dictator you are. The tour continues with the
Asian swing of the schedule coming up next China, Japan,
South Korea, and then the season wraps in November with
the Finals, the pinnacle of the sport and the final
big competition for all these athletes. What are you most
looking forward to over this final stretch?
Speaker 2 (40:34):
You know, the race is on. I don't know. You know,
there's such depths in women's tennis. You really don't know
who's gonna win week to week. Everybody who's entered has
a shot at winning. I mean, obviously with probability, some
have a better shot than others, but you don't know
(40:56):
what the outcome is going to be for any time.
I think we'll see that in Asia coming up. I
couldn't tell you who's going to win the Beijing Open.
It's certainly, you know, the odds on favorite, maybe who
won last year, but I don't know. I mean, anybody
could show up and show out and take that trophy.
(41:18):
So I'm looking forward to seeing how the next several
weeks shape up, and then what that leads to in
terms of the race to our finals, because our finals
has the top eight singles players in the world, and
you know your rankings. Over these next several weeks, there
(41:39):
are two one thousand level events, and as I mentioned
that one thousand means that's the number of points you
get in the event that you're you're a winner, So
there are a lot of points. There's a lot at
stake and a lot up for grabs. So some of
the players who are ten or eleven sort of on
that bubble, they have an opportunity to move up into
(42:02):
one of those eight spots. We've got a couple of
players who've already secured their space in the finals and
in the race Arena Sablanca, IGOs Fiantek, but other than that,
it's pretty wide open. So I'm looking forward to seeing
what's going to happen and who I'm going to have
(42:22):
an opportunity to greet in Ria later this year.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, you mentioned after those top couple players Arena in particular,
who's in the eleven thousands of points. Then you get
down to sevens, fives, and a whole bunch of folks
in the fours. From five down to to nine as
we're speaking right now, is all players in the four
thousand something points. So you get a thousand points here,
(42:48):
a thousand points there, and all of a sudden you're
in a completely different spot in that top ten. So
really fun to watch. We've been loving watching all the
tennis this year at the US Opening everywhere else around
the world. So thanks so much, Prsure for the time
and giving us some backstory and all the big things
the WTA is up to.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Thanks Sarah, it's my pleasure. Good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
We got to take another break. When we come back.
You always remember your.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
First Welcome back, Slices.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
We love that you're listening, but we always want to
get you in the game every day too, So here's
our good game play of the day. All the WTA
events on US soil are done for the twenty twenty
five season, but if you're in Asia, get thee to
a match. No matter where you are, if you ever
have the chance, go to a tournament. Watching tennis on
television is a blast, but in person it's even better.
(43:47):
Remember how much I gushed about the US Open and
the Billy Jean King Cup. I want those experiences for you, Slices.
I want those honey deuces for you, Slices. Yeah, I'm
still on those. It's a honey deuce seas until the
fall weather hits. Another play of the day news shout
out to Slice. Alexa Lewis who responded to yesterday's interview
with celeb stylis Amadi Brooks by sharing one of her
(44:08):
favorite fits of the year, and frankly, it's already the
frontrunner for the Slice Awards, folks, Alexa writes, quote, my
nominee for best fit is the pay us what You
Owe Us shirts Iconic, emotional, inspirational, award worthy. Good call, Alexa.
Those shirts that were rocked by the w players before
the All Star Game and a different version from breaking
(44:28):
Tea that the NWSL players wore in solidarity. Pretty baller.
We always love to hear from you. To hit us
up on email. Good game at Wondermedia Network dot com
or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
oh four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe rate
and review slices. It's easy. Watch The Valkyrie's inaugural season
(44:49):
rating forty six out of forty six games to be
proud of. Review got to give a shout out to
Jess Smith, Ohema Nihanen, Natalie Nicasse, Kimberly Veal, and everyone
else responsible for putting together one hell of a first
season in the Bay. You only get one shot at
your debut season and y'all did not miss you have
set a very high standard for Toronto, Portland, Cleveland, Philly
(45:12):
and Detroit as they prep to make their debuts in
the coming years. The long standing ovation that the Valkyries
Faithful gave their squad on Wednesday Night, despite the losing effort,
was truly a testament to the community that the team
is created in just one summer. So our hat's off
to you and our vs. Up two. Now it's your
turn slices, rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you
(45:33):
next week. Good Game, Porsche, Good Game, Sydney McLauchlin, LIVRONI Few,
literally everything right now, like what The actual? Good Game
with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(45:55):
get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers
are alex Asie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer. Our
editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch and Gianna Palmer.
Our associate producer is Lucy Jones. Production assistance from Avery
(46:15):
Loftus and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain.
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where I'm still
getting absolutely wrecked by jet lag from my trip to Africa.
If anyone has any hacks to get my brain and
body back on track besides sunlight and coffee and all
those things, please let me know. It's Friday, September nineteenth,
Happy Friday. Slices. On today's show, We're going to be
(00:20):
chatting with Women's Tennis Association CEO Portia Archer about her
first year on the job, the role that players have
in WTA decision making, managing a global organization, and understanding
and advancing commitments that were made before her time. Plus
Sidney McLauchlin Lavroni is unstoppable, a busy week for the NWSL,
and women's college hockey is back Baby, It's all coming
(00:43):
up right after this Welcome back. Here's what you need
to know today in WNBA playoff news, the top seeded
Minnesota Lynx became the first team to advance to the
(01:05):
w semi finals on Wednesday night, coming back from a
seventeen point third quarter deficit on the road to beat
the Golden State Valkyrie seventy five seventy four and finish
off the two games sweep. It was a hard fought
game and the Valks were in control for a majority
of it in front of a sellout crowd of eighteen thousand,
five hundred and forty three fans yep, the home court
(01:26):
Juice traveled. The game was played nearly fifty miles south
of the Chase Center at the NHL San Jose Sharks
SAP Center because of scheduling conflicts, but the Valx fans
still showed up despite their support, and a FISA collier
wouldn't be stopped. She went ten for sixteen from the
field on the night, scoring fourteen of her twenty four
points in the second half Golden State's to Chilia Zandalasini
(01:47):
had a chance to give her squad the win with
a mid range jumper at the final buzzer, but it
was just a little strong. As she sat on the
court in tears being consoled by her teammates, the fans
serenaded her and the whole organization with cheers and applause
in recognition of their incredible inaugural season. Kind of made
me emotional, actually. Congrats Tofi and the Links for moving on.
(02:09):
They'll face the winner of the four to five series
between the Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty. We're recording
this before Game three in that series on Thursday night,
so we'll get you all caught up on the action
next week. More hoops news. The awards announcements keep coming,
and we've got a first time in WNBA history moment
for Minnesota Links forward Alana Smith and Las Vegas Aces
center Asia Wilson. They've been named the co Defensive Players
(02:33):
of the Year. Smith and Wilson received twenty nine votes apiece.
It's the first KIA WNBA Defensive Player of the award
for Smith and the third for Wilson. Smith posted a
league best ninety seven point five defensive rating, helping Minnesota
finish the regular season with the top ranked defense. She
also finished second overall in combined steals in blocks, third
in blocks per game and total blocks, and tied for
(02:55):
tenth in total steals. Meantime, Wilson led the WNBA in
blocks per game, total resounds, defensive rebounds, and combined steals
and blocks. She also ranked second in total blocks and
rebounds per game, and she was third in total steals
and fourth in steals per game. More hoops. WNBA Legend
Elena Deladon is making her way back to the hardwood,
(03:15):
becoming the first ever managing director of the USA Basketball
three x three women's national team. The USA Basketball Board
of Directors unanimously approved the selection of Deleadon, a twenty
sixteen Olympic champ and twenty eighteen World champ, and announced
her selection earlier this week. Teleadan will select the team's
coaching staff and players for major international competitions including the
(03:36):
LA twenty twenty eight Olympic Games, FOBA three x three
World Cup, PHOEBA three x three Champions Cup, FOBA three
x three America Cup, and the PHOBA three x three
Pro Circuit, as well as the program's training camp participants
through twenty twenty eight. The two time WNBA MVP's journey
with USA Basketball began with a gold medal win back
in twenty eleven at the World University Games while she
(03:57):
was playing at Delaware, where she was a two time
ap All American. Since officially hanging up her sneakers at
April twenty twenty five, dell it On has served as
a special advisor to Monumental Basketball, the parent company of
the Washington Mystics, to the Track and the World Track
and Field Championships. After shattering a nineteen year old American
record in the four hundred meter during her semi final heat,
(04:19):
running forty eight twenty nine, Sidney McLaughlin Lavaroni was even
faster and winning the final on Thursday, clocking forty seven
seventy eight, good for the second fastest time in history,
behind only the world record of forty seven sixty set
way back in nineteen eighty five by Marita Coch who
represented East Germany. McLachlin Lavarni, the first person to win
(04:41):
world titles in both the four undred meter hurdles and
the four undermeter flat, and the first American woman to
run the four hundred in less than forty eight seconds,
also broke the world championship record with her time. Talk
about dominance and not too shabby for someone who started
focusing on the four hundred meters just this season because
she wanted a new ChIL ange to the NWSL. There's
(05:02):
a lot at stake headon into Week twenty one. First up,
the Kansas City Current could clinch the NWSL shield as
early as this weekend. We're recording this ahead of Thursday
nights match between the Washington Spirit and Angel City, but
if Washington wins that Kansas City can clinch the shield
with a win against Seattle on Saturday night. We'll link
to the full NWSL weekend schedule in the show notes
(05:24):
and some more footy news. The Portland Thorns announced Wednesday
that the club will retire friend of the Show and
NWSL legend Christine Sinclair's jersey during her Thorns Hall of
Fame induction ceremony. The celebration is set to take place
October fourth at Providence Park before the team's match against BFC.
Sinclair was a force over her twelve year career with Portland.
(05:45):
She's the club's all time leading goal scorer with seventy
nine goals across all NWSL competitions. She's got Portland's record
for most matches played with two hundred and thirty seven,
most games started with two hundred and fifteen, most minutes
played eighteen thousand, five one hundred and seventy nine, and
most penalty goals with ten. She also tallied nineteen assists,
(06:05):
which is third most in Thorn's history. A captain, beginning
with the club's inaugural twenty thirteen season, Sinclair led the
Thorns to three NWSL Championships in twenty thirteen, seventeen, and
twenty two, and two NWSL Shields in twenty sixteen and
twenty one, and also the twenty twenty one NWSL Challenge Cup. Wow,
(06:26):
that is a legacy. Tickets are available now if you'll
be in the area, We'll throw a link in our
show notes more NWSL. On Wednesday, the league announce the
launch of its first ever combines, which will give players
the chance to flex their skills for NWSL clubs and
sign as free agents. The three day Combines are intended
to provide a clear avenue for players to join teams
now that the NWSL no longer has a draft. The
(06:48):
Combines will happen in December, just ahead at the start
of the twenty twenty six NWSL preseason, and will be
split into two groups U eighteen through U twenty three
and You thirteen to U seventeen. Thought we were finished, Nope.
Been a busy week for the NWSL. On Thursday, the
league also announced an expansion of its media rights package. First,
the league is partnering with streaming television sports network Victory
(07:11):
Plus through the twenty twenty six to twenty seven seasons
bringing in Victory Plus will add twenty five Sunday night
broadcasts in twenty twenty six, coinciding with Boston Legacy FC
and Denver Summit FC's inaugural seasons. Also part of the
new media rights package, ABC and ESPN networks will carry
weekly regular season games and hold exclusive rights to all
(07:31):
eight Decision Day matches. You remember, that's when eight matches
are contested simultaneously to close out the season. The NWSL
also announced an expansion of its agreement with CBS Sports.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
This is all good news, but I simply must quote
Andre Carlyle aka eight thirty eight Carlisle on Blue Sky,
who had a little bit of fun with the NWSL's tagline,
just watch quote NWSL Just watch. Sometimes on ESPN, sometimes
on ESPN two, sometimes on CBS, sometimes at ABC, sometimes
on CBS Sports Nuts, sometimes on Amazon Prime, sometimes on Ion,
(08:04):
sometimes on Galazzo Network, sometimes on ESPN Plus, sometimes on
ONWSILP Plus, sometimes on Paramount Plus, and now sometimes on
Victory Plus two for some reason. Tavib's Love League one
Volleyball is also making a TV money move. Media company
versuant comcasts planned spinoff of NBCUniversal's cable channels, including things
like USA and Golf Channel, has acquired the rights to
(08:25):
Love in a multi year agreement. USA Network will exclusively
air the league's match of the week in primetime on
Wednesdays at eight pm Eastern, and will provide live primetime
coverage of the league's playoffs, including the twenty twenty six
LOVE Championship match to the Ice. Women's college hockey gets
started tonight. Three official contests kickoff the twenty twenty five
twenty twenty sixth season at six eastern. Fifth ranked Minnesota
(08:47):
Duluth visits Mercyhurst, and Minnesota State travels to Renstler Polytechnic Institute.
You can catch the latter game on ESPN Plus. Then
at seven Eastern, Number thirteen Saint Cloud State host Lindenwood,
sixth ranked Colgate, and ninth rank Saint Lawrence will also
plan an exhibition tonight. There are five more games Saturday
and one on Sunday as well. We'll link to the
full college hockey schedule in our show notes, and don't
(09:10):
forget to follow a friend at the show, Nicole Hazy
for all your women's college hockey news. We'll link to
her Blue Sky in the show notes, we got to
take a quick break. When we come back, I dig
in with fellow Chicago and Women's Tennis Association's CEO, Portie
Archer back in a jim joining us Now, she's the
(09:38):
CEO of the Women's Tennis Association aka the WTA. Previously,
she worked as COO of the mnba's development competition, the
g League. A University of Chicago and Columbia Business School graduate,
she boasts two decades of experience in the global sports
and media industries, including senior positions at NBC Sports Group, HBO,
and the BBC, a member of the Board of Trustees
(09:59):
for the Women's Sports Foundering, and an adjunct professor for Columbia.
She's probably got leather patches on her elbows right now.
It's Porsia Archer. Hi, Porsche, Hi, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Do we have any academic specific blazers with elbow patches?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Nope, I don't have any of those.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
All right, it's a real missed opportunity in my opinion.
You grew up in Chicago, That's my city. Did you
play sports growing up?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Oh? Yeah, I grew up playing all manner of sports.
My mom is a huge sports enthusiast, and I, you know,
ran track and played girls of volleyball, and did a
little bit of hoops and played hoops in college as well.
Trampoline jumping, wow, tree climbing. No very active as a kid.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think I know everything about you as a person
from hearing you say I played a little bit of
hoops and then hoops in college. Yeah, there's a very
specific kind of person that expresses that kind of humility
about something before then revealing that they continued to play
at one of the highest levels. No tennis for you, though,
So what was your connection or impression of tennis growing up?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know, I did play tennis in high school, but
it was sort of a gift because I was a
pretty good athlete in high school and I decided I
wanted to try out tennis, and I was really bad,
but I was athletic enough that they said, listen, we
(11:32):
don't want to cut you. That that would kind of
be a bad look for a varsity athlete here. But
you can't play singles. You have to play doubles to
give us a chance to at least put out a
competitive field. So I did play for one year in
(11:52):
high school, and I really sucked, but it was fun.
It was fun for me. It was definitely a challenge,
And as I said, I'm a big sports fan. I
grew up watching all kinds of sports with my mom,
and yeah, watched a lot of tennis.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
What lessons did you take from the experience I mentioned
you had with big media brands HBO, BBC, NBC, Sports
All Time? Warner Like, that's a lot of spots before
you get to the WTA. Where do you see that
applying to the work you're doing now?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You know? I think some of it is kind of
under the hood. It's in the ways that those organizations operated.
They were top shelf professional organizations that taught me a
lot about how to think, how to learn, how to collaborate,
how to set up systems and processes, how to structure problems,
(12:50):
how to navigate corporate politics. So I think that there
are a lot of lessons learned through those early experiences
in my career that play in well to my time
at the WTA. But a lot of it is just
around the way the organizations operated and the way they
(13:11):
then enable me to learn how to operate and grow
in a professional setting with pretty high standards. I would say,
so you either needed to you know, sort of upper out,
You needed to advance, you needed to perform at a
high level where you needed to find somewhere else to go.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What about the G League any major epiphanies from your
time at CEO there.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, you know, the G League was a great experience
for me personally as well as professionally. As I said,
I played hoops in college, so being a part of
a basketball league was really cool for me On a
personal level. I also used to coach girls basketball team.
(14:04):
I have two daughters, and I coached their teams as
they were growing up, and so it was just really
neat to sort of align my personal and my professional life.
I hadn't had a chance to do that in that
intimate way until I arrived at the NBA. They gave
me a lot of autonomy, Sarah, So I had the
(14:26):
ability to really affect change. Now. Part of that was
the time that I joined. I mean I joined in
twenty twenty, which was the start of the year of COVID,
and I came in at a time where we were
hurting and we needed to figure some things out. So
(14:48):
I was thrown right in. I had an opportunity I mean,
I really just figured out sort of how to get
to the bathrooms without getting lost. And then Rudy Gobert
acted the virus that we now know as COVID nineteen
and Adam asked us to go home and shelter in place,
(15:11):
and then I started working from my worldwide headquarters here
in White Plains to figure out, first of all, what
is this league that I've joined, who are the people,
how am I going to build a new team and culture,
and how are we going to restand up the league
(15:31):
because actually we're not playing right now, there are no
games happening. So it was great experience to be able
to come in and offer my thoughts and ideas, and
of course, having a background in media entertainment and really
having been on the other side of the conversation of
acquiring rights from sports leagues, I completely understood what our
(15:58):
media partners answers would be expecting and could offer some
ideas as to what we could do to restand up
our league. We started with the NBA, and I had
an opportunity to be a part of a working group
(16:19):
that looked at, you know, where will we play and
what are the standards and what will be the format,
and how will we try to keep people safe in
this environment. We've got to get COVID tests in and
we've got to have a relationship with a COVID test
provider and a healthcare company and physicians.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And all the things you did not imagine would be
part of your job no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah I would have.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
But you learned how to be algail in those moments,
and absolutely you then probably don't fear almost anything that
might be coming down the pike because you know, you
handled the thing that was a literal worldwide pandemic.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So yeah, I would have told you before joining the NBA,
And I'm sure I said this, you know as a
part of my process that I am comfortable with disruption
and that I know how to manage change. Joining at
that particular time and having to navigate unprecedented change like that,
(17:23):
I don't think I could have accurately said what I
said before until after having had the experience.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Now I can say it, And now you really get
what disruption looks like.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So now you're in the just focused exclusively on women's sports.
What stands out you or maybe surprises you in this
little over a year that you've worked with the WTA
focusing just on women's sport.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, you know, it's it's a real privilege, Sarah, for
me to be a part of the WTA family. When
this opportunity came along, I kind of, you know, metaphorically
kind of pinched myself because an opportunity. I've always been
(18:10):
a champion and an advocate of women's sports and women's
athletes as you as you've noted in my introduction, I'm
on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation, and so
lifting up and championing and advocating for women through sport
is just sort of a part of how I've lived
(18:32):
my life. So being at the WTA and having an
opportunity to sort of continue in the vein of Billy
Jean King and you know, the other sort of original
eight that make up the original nine founders of the
(18:52):
precursor to the w t A is just it's extraordinary.
It's it's just so neat to be kind of a
part of extending their efforts, you know, extending their legacy.
I hope to some extent and to be able to
champion women in tennis, which is really, by a pretty
(19:18):
big margin, the leader in women's sports in terms of
the reach. Where a global organization, which I intellectually understood,
but after this last year, I've been with the WTA
a little over a year, and after this first trip
around the Sun, I mean we are global, Unlike really
(19:41):
any other sports league men or women that I can
think of were compare us to.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It's like the Olympics, but throughout a whole year, not
just every other four years ago. It's incredible, and it's
also a massive leader in terms of pay and player benefits.
We have long talked about tennis being on the forefront
of equal pay. WTA players receive the highest earnings in
women's sport, the biggest events post equal pay, but there
(20:08):
are certain tournaments that have larger purses for the men.
Is there a plan in place to try to get
all tournaments across professional tennis to be equal across the board.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah, we have a plan, Sarah, that's in place such
that over the next ultimately it'll take about ten years,
and we're a couple of years into that journey to
have equal pay across all of our top tier events,
(20:36):
which we think about is our one thousand level and
five hundred level events. And there for the listening audience
who may not be familiar. They're name that way because
of the ranking points that they provide should you win
the tournament. So, our one thousand level and five hundred
level tournaments, we have a plan in place to achieve
(20:58):
equal prize money by twenty thirty three at the latest.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And then the wtaatp Ones I believe you said you
were hoping to have equal prize money by twenty twenty seven, right, yeah, for.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Many of them by twenty twenty seven, and then there's
another trench that'll come on board by twenty thirty one,
and then the balance will be twenty thirty three. And
that's just the plan. I mean, that can certainly be accelerated.
And we do have tournaments who have raised their hands
say we're going to go in a little bit early.
(21:34):
We know what the timetable is, we know what the
plan is, but we see the value. We're ready to
make the investment a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You mentioned the kind of worldwide nature of the sport.
Earlier this year, the WTA actually unveiled a new brand
identity called Rally the World through Tennis. What inspired that
new brand approach and how is it sort of rolled
out so far.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, there was a lot of work that went into
the rebrand effort. It was a lot more than just
a new logo and sort of flashy new colors, although
those things are important, it was really uncovering the sort
of essence and ethos of the brand. And there were
(22:23):
conversations with some of the founders, like Billy Jean King
in particular, and we kind of wanted to find out,
you know, how precious she was about the brand and
the colors. At that time, it had the logo that
included an image of a women's tennis player, and she said,
(22:48):
break it. I'm not married to it. It sort of
served its purpose at that time, and you know, break it.
Go do something new, create something, create something better. And
so we thought that, you know, we always have to
announce ourselves women's sports, and we have to have women
(23:10):
in the title, and then we double that down by
having a picture of a woman in the logo. And
we said, you know, we're really aspiring to be a
global entertainment superbrand. So when you think about some of
those other global brands with three letters, you could think
about CNN, or you can think about HBO from my
(23:33):
former time Warner Family and they don't have another name
or a duplicate name in front of it or behind it,
or a picture of something in the logo. So we
took a page from the books of those brands and
thinking about who we are and also who we want
to be in the future, and we were really able
(23:54):
to lean into this campaign and tagline around Rally the World.
It's a play on the game of tennis, you have rallies,
but it's also a play on our history and what
we aspire to do moving forward. We really are created
for by women, and we're about championing women for efforts
(24:21):
on and off the court all around the world. So
if we can through sport, through tennis in this case,
Rally the World and help others inspire others to achieve
the goals that they may have to be a winner
on whatever field or court or profession that they may
(24:41):
be a part of, then we've done something you know
well worth it. So we try to use the brand
and the legacy to incorporate that concept and also not
just make it a look back, make it sort of yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And if you learned anything from HBO, you can always
change it and then change it again, and then change
it back and then change it again. Yes, some pretty
big initiatives from the WTA this year in addition to
the brand stuff, including allowing players to protect their rankings
when they take time away for fertility treatment, which is huge,
so that if you do have a ranking and you
(25:20):
want to take time for embryo freezing or egg retrieval,
you can come back and have that protected ranking, which
we love. Another big one is the maternity Fund. Can
you tell us about that one.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, So both of those are part of what we
call our family focus programs, and the PIF Maternity Fund
is geared toward WTA athletes who are either the childbearer
herself or becoming a parent. And maybe she's not the childbear,
(25:52):
maybe her partner is, or maybe she is adopting, And
so when our as are ready to start their families,
this fund is available for them so that they can
receive compensation for up to twelve months in the case
of them being the childbearer the pregnant woman in the
(26:13):
case of becoming a parent through other means, they have
two months of maternity lead payment. So it is really phenomenal.
Sarah and I love talking about it because it truly
is one of one. There is no other benefit available
(26:34):
for women in sports. There's no other benefit like this
available for women in sports who are self employed independent contractors.
And I may be reaching here, Sarah, but I'm not
even sure across all of independent contractors, whatever industry, sport,
(26:54):
or otherwise, that there is a program like this. It
is really one for one. And I have to give
a bit of a shout out to our partners at PIF.
They came along the journey with us all in that
was never a hesitation on their side. Our players have
(27:15):
been advocating for something like this for years and they
were really influential in shaping the policy, helping us understand
how much time off, helping us understand the preservation of
the rankings that you talked about having that special entry
ranking that's a part of the Family Focused program. So
(27:38):
all of this is player led and it really is
kind of its groundbreaking. There are no other parallels that
I'm aware of in sport and potentially even outside of
sport for independent contractors.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
You mentioned PIF that for folks who don't know, is
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. In addition to your work
with them on the Family Focused stuff. You've also committed
to three years of finals in Saudi Arabia twenty twenty
four to twenty twenty six. Now, some have criticized any
involvement with that country and with its public investment fund
at all. Others believe the only way to help get
(28:15):
rid of the human rights violations and the bigoted policies
is via external pressure that increases with partnerships and a
bigger spotlight that arrives when you have things like major
events there. How have you made decisions around working with them,
and how do you feel because those decisions, some of
them potentially made before you arrived. How have you been
(28:36):
able to lead through the decision to work with the PIF.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, so, PIF is our partner. They are engaged with
us on the maternity fund, as I mentioned. They're also
the sponsor of our ranking system. It's called the PIF
WTA Rankings. We have some involvement with them as partners
(29:01):
for our finals because they're based in Saudi Arabia. Our
partnership in Saudi Arabia for our finals is with the
Saudi Tennis Federation and the Ministry of Sport, and that decision,
as you noted, was made before I joined, but I
was well aware of the decision and needed to decide
(29:22):
for myself if it was something that I was comfortable
with and could support before joining, and the exercise that
I went through, Sarah, if you bear with me. So,
I didn't know, honestly, very much about Saudi Arabia apart from,
you know, things that I had read intermittently in the news,
(29:42):
and pretty much all of it was negative. So when
I learned about the finals being there and I was
going through my process, I thought, wait a minute, I
got to make sure I'm okay with this. This sort
of line up with my values, and I have to
to as I mentioned, and they're they're teenagers, and I
(30:04):
went to them, I said, look, I'm interested in this
role and you know, the finals are here, and they said,
what Saudi Arabia, Mom? Are you kidding? How could you
do something like that? Have you heard about their track record?
Their human rights track record indexes like one hundred out
of one hundred and out of one hundred or so,
(30:27):
you know, Like they gave me some of the data
and the statistics that they that they had, and I said,
I know, I need your help. I don't think we
know the full story. So I want to go on
this journey to learn more and I want to come
out on the end of it with the decision one
way or the other. And I need your help. And
they said fine. And they have their sources of information.
(30:48):
I have my sources of information. They don't often overlap.
But we came back together over probably six or seven
days at the at the dinner table. Was also my
employ to get them to the dinner table with me,
but they came and they we would start talking and
what we both learned is that yes, Saudi Arabia definitely
(31:12):
has a long way to go, but they've made a
lot of progress in the last five years and they
have this twenty Project twenty thirty initiative that one of
the tenets of it is all around women's empowerment and advancement. Now,
(31:36):
that doesn't take away the sort of human rights record,
and that doesn't mean that there isn't a long way
to go. But I saw it as an opportunity. I
saw it as an opportunity to affect change. And I
think personally, when I'm engaged in sort of opportunities for change,
(32:00):
social change in this case, you know there are a
couple of ways, at least that you can go about it.
One way is to sort of pressure and maybe agitate
and try to influence and resist, and usually that's done
from the outside. The other way is to collaborate and partner,
(32:21):
and both of those ways are valid. And I have
a lot of respect for the WTA for deciding for
itself how it wants to fight in this battle to
advance women in all parts of the world. I think
that they deserve and we deserve now to make our
(32:43):
own choice about that, and so I came out of
that conversation and process with my daughters feeling very comfortable
with the decision. I also learned about the process that
the WTA went through to involve the players. The players
had to be one supportive and they were. The players
(33:05):
visited Saudi Arabia. I saw the feedback and the reports
and a little bit of the video from their visits
to Saudi Arabia to really kick the tires for themselves
and to understand what they were getting into. One of
the things they said is that we don't just want
to go there and play tennis, and so from that
(33:25):
we made a commitment to not just be there for
the eight days of our finals, but to really engage
in community development, to do not just clinics, but to
do workforce training, to help develop women in Saudi Arabia
and in the region in sports, in sports administration. So
(33:46):
they got access to physios and our physios are wonderful.
They got access to professionals like myself and my counterpart
at our commercial entity, WTA Ventures, both of are women.
So we went to various universities, various schools. We engaged
(34:06):
about thirty three thousand young people Sarah over the course
of the year that we were in Saudi Arabia in
the lead up to our finals. So I think all
in all, the investment and the willingness from the Saudi
Tennis Federation and the Ministry of Sport to invest at
(34:27):
a high level. Last year, the winner of our finals
received four point eight million dollars at that time, that
was the highest perse available in women's tennis. The US
Open recognized that and they upped the ante this year
to five million, but at that time it was the top.
(34:48):
We're going to try to figure out how to get
back to the top this year. But they invested in
delivering a high quality product. They invested in the value
of women's tennis and the highest perse at that yeah,
in women's tennis, and they invested in making an impact
and making change.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So that's the part that I think is the is
what stands out to me because I think for me,
my cynical point of view is that sportwa washing can
only occur when the investment is big enough that people
are drawn enough to it that they're willing to overlook
the problems that have existed, whether or not they've done
the work to understand whether more change will occur because
of that partnership. But it's the follow up. It's the
(35:27):
investment in the change that's occurring daily. And some people
that I very much respect have talked to me and
shared their opinions of how getting involved in that place
is more likely to create change than continuing to ban
and prohibit partnership until they change, and so I'm respecting
their much more informed opinions than mine on that. But
(35:47):
it is a very difficult job you have because you
are operating this worldwide venture from your perspective and the
perspective of the US, which means that sometimes you know,
these decisions have to be made for athletes around the
world that impact folks from places you've never been to,
you've never seen. You know, there's another sort of bigger
decision that was made before you got there, the decision
(36:10):
to return to China. The organization had boycotted holding events
in that country after Pung Shwi had accused of vice
premiere in China's government of sexual assault. Then she disappeared
from public view. That boycott lasted eighteen months. The WTA
announced in twenty twenty three that it would return to China.
And I wonder if you have any updates on Pung,
like do we know anything about her whereabouts and what
(36:34):
ended up becoming of that whole situation over there.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I don't know about her specific situation. I have visited
China over the last year. I wanted an opportunity to
get closer to the product. And also we were returning
after some time to places like Wuhan, for example, and
(37:00):
so I wanted to be there see it, feel it,
touch it for myself. I had meetings with, you know,
various officials there to sort of understand how they were
thinking about the future of tennis in China. There were
some player relations matters that we sort of talked about.
(37:22):
They also have a top player and Olympic gold medalists
in China right now, and Queen Win herself, so I
think things are on the right track. I don't honestly know, Sarah,
the details of what happened. I obviously know that the
w t A left and that the finals which were
(37:45):
supposed to be contested there were moved elsewhere as a
result of that departure. But I think from my vantage
point at least in visiting over the last year and
having a chance to talk to officials there, to the
Chinese Tennis Association and to players in the region not
(38:05):
just when I was in the region, but throughout the
year where maybe they can feel a little more comfortable
sharing their views, I feel comfortable that we're on the
right on the right track.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
You mentioned in both cases talking to the players. It's
really interesting because in the WTA, they are independent contractors, right,
They're not employees represented by a union. So given that distinction,
what's the process sort of for the WTA in talking
to athletes, getting their feedback and making sure that as
a unit moving forward, there is a deep connection between
the players themselves and the folks making decisions on their
(38:39):
behalf at the highest levels.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, our governance is really unique. It's one of the
differences with the WTA versus other uh, you know, team
oriented sports. The players have a direct, influential and equal
(39:02):
seat in the boardroom. So player board representatives are elected
by what's what's called a player's council. The players council
members are elected by the players, and they're in our
boardroom meetings. They're advocating for the things that make sense
(39:23):
and that matter. They represent the player's voice. They have
a vote on every major decision that we make at
the board level. So when we talk about the Women's
Tennis Association, it really is the players. It's theirs, it's
(39:43):
their association. There's certainly representation, equal representation and influence from
the tournament communities that are part of the membership of
the WTA, but the players are right there. So the
relationship and the involvement is very tight with with with
with WTA management and they are a full and equal
(40:08):
partner in all of the decision making, whether I like
it or not.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Sarah, benevolent dictator you are. The tour continues with the
Asian swing of the schedule coming up next China, Japan,
South Korea, and then the season wraps in November with
the Finals, the pinnacle of the sport and the final
big competition for all these athletes. What are you most
looking forward to over this final stretch?
Speaker 2 (40:34):
You know, the race is on. I don't know. You know,
there's such depths in women's tennis. You really don't know
who's gonna win week to week. Everybody who's entered has
a shot at winning. I mean, obviously with probability, some
have a better shot than others, but you don't know
(40:56):
what the outcome is going to be for any time.
I think we'll see that in Asia coming up. I
couldn't tell you who's going to win the Beijing Open.
It's certainly, you know, the odds on favorite, maybe who
won last year, but I don't know. I mean, anybody
could show up and show out and take that trophy.
(41:18):
So I'm looking forward to seeing how the next several
weeks shape up, and then what that leads to in
terms of the race to our finals, because our finals
has the top eight singles players in the world, and
you know your rankings. Over these next several weeks, there
(41:39):
are two one thousand level events, and as I mentioned
that one thousand means that's the number of points you
get in the event that you're you're a winner, So
there are a lot of points. There's a lot at
stake and a lot up for grabs. So some of
the players who are ten or eleven sort of on
that bubble, they have an opportunity to move up into
(42:02):
one of those eight spots. We've got a couple of
players who've already secured their space in the finals and
in the race Arena Sablanca, IGOs Fiantek, but other than that,
it's pretty wide open. So I'm looking forward to seeing
what's going to happen and who I'm going to have
(42:22):
an opportunity to greet in Ria later this year.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, you mentioned after those top couple players Arena in particular,
who's in the eleven thousands of points. Then you get
down to sevens, fives, and a whole bunch of folks
in the fours. From five down to to nine as
we're speaking right now, is all players in the four
thousand something points. So you get a thousand points here,
(42:48):
a thousand points there, and all of a sudden you're
in a completely different spot in that top ten. So
really fun to watch. We've been loving watching all the
tennis this year at the US Opening everywhere else around
the world. So thanks so much, Prsure for the time
and giving us some backstory and all the big things
the WTA is up to.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Thanks Sarah, it's my pleasure. Good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
We got to take another break. When we come back.
You always remember your.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
First Welcome back, Slices.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
We love that you're listening, but we always want to
get you in the game every day too, So here's
our good game play of the day. All the WTA
events on US soil are done for the twenty twenty
five season, but if you're in Asia, get thee to
a match. No matter where you are, if you ever
have the chance, go to a tournament. Watching tennis on
television is a blast, but in person it's even better.
(43:47):
Remember how much I gushed about the US Open and
the Billy Jean King Cup. I want those experiences for you, Slices.
I want those honey deuces for you, Slices. Yeah, I'm
still on those. It's a honey deuce seas until the
fall weather hits. Another play of the day news shout
out to Slice. Alexa Lewis who responded to yesterday's interview
with celeb stylis Amadi Brooks by sharing one of her
(44:08):
favorite fits of the year, and frankly, it's already the
frontrunner for the Slice Awards, folks, Alexa writes, quote, my
nominee for best fit is the pay us what You
Owe Us shirts Iconic, emotional, inspirational, award worthy. Good call, Alexa.
Those shirts that were rocked by the w players before
the All Star Game and a different version from breaking
(44:28):
Tea that the NWSL players wore in solidarity. Pretty baller.
We always love to hear from you. To hit us
up on email. Good game at Wondermedia Network dot com
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oh four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe rate
and review slices. It's easy. Watch The Valkyrie's inaugural season
(44:49):
rating forty six out of forty six games to be
proud of. Review got to give a shout out to
Jess Smith, Ohema Nihanen, Natalie Nicasse, Kimberly Veal, and everyone
else responsible for putting together one hell of a first
season in the Bay. You only get one shot at
your debut season and y'all did not miss you have
set a very high standard for Toronto, Portland, Cleveland, Philly
(45:12):
and Detroit as they prep to make their debuts in
the coming years. The long standing ovation that the Valkyries
Faithful gave their squad on Wednesday Night, despite the losing effort,
was truly a testament to the community that the team
is created in just one summer. So our hat's off
to you and our vs. Up two. Now it's your
turn slices, rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you
(45:33):
next week. Good Game, Porsche, Good Game, Sydney McLauchlin, LIVRONI Few,
literally everything right now, like what The actual? Good Game
with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(45:55):
get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers
are alex Asie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
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(46:15):
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