March 26, 2025 • 42 mins
This week’s Candid Convo brings back one of last season’s guests - Carolyn Tisch Blodgett–for some important updates and a celebration of the new Gotham FC season. Carolyn is the fearless leader of the soccer franchise, Gotham FC, Next 3, mother of three, and of course, my sister! Since we last spoke with Carolyn, a lot has changed. Gotham FC sold a record number of tickets, hosted an inaugural fan fest, and became the first National Women’s Soccer League team to visit the White House. In this episode, we dig into making Gotham FC a legacy team, redefining the cultural narrative around women’s sports, and how Carolyn deals with it all personally. Plus, Carolyn breaks some very exciting NWSP news... this is an episode you don't want to miss!
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Carolyn, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Carolyn Tish Blodgett. Welcome
back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dare to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacts
(00:24):
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today we're
celebrating the start to another Gotham FC season with a
candid convo with the one and only Carolyn Tish Blodgett,
fearless leader of Gotham FC, next three vengures, mother of three,
(00:46):
and of course my sister. So we just came off
the home opener this past Sunday and it was such
a thrill to be in the stadium again one year in.
I wanted to do something that we haven't done before,
bring back a she Pivots guests to give us an update.
Last season, Carolyn's episodes was one of our top performing episodes.
(01:07):
Maybe it's the sisterly bond, or maybe it's her ambitious
and inspiring perspective on how she plans to build Gotham
FC into a household name. Either way, it was an
incredible episode and I knew I wanted to have her
back on I've been so lucky to have a front
row seat to all the amazing accomplishments of Gotham FC
over the past year. From selling a record number of
(01:28):
tickets to the inaugural FanFest to becoming the first NWSL
team to visit the White House. It's safe to say
a lot has changed since we last spoke with Carolyn.
So on this episode, we talk about everything from making
Gotham FC a legacy team, to breaking through and redefining
(01:49):
the cultural narrative around women's sports, to how Carolyn deals
with it all personally. Plus she breaks some very exciting
news in the world of women's sports. This is an
episode you won't want to miss enjoy. Welcome back to
Sheep Pivots. I'm Carolyn Tish Blodgett. I am the CEO
(02:11):
and founder of Next three and governor of Gotham FC.
Welcome back to Sheep Pivots. In fact, this is your
second season, your second interview on here, because your interview
on she Pivots is one of our most popular episodes
of all time. Oh thank you. I feel so honored. Yeah,
am I your first second back? Yes? Oh yeah, yeah,
(02:32):
you're the first rep. It's like nepotism at its best.
When we recorded this episode last year, you were just
going into the first season as the operating owner of
Gotham FC, and governor is essentially like the president of
the team, like the right. So governor means you represent
the team at the league. So at the ENDWSL board,
(02:55):
there's a board of owners and you're the lead owner there.
And what it all means a Gotham is that, yeah,
we don't have a CEO, so I'm effectively the CEO.
The story that I tell people to try to understand,
like at what level it was a surprise that you
walked in and ended up operating it and that I
ended up doing anything at all? Was that the weekend
(03:18):
going in like signed the deal on Wednesday, flew to
the championship that the team was in. You got there Thursday,
walked off the plane and addressed the team Like, now,
in hindsight, like what do you remember about that moment
of like literally still had your your glasses on, no contacts,
Like what do you remember at that now in hindsight? Yes,
so we flew exactly, so we flew to San Diego.
(03:40):
I think, yeah, San Diego, you know, took out like
a six am flight, so I was like half awake
and basically wearing my glasses and not my contacts as
the sign to me of like my brain hasn't woken
up yet, I really can't talk until my contacts are
And so I landed. And actually that's when Tammy, who
was the woman that we were buying the team. They
were the founders or currently they're the founders. They were
(04:03):
the lead owners. We were doing the deal with them.
Tammy had been the governor, but then she ran for office,
so that so I actually land I landed. I got
a text from her saying can you speak, called her
in the airport like from the in the uber from
the airport at the hotel, and she said, I'm running
for office, so you should come in as governor. So
that was the first like your change, I was to
be alternate governor, so becoming like the league lead, which
(04:27):
I don't think I appreciated the difference at that at
the time. And then walked into the Team hotel, I'm like, okay,
you know, here I am, and the woman who led
PR at the time was like, Hi, you know, I'm
nice to meet you because we hadn't met yet. Now,
no one knew you were coming in right right, because
we didn't want anyone. No one at the team knew
that we were coming in as new investor, new owners,
and except for like I guess, basically the head of
(04:50):
finance because she you know, worked on the deal. But
besides that, we didn't want the distraction. The GM at
you know later in knew about it. There were a
few a handful of people that knew about it. So
basically we didn't want to cause a distraction, and we
kept thinking. We had no idea we were going to
end up announcing it right before the championship. Like at
any other moment we would have announced it would have
there would have been time to have all these conversations.
(05:12):
It just you know, deals take a long time, like
it just ended up being the day before the championship.
So it's particularly odd that like no one even knew
this deal. It's not like the team also was actively
raising money. So for other teams, like they will see
in the press like, oh, the team is raising money,
we know there will be a new investor at some point.
We just don't know when this was. We didn't know
(05:34):
we were going to have a new investor and like, surprise,
here you are. So I yeah, So I walked into
the hotel. I met this lovely person who said, you know,
now time to address the team, and I literally said
to her, can I go put my contacts in? But they're like,
you don't know me, but I really need my contacts
and I'm going to speak. And I was still wearing,
(05:54):
you know, the one Gotham sweatshirt I had that I
had been wearing on the plane. Was wearing that and
it was so intimidating. And I actually now, I feel
like I've addressed the team so many times, but I
still get so intimidated every time. I don't know why
I'm talking about this now, but every time I do,
I still like get kind of butterflies in my stomach
of like, okay, better say something good. The thing that
(06:16):
you were afterwards, like you texted me and Mom and
you're like, okay, I can't believe I just spoke to
the team. I totally blacked out. I hope they liked it.
I can think of ten more things I would have said,
but it's with some version of like great job, like yeah,
just so happy to be here, right, and they were
probably all shocked. Yes, I think so. I mean, I
(06:37):
still have no idea. I think they were at number
one of just a yeah, we didn't know this was happening.
Number two, I don't remember I talked to this last time,
but there was god knows what I said. I'm sure
it was not particularly articulate. But so many of the
players came over who now that I didn't know who
they were. I knew who they their names were. I
worked very hard. I'm memorizing the roster on the way there,
(06:58):
but I didn't have the contact of like the contributions
many of them had made to the league, like Mana
Shim and mccaus or Boni, and so so many of
them came over to me and you know, gave me
a hug and said, we're so HAPPI you're here. And
that was really the first time I registered. I don't
think I registered the real magnitude of, you know, the work,
(07:19):
but I registered the magnitude of what it meant for
us to come in as new owners. And you know,
when we looked at the investment opportunity to begin with,
and we looked at a couple other teams in the
end of herself first, and it was really through the
lens of an investment. It was really, you know, we
we do see the tailwinds, you know, towards women's sports.
(07:40):
We think this is going to end up. We are,
you know, legacy New York owners. There's a lot we
could we could add, but I didn't really appreciate. Like
our family, our grandfather bought into the Giants thirty I
really always say I should know what the year is.
I don't know, thirty some odd years ago, and he
brought like New York business to the NFL. We now
(08:02):
for thirty somewhad years have not made another investment into
another team. And the team we chose as a family
to invest in was the women's soccer team here. It
wasn't men's basketball, it wasn't men's baseball, you know, fill
in the blank and all those things. And that was
such a statement to the team, the players, the league
(08:23):
in general that I don't think I appreciated like the
ramifications of that. Yeah, when you walked in to sit
in the studio today, we had to move the tissue
box out of the way and we were joking about
how guests often cry on this show, but you describing
having Monashim come over, having the calls or Bony come over,
like now I'm going to cry because now I also
(08:44):
have the context for how much they mean, like to
the league, to women's sports in general, and have also
now become friends. They are such incredible people. Like I
think we've just gotten to know so much more about
how strong they are, how their positivity has kept them
moving forward, like how much they've done to make a difference.
(09:06):
Like when I think about the fact that they came
over to you, like that mattered a lot, Like that
really mattered. So when we first came in, and I
think probably last year when I sat here, I talked
about why that the importance of treating this as an investment,
and you know, again, I could share all the reasons
why on a piece of paper this made sense. And
I still continually talk about it as investment because it's
(09:28):
critical for people to understand that women's sports is a
good investment and that brands should be part of it,
and media partners should be a part of it, fans
should be a part of it. But what I was
speaking to the player leadership council for this year's team
a week or so ago, and one of the things
I said to them is I think they didn't tell
me this, but this is what I think that when
I say that for players like that, they don't like it,
(09:53):
may lose the human the human piece of it, which
to your point is so important and so one hundred percent.
We run this as a business. We will continue to
run this as a business, and it's critical for the
growth of women's sports to run it as a business.
We also, I think that you know, a year and
a half in really, I think have a deeper all
of us have a deeper understanding of the human piece
(10:15):
of it too. Of like, these women have given so
much to this league. You hear these stories of like
it was, you know, when Lynn Williams talks about making
ten thousand dollars as a professional athlete and changing in
the bathrooms and not having a locker room to change,
and like these women have been that have been a
part of this league for a long time, have been
through so much and the league is still has so
(10:37):
much more room to go to be what it should be.
But it's really the league has been built on their backs.
And I'm so indebted to everyone that has like been
on this journey before we got there, so that it
was even interesting to us or even like on our
radar screen to come in as new owners, right, you know,
I think about in this week, I also interviewed Michelle Betos.
(10:58):
We're going to have an episode with her, who was
our goalkeeper and is now one of our goalkeeping coaches,
and she was talking about the same thing of the
growth of the league. That what she said is that
Mandy Freeman, who's been on our team since before it
was Gotham. She said that Mandy didn't have showers at
the training facility, and now this week we're taking Mandy
in to meet the editor and cheap of book. Amazing.
(11:18):
I love that to think about that growth and someone
like Mandy. I'm so glad you brought her up because
so she's now on our leadership council and it's just
incredible to have her perspective as exactly like she has
seen the league at the bottom, you know, at the beginning,
and has been with this and to stayed devoted to
a team through what I can't imagine the lows are
(11:42):
to now be sitting here saying like you flew us
to Spain as the first NWSL team who has ever
done preseason internationally like that, Like what an incredible experience,
and like these are the great things about it, and
these are the things that could be better next year.
And so to have that perspective is in valuable to
us as as still relatively new owners in the league.
(12:04):
This is a perfect segue into what is your perspective
now a year in? Like what worked? What are you
thinking about differently? What had you potentially thought as like
a big growth place that now maybe you'll put energy
into a different place, Like what surprised you about places
of growth? So one of the things I often talk
about with our team is we want to be the
(12:26):
an iconic global sports franchise. And the thinking behind that
actually came from work at the Giants. So when I
was working with the Giants, my team and ext three
and I were working with the Giants about potentially launching
in Germany and taking having NFL marketing rights in Germany,
and so we were talking about doing some research on
what does it mean to be a global brand and
(12:47):
who are the you know, who are the big global brands,
what do they look like, what do they how do
they act? And that was I think we hadn't even
looked at the Gotham investment yet. I think of I'm
getting my timing right. But what we saw there was
that was our first moment to realize there's no women's
team on that list, and it was just it was
just this we again, we don't have a thesis around
(13:08):
women's sports, but it was this moment to say, like,
wait a second, we're talking about at Manchester United, A
Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, New York Giants. There's no
women's team on that list, and it's going it's going
to happen, Like there's enough tailwinds to say there is
going to it is inevitable that there will be a
women's team on that list. And when you think about, okay,
so who would be the right one to be on
the list, Well, the number one sport globally is soccer.
(13:32):
The number one, like fean market is the US. So
then you're talking about basically New York or LA, and
you know, decide if you're from New York or LA,
which you think is going to be the market, so
that you know fast forward to Gotham, we set our
vision on we want to be an iconic global sports
franchise and if that's the goal, so then you back
(13:53):
into okay, so what are the what does it look
like to be an iconic global sports franchise? What do
those teams do? And number one, they win and they
win a lot, and so our goals on the business
on the soccer side were about winning, and so we
you know, and as to think about the last year,
So we came off the twenty three championship, we added
a ton of new free agents to that roster, and
(14:15):
we succeeded. We we were I think we were the top.
We had the most points we'd ever had as a
as a team. We had the top finish in terms
of standings of any of the teams that have been
in the playoffs. The year before, our goalkeeper won goal
Keeper of the Year. We had a bunch of players
I think six that won Olympic gold medals. So we
had an incredibly successful season on the soccer side. As
(14:37):
we thought about, so then what does that look like,
you know, year two? How do we build on that?
One thing that was clear to us is that we
were so focused on we never want you never want
to be a team that wins like trades. Winning this
year like gambles your future to win this year. And
so we've talked about what does it mean to be
a winner every year and like what are the things
you need to do to be to be a sustainable winner?
(14:58):
And so one of the things we thought about is
how do you bring in new talent? And the NWSL
is the first league in the US to get rid
of their college draft, and so how do you bring
in young new talent if you don't have a draft?
And right now, so we have I want to say,
five rookies on our team, and if there had been
(15:18):
a college draft, probably all five would have been first
round picks. And so our GM, our soccer team, did
an incredible job building those relationships, recruiting those new players
in to say like, okay, how do you win? You
bring in top talent, We're going to go like there's
a new system in place, there's no rules, We're going
to go figure out how to do it. So I'd
point to that. The other piece on the soccer side
I would focus. I would think about is we spent
(15:40):
a lot of time talking about it kind of internally,
what our mission is, what our values that we want
to live by, what our vision is, for the team.
And that work has come about because when you think about,
you know, do you to go back to the Giants
for a second? When a player you know gets drafted
and says like I always dreamed of being a New
(16:00):
York Giant, or I just I want to be a
part of the Giants, what are they really saying? There's
no you know, coaches come, coaches go, gms come, gms go.
What they're really there's something about like the identity of
the team that they want to be a part of.
And Gotham is new, so we didn't really know what
that identity was. So a lot of the work we've
(16:23):
been doing in the off season is to say, like
what is our identity? You know, when some new player
is saying like do I want to come to Gotham?
Do I not question maybe around you know, do I
like the coach, do like the GM door like they're
playing style, but also like do I want to be
a part of that identity? And that's been a lot
of the work we've been doing in the off season.
So what is the identity? Well, it's still working progress,
it's still working on it. I'd say one of the
(16:46):
kind of key pieces that we've been kind of a
shift in how we've been thinking. Is you know, as
I said before, this kind of iconic global sports franchise idea.
Our original mission was about being the best some version
of like being the best women's soccer team. And the
more we kind of noodled on the language, the more
we realize, like we actually don't want to be the
(17:07):
best women's soccer team. You know, as I said before,
we want to be the best. We want to be
the one of the best brands period. We want people
to walk down the street in Paris, London, Beijing, you
name it, wearing a Gotham shirt and like if you
ask them who are you know, starting eleven, they would say,
what are you talking about? Like they have an association
just like the Yankees, just like the Knicks, all these
great brands do with just you're a great brand you
(17:30):
want to be a part of. And so I think
a lot of our work around our mission vision was
actually just like setting the ambition higher and saying, again,
it's not enough to be the best NWSL team, but
you know we should that is on the road to it,
but we want to be one of the best in
the world. After a quick break, we talk about just
(17:51):
how one becomes the best team in the world and
the savvy plans Carolyn has to make it happen more soon.
When we left off, Carolyn was laying out Gotham FC's
(18:13):
ambitious plans to become the best in the world. But
what does that mean and more importantly, how do we
make it happen? So, as I said, you know, when
you look at the best brands in the world, they
win and because they win, so that's kind of the
core product on the field. Then you think about what
is the rest of the product. And they have a great,
(18:35):
really strong fan base, partly because the fan experience is
so good. And so last year we were really focused
on saying, okay, we know the ninety minutes of soccer
is going to be good because we have a great team,
what is the rest of the fan in game experience?
What is the rest of the fan in game experience like?
And so we implement We created a fan fest, so
it's no longer ninety minutes of soccer, it's two hours
(18:56):
of soccer. You come early, you get your face painted,
you listen to live music, have a drink. So that
was sort of, you know, idea one, But most importantly,
what we needed to do was to understand what was good,
what was bad, you know, what would we need to keep,
what we need to throw away. And so this is
where my tech background and my team's tech background is helpful,
because we implemented something that is pervasive in the tech
(19:19):
world and no one's ever heard of in the sports world,
which is a net promoter score. And when you say
that your team, it's because you brought a lot of
your top talent over from Peloton and they built out
from there. Yes, exactly. So our chief business officer at
Gotham is someone named Ryan Dillon who was worked with
me at Pelton. Laura Petro runs marketing at Gotham, also
(19:39):
worked with me at Pelton. So we have a sort of,
you know, best of Peloton influence at Gotham, which has
actually been really helpful because we also have a ton
of great people on our staff that come from the
sports world, and so we've tried to you know, I
think overall, there is no path that we're following, and
so we're trying to kind of take the best of
(20:00):
the sports world, take what works well at other teams,
and also take the best of the tech World and
kind of bring the two together. So net promoter score,
what it's basically saying is did you like it? Would
you come back? Is the idea, and what we saw
good news. People really like it and really want to
come back. So our net promoter score has been in
(20:20):
the eighties the whole season, which just to be to
take a step back. If you don't know net promoter score,
it's a score of one hundred to negative one hundred.
So having a score of a zero is actually not
a bad score. It means people are neutral, some people
really liked it, some people didn't. To have a score
of eighty means it's almost unheard of. I mean, these
(20:44):
are like the best brands in the world have like sixty,
you did seventy? What was the context of Like Apple's
is like sixty or something around this. I didn't look
at it before, so I can't remember exactly, but it's like, yeah,
like sixty. Probably Starbucks also probably around there are like
beloved brands. If you ask any ten year old who
have spent a lot of time with they will tell
(21:04):
you these are beloved brands and they're at a sixty.
I mean, so what we're seeing is almost universally, people
come to a game, you know, they they may have
heard of it, not heard of it before, and they
are having a fantastic experience and they want to come back.
And more importantly, I think for us, because we are
not you know, resting our laurels and saying we're done here,
(21:26):
is when they don't have a great experience, we can
point to exactly what it was about it that wasn't great.
So we often hear you know, transportation issues where our
STATEI where we play is on the path, and the
path is great when it comes, but sometimes it'll be late,
doesn't always run that often on a weekend. So we
know very clearly, you know, we want to go talk
(21:47):
to New Jersey Transit. We want to talk about adding
more trains so that they come more frequently. Like we
know exactly what it is that people are that is
detracting from their experience and we can work on that.
Can you talk about you said, you know, like you
pull from tech and you can pull from all these
different backgrounds. One of the interesting places that you've seen this,
as you say, you know, we're forging a new path
(22:08):
is at the league level in the NWSL that you
are now one of the more tenured owners, which must
be a wild experience. I mean, these are people who
are coming in with like massive backgrounds and portfolios and
ownerships in other leagues, yet is wild to think about. So, yeah,
we came in in November twenty three, so a year
(22:29):
and change ago, and we're definitely one of the most
tenured owners at this point. So there has just been
tremendous change and kind of turnover of ownership throughout the league.
So and everyone coming in, I don't want to speak
for everyone, but I think I can generalize it. Anyone
coming in now I think is eyes wide open to
(22:51):
both the investment level that is required for us to
do what we need to do as a league, but
also what the opportunity is. I think, you know, I'd
love to Seity and say our vision for Gotham is
unique to be one of the best brands in the world.
I think most owners are probably sitting there saying we
want to be one of the best brands in the world.
And that's a real change for the league. So that
is raising the bar for everyone across the league, which
(23:14):
which I think is great and needed in terms of
the different experiences that As I think about the other
owners that have joined recently, it really is kind of
best in class at what they do all bringing those
experiences to the league, so that so we can really
create the best league in the world because we can say,
you know, Mark Wilf, owner of Minnesota Vikings, how do
(23:37):
you do things? You know, as we're talking about whatever topic,
how do they do things at the NFL. David Blitzer,
you own in the NBA, how do they do things
in the NBA? Lisa bethal who just they own the
Portland team. They just became the expansion franchise for the WNBA.
So we now have the front row seat there where
you know, as we think about our next media deal,
is there anyone you would rather have on your board
(23:57):
than will Obey who's incredible and happens to be married
to Bob Eiger. I mean there we just have this
Melody Hobson, who just we met with, who just came
in at Denver. Every new owner that has come in
brings such an interesting and different perspective that it really
feels like, you know, we all feel very comfortable saying
this is how it's done. It, you know, fill in
(24:18):
the blank, league or company that I've been a part of.
But you know, there's no roadmap. We can do it
however we want to do it, and that's allowed us,
i think, to make decisions that are potentially different than
other leagues would make. And you have some news to
break about the NWSL board. There's been a real vote
of confidence in you. Yes, So I just became the
chairwoman of the Executive Committee of the NWSL. Congratulations, What
(24:44):
does that mean? That's a good question. So the Executive
Committee of the league is it's kind of like the
Commissioner's first phone call, so you know, when it sets
the direction of the league. It deals with issues like
governance and you know, what do we want to be
focused on? What are our priorities? Reviews the commissioner. So
that's kind of the Executive Committee in general. It's like,
you know, when something goes wrong, who do I call?
(25:05):
It's the executive Committee. Now we whit hold that down
to the chairperson of the Executive Committee. So I would say,
kind of first and foremost, it's that it's like, you know,
if Jessica Berman, the Commissioner, needs something, she calls me.
It's it's the sort of like go between between the
board and the commissioner, so owner, other owners and other
teams if they're dealing with an issue with the league
(25:27):
or have questions about something, they will call me kind
of as a first line of defense. And then what
I found the most interest, So that all kind of happens,
it's a lot of time. But then what I found
most interesting is there's a committee called the Strategic Committee,
which is the chairperson of each of the other committees.
So it's the person who runs the Finance committee, the
person who runs the commercial committee, expansion, sporting, and myself,
(25:50):
And so that's the sort of through between Like we
may sit the Sporting committee may sit and talk about
you know what, or the commercial committee may sit and say,
what do we want the next media deal to look like?
But then the Sporting Committee may say, like, oh, that
actually impacts us in a way that you may not
be thinking about, so let me tell you what I
think about it. The expansion committee may say, oh, wait,
(26:10):
as we're thinking about new teams, like this is what
we should be thinking about. So it's sort of kind
of you're getting each aspect. The league is so multifaceted,
you're getting each aspect of the league all together in
one room, and that's been really interesting. Definitely a lot
of work. I think when Jessica and I had a
lot of conversations about it before I accepted it, and
(26:31):
I think ultimately what made it feel like the right
use of my time is I think at this point,
you know, year two, season two into Gotham, I think
we understand what it's going to take for us to
be successful, and we are, you know, a long way
away from doing that. But I think we we know,
you know, to your question, before we know what's working,
we know it's not we know where we want to go,
(26:53):
but every team is only going to be as successful
as the league is, and so spending you know, more
time thinking about what do we want this league to
be and how will this league continue to compete for
talent and continue to compete for eyeballs? And are we
telling the right stories as a league, Like that's really
what's going to make all of us successful. And so
that's why it felt like a good use of time.
(27:18):
When we come back, we chat about the new Amazon
docu series For the Win, which features Gotham FC and
a behind the scenes look at their visit to the
White House. Stay tuned. Okay, let's talk about sports and culture.
(27:45):
So it's funny when you do interviews and you talk about,
like why you looked at Gotham as the growth opportunity,
like the biggest growth opportunity to end up as the
biggest growth opportunity, it's that women's sports hadn't really hit culture,
which now seems a year and a half later like
a dinosaur idea. But how do we fully enter culture,
(28:07):
Like how do we how do we make I mean,
you did that so well at Peloton, how do we
do that now so that the NWSL even hits WNBA
status or bigger. So I do feel like we are
in step one of this right now with this documentary outright,
in our docuseries out right now. So you know, if
you think about why people watch sports, obviously there's you know,
(28:28):
the live element, there's the you know, you don't know
what's going to happen element in a world of like
everything being scripted. But the other piece of why you
watch is the stories. It's the storylines, and so this
docu so maybe I should take a step back that
there is a docuseries right now on Amazon Prime which
follows the final four teams in the playoffs last year
and kind of through the championship, and hopefully everyone will
(28:50):
watch it. It's called for the win, It's called for
the win. Thank you on Amazon Prime. Everyone gets it.
Everyone gets it. You could watch it. It's great. So
but I think what you see in that is so
you'll see in it that Gotham loses in penalty kicks
in the semi finals, just trud It was gut wrenching,
truly gut wrenching. But you know, you can imagine if
you're a sports fan, losing in penalty gigs in a
(29:11):
semi finals is gut wrenching, period. Losing in a semifinals
in penalty kicks. Once you've gotten to know the players
and you understand what's on the line for them, and
you understand the dynamics between the team and you know
who's playing for what, it's just you're so much more
invested in it. And so storylines are kind of the
(29:31):
reason people show up for sports. But we as you know,
owners and as teams need to go tell those stories.
And so something like having a docuseries on Prime right
now is kind of step one, I would say to
being a part of culture. It's obviously, you know, not
the end, but but very much step one. Another piece,
(29:53):
you know, let's say, kind of borrowed from the pelts
On playbook has been the focus on stars and helping
players turn into We very much saw that at Peloton
that when people said that they were a fan of
they would say like, oh my god, I love Peloton
and then they jump right to like I love Ali
or I love Robin or Cody. And so with Gotham,
we very much see that, you know, I love Gotham
(30:14):
like I would go anywhere for Rose Level or you know,
I can't wait for Midge to get back on the
pitch because she tore a cel last year. So it
is on us to tell those stories of our players
and to really elevate them. And there's so many interesting
stories to tell, and I think we've we've done a
good job of that. We were going to continue to
do more of that. So part of this, in this
(30:34):
last year of you leading the team in many more
ways that you thought you were going to, is that
you have also become much more public than you ever
intended to be, which you're handling very well. Thank you,
Thank you for working on it. But what has that
been like for you. So again, when we first came
into this, the opportunity to invest in Gotham, it was
(30:57):
very much as an investment, and I didn't really appreciate Again,
we looked at a vestment, we decided it was a
good investment. We made it, you know, the end, or
so we thought, I guess the end. I didn't really
appreciate what it would mean for me to become one
of the faces of women's sports. And I was actually
(31:18):
just speaking at a sports conference last weekend at MIT,
and after my panel, there were a bunch of people
waiting to talk to me after and I start talking
to people and there's like fifteen of them young women
saying like, oh my god, I've always wanted to They
would go to MIT Sloan, they go to Harvard Business Foe,
where I went like, I've always dreamed of working in
(31:39):
women's sports. And I was like, you did. Like when
I didn't go to HBS that long ago, there was
no I don't know, there was no conversations around whose
path is women's sports? And so one of the things
that you know, again has been sort of an unintended consequence,
but a positive one has been this this feeling that
I think I can help represent what does it mean
(32:01):
to work in women's sports and you can actually dream
about working in a place like women's sports. So that part,
I think, I feel like I have been able to
kind of elevate the entire business of it. But I
would say the kind of that adds pressure. I think
for me it adds part like I feel like, you know,
I'm an over prepare anyway, but I feel particularly like
(32:23):
if I'm going to be on this panel with a
bunch of people talking about their investment in F one
and their investment in you know, LAFC and all these
other men's sports, and like if I'm there representing women's sports,
I better do a great job and have people realize
like this is something you can invest in. Yeah, people,
I mean ask me all the time while you're like,
why isn't you know one? I want I want to
(32:44):
learn what Carolyn's doing and she's such a role model,
like I want to see more of it. Can I
talk to her? And I'm like just very busy. And
then last week when we were relaunching this season of
the podcast in DC, a bunch of people came up
to me and They're like, well, I assume that Carolin's
headlining Forbes next week for as Women conference next week,
And I was like the one in Abu Dhabi. First all,
(33:06):
I wasn't invited. Second of all, I'm intimidated by the idea.
But the follow up was that Carolyn should be headlining
every conference right now, like every like you should be
speaking everywhere, Like why isn't she And my answer was, well,
she's really busy. Yeah, like you're really a worker. And
then also still trying to protect your kids are still young,
(33:27):
like still trying to protect some of that time. So like,
how have you been thinking about I mean knowing you
like you don't really think about how to become the
face of it, like you just work, But do you
think about trying to make that more of the way
you spend your time or it's not that phase right now. No,
I do feel like I'm still there. I am. I'm
a worker, like I am in it. We don't have
(33:48):
a CEO like that is I spend a lot of
time with our general manager. I spend a lot of
time with our CBO Ryan, So I'm and now at
the league, so I'm very much in it. So I
would say number one, I just you know that is
my number one focus is the work. Number two, well,
I don't want to put in that order. Let me
start with my number one rarity is my kids and
protecting that time. I do feel like as they've gotten older,
(34:12):
it's funny like I'll travel for work. I try not
do that much, but I'll go through like leaps and
bounds to get home so that I'm only gone like
one night, not two nights, or two nights not three nights,
and pinelpe my daughter who's about to be ten, like
when I'll say like, okay, I'm getting on like the
four thirty flight tomorrow morning and then like the eleven
pm flight home, and she was like, why do just
stay over? I'm like, oh, I'm trying to get home
(34:34):
for bedtime and she's like, We're good. Like I think
as they've gotten older, I think they appreciate not only
you know that I work, but also like that what
I am building and that they see. You know, they
might not understand like this is a unique moment in
time and this is not forever, but I think they
do start to understand, like even they have memories at
(34:55):
this point, so like the idea of what they saw,
what Gotham looked like. They were actually the first time
I went to a game, I brought THEO, my middle
one to see, like, you know, do we want to
do this? Do we not want to do it? And
so that was you know, two years ago probably and
like for what the stands looked like and the experience
was like from then to now, they feel the difference,
(35:15):
They see the difference, and so I think they as
much as I am mostly saying no to things like
going Abu Dhabi because I want to be with my kids,
they also do appreciate that I'm really building something. What
do you hear back from your kids? Like I can
see how proud they are of you, Like they stand
on the sidelines when you do post game announcements, like
they're so proud, But like, how do you feel that
(35:37):
reflected back to you? That's a really good question. I
think they So I do feel like, you know, I
feel like, you know, kids don't say that much, so
like they're not giving me like a whole you know,
poem on like what you've done. But I do I
feel it. I feel like I watch I think I
watched them watch me and see like this is something
(35:59):
I'm proud of, and I've tried really hard to not
make it feel like a burden. Like, you know, anytime
there's a Gotham game, a'll you know, I'll say to
my kids, like you don't go to your friend's birthday party,
go to your soccer game, Like this is not this
is how I've chosen to spend my time, but it
doesn't need to be how you've chosen to spend your time.
And I think the biggest way I, you know, feel
(36:19):
their support is that nine times out of ten they
choose the Gotham game and they do want to be
a part of it. And you know, I took Pinelpe
to the opening of the docu saries the other night,
and you know, I said, like, you don't have to go,
you know, this is just this is meant to be
a treat, but like if you want to come with
me to work for the afternoon and go be a
part of it, you know, come, And obviously she wanted to.
And so maybe that was about example because that was fun.
(36:41):
But you know, I think they want to be a
part of it. And that's the biggest sign that I
see that they recognize that this is something bigger because
they have a choice, they can do something else, and
like this is where they want to spend their time.
But I think that's ultimately what sports are about, is
that it's about family traditions, it's about I also that
it's say funny you were saying about like the people
(37:02):
love it for the storylines. Like I will often say,
like I'm like as a shorthand, I'm like, hey, yes,
sports is men's gossip. It is totally. Yes, sports is
what brings people together. I think in our family, you know,
the Giants was the thing that brought us to people together.
I wrote my college essay about our three generations of
women bonding over football and moms like popcorn, you know,
dropping behind her. And I think for our kids, obviously
(37:25):
they have the Giants and you know that's a part
of their family connection. And so is Gotham. And you know,
when I my little one, Alexander will his like favorite
if I've gone to one of the New Jersey offices
that I go to either the Giants or Gotham, and
I come home, he'll always say, like, you're wearing your
fancy clothes today. But then he'll say, you know which
office did you go to? And I'll say, and then
(37:46):
he always asks, like who's your favorite team? The Giants
or Gotham, And it's his like go to bedtime, Like
I can't go to bed until you answer the question,
you know, is it the Giants or is it Gotham?
And obviously don't as because no child is better than
the other, But I would say the idea that you know,
in his mind they're equivalent, and like, of course, you know,
(38:08):
half a dozen of one, six of the other. You know,
some days I like Gotham, some days I like the Giants.
And so I think for their generation, they are growing
up with a lot of sports games to go to
number one, but number two, they're really seeing them as
the same and equal or maybe equal not the same,
And I think that is I'm hoping part of what
(38:29):
we're building in this ambition to take it back to
the beginning, like the ambition around creating one of the
best brands in the world and not kind of putting
ourselves in the box of women's sports. Is in this
next generation. I the hope and I see it playing
out it with our kids is that they're just seen
as the same, Like I like Gotham, you like, maybe LAFC,
(38:50):
I like the Giants, you like this women the Spirit,
and maybe those brands don't mean I think, but basically
like alternating between men's brands and women's brands and not
seeing it as it's like, oh, this is my women's
team that I like, and this is my men's team
that I like. Yeah, at my kids' school, they wear uniforms,
but Friday is dressed down day, and I'd say, you know,
a third of the boys wear Gotham like every Friday
(39:14):
dress down day because they all wear jerseys and so
they all wear their teams and they like they just
love it, like they love to be able to follow it.
And again like with this generation, like they don't know
that they're not supposed to be as dedicated, Like they
are just as dedicated because the competition is there, the
athletes are there, the storylines are there, like it has
it all you'll see it all in for the wom exactly.
You know, the early kind of days of women's sports,
(39:35):
people talked about it as a charity and it was
sort of like, oh, you should go to a women's
sports team because like you have a daughter, and that's
what's good for the women, like let's support them, But
it wasn't to your point around like, no, these are
professional athletes. These are the best athletes in the world
at what they do. There's an intense game to watch. Sports.
Sports brings people together, there are traditions there, it's a
(39:57):
great fan experience. That's why you're going, not because you
like feel sorry for the women. And I think in
a younger generation they're not coming with that baggage. So
they can just show up because it's a great game. Okay,
Now that our listeners are so hyped up and so
excited to see the rest of this season, what can
they do? How can they engage? Okay, well, number one,
watch if I have not sold you on the docu series,
(40:18):
I don't know what will download for the win on
Amazon Prime. Show up to our games. You know, as
I said, this is we are still in the building phase.
I think you know we are making a commitment to
be a part of it because we think we know
that this can be something great. We want everyone to
be a part of it. So home opener March twenty third,
and then a long list of games after that. You
(40:39):
can find the schedule online and follow us on social
You know, however, it is that you want to engage
with it. We want you to engage in it because
it's such a great product and brand. Okay, thank you, Kat,
thanks for coming on again. This is fine for your
swan song of she Pivots exactly your final and She's out.
I'm done. Carolyn is still championing GOTHAMFC and women's sports
(41:02):
as a whole. Gotham plays nearly every weekend, so be
sure to follow them on Instagram at GOTHAMFC to stay
up to date on how to watch the games, and
if you're in the New York area, grab your friends
and come see us at a game. I can't say
enough good things. The soccer is good, the merch is good,
the vibes are great. So get your tickets and I'll
(41:26):
see you there. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to
this episode of she Pivots. I hope you enjoyed it,
and if you did, leave us a rating and tell
your friends about us. To learn more about our guests,
follow us on Instagram at she Pivots the Podcast, or
sign up for our newsletter where you can get exclusive
(41:47):
behind the scenes content. On our website at she Pivots
thepodcast dot Com special thanks to the She Pivots team,
Executive producer only Eda Vlosk, Associate producer and social media
connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics
(42:08):
coordinator Madeline Snovac, and audio editor and mixer Nina pollock
I endorse Cheap Pisits
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Carolyn Tish Blodgett. Welcome
back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dare to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacts
(00:24):
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today we're
celebrating the start to another Gotham FC season with a
candid convo with the one and only Carolyn Tish Blodgett,
fearless leader of Gotham FC, next three vengures, mother of three,
(00:46):
and of course my sister. So we just came off
the home opener this past Sunday and it was such
a thrill to be in the stadium again one year in.
I wanted to do something that we haven't done before,
bring back a she Pivots guests to give us an update.
Last season, Carolyn's episodes was one of our top performing episodes.
(01:07):
Maybe it's the sisterly bond, or maybe it's her ambitious
and inspiring perspective on how she plans to build Gotham
FC into a household name. Either way, it was an
incredible episode and I knew I wanted to have her
back on I've been so lucky to have a front
row seat to all the amazing accomplishments of Gotham FC
over the past year. From selling a record number of
(01:28):
tickets to the inaugural FanFest to becoming the first NWSL
team to visit the White House. It's safe to say
a lot has changed since we last spoke with Carolyn.
So on this episode, we talk about everything from making
Gotham FC a legacy team, to breaking through and redefining
(01:49):
the cultural narrative around women's sports, to how Carolyn deals
with it all personally. Plus she breaks some very exciting
news in the world of women's sports. This is an
episode you won't want to miss enjoy. Welcome back to
Sheep Pivots. I'm Carolyn Tish Blodgett. I am the CEO
(02:11):
and founder of Next three and governor of Gotham FC.
Welcome back to Sheep Pivots. In fact, this is your
second season, your second interview on here, because your interview
on she Pivots is one of our most popular episodes
of all time. Oh thank you. I feel so honored. Yeah,
am I your first second back? Yes? Oh yeah, yeah,
(02:32):
you're the first rep. It's like nepotism at its best.
When we recorded this episode last year, you were just
going into the first season as the operating owner of
Gotham FC, and governor is essentially like the president of
the team, like the right. So governor means you represent
the team at the league. So at the ENDWSL board,
(02:55):
there's a board of owners and you're the lead owner there.
And what it all means a Gotham is that, yeah,
we don't have a CEO, so I'm effectively the CEO.
The story that I tell people to try to understand,
like at what level it was a surprise that you
walked in and ended up operating it and that I
ended up doing anything at all? Was that the weekend
(03:18):
going in like signed the deal on Wednesday, flew to
the championship that the team was in. You got there Thursday,
walked off the plane and addressed the team Like, now,
in hindsight, like what do you remember about that moment
of like literally still had your your glasses on, no contacts,
Like what do you remember at that now in hindsight? Yes,
so we flew exactly, so we flew to San Diego.
(03:40):
I think, yeah, San Diego, you know, took out like
a six am flight, so I was like half awake
and basically wearing my glasses and not my contacts as
the sign to me of like my brain hasn't woken
up yet, I really can't talk until my contacts are
And so I landed. And actually that's when Tammy, who
was the woman that we were buying the team. They
were the founders or currently they're the founders. They were
(04:03):
the lead owners. We were doing the deal with them.
Tammy had been the governor, but then she ran for office,
so that so I actually land I landed. I got
a text from her saying can you speak, called her
in the airport like from the in the uber from
the airport at the hotel, and she said, I'm running
for office, so you should come in as governor. So
that was the first like your change, I was to
be alternate governor, so becoming like the league lead, which
(04:27):
I don't think I appreciated the difference at that at
the time. And then walked into the Team hotel, I'm like, okay,
you know, here I am, and the woman who led
PR at the time was like, Hi, you know, I'm
nice to meet you because we hadn't met yet. Now,
no one knew you were coming in right right, because
we didn't want anyone. No one at the team knew
that we were coming in as new investor, new owners,
and except for like I guess, basically the head of
(04:50):
finance because she you know, worked on the deal. But
besides that, we didn't want the distraction. The GM at
you know later in knew about it. There were a
few a handful of people that knew about it. So
basically we didn't want to cause a distraction, and we
kept thinking. We had no idea we were going to
end up announcing it right before the championship. Like at
any other moment we would have announced it would have
there would have been time to have all these conversations.
(05:12):
It just you know, deals take a long time, like
it just ended up being the day before the championship.
So it's particularly odd that like no one even knew
this deal. It's not like the team also was actively
raising money. So for other teams, like they will see
in the press like, oh, the team is raising money,
we know there will be a new investor at some point.
We just don't know when this was. We didn't know
(05:34):
we were going to have a new investor and like, surprise,
here you are. So I yeah, So I walked into
the hotel. I met this lovely person who said, you know,
now time to address the team, and I literally said
to her, can I go put my contacts in? But they're like,
you don't know me, but I really need my contacts
and I'm going to speak. And I was still wearing,
(05:54):
you know, the one Gotham sweatshirt I had that I
had been wearing on the plane. Was wearing that and
it was so intimidating. And I actually now, I feel
like I've addressed the team so many times, but I
still get so intimidated every time. I don't know why
I'm talking about this now, but every time I do,
I still like get kind of butterflies in my stomach
of like, okay, better say something good. The thing that
(06:16):
you were afterwards, like you texted me and Mom and
you're like, okay, I can't believe I just spoke to
the team. I totally blacked out. I hope they liked it.
I can think of ten more things I would have said,
but it's with some version of like great job, like yeah,
just so happy to be here, right, and they were
probably all shocked. Yes, I think so. I mean, I
(06:37):
still have no idea. I think they were at number
one of just a yeah, we didn't know this was happening.
Number two, I don't remember I talked to this last time,
but there was god knows what I said. I'm sure
it was not particularly articulate. But so many of the
players came over who now that I didn't know who
they were. I knew who they their names were. I
worked very hard. I'm memorizing the roster on the way there,
(06:58):
but I didn't have the contact of like the contributions
many of them had made to the league, like Mana
Shim and mccaus or Boni, and so so many of
them came over to me and you know, gave me
a hug and said, we're so HAPPI you're here. And
that was really the first time I registered. I don't
think I registered the real magnitude of, you know, the work,
(07:19):
but I registered the magnitude of what it meant for
us to come in as new owners. And you know,
when we looked at the investment opportunity to begin with,
and we looked at a couple other teams in the
end of herself first, and it was really through the
lens of an investment. It was really, you know, we
we do see the tailwinds, you know, towards women's sports.
(07:40):
We think this is going to end up. We are,
you know, legacy New York owners. There's a lot we
could we could add, but I didn't really appreciate. Like
our family, our grandfather bought into the Giants thirty I
really always say I should know what the year is.
I don't know, thirty some odd years ago, and he
brought like New York business to the NFL. We now
(08:02):
for thirty somewhad years have not made another investment into
another team. And the team we chose as a family
to invest in was the women's soccer team here. It
wasn't men's basketball, it wasn't men's baseball, you know, fill
in the blank and all those things. And that was
such a statement to the team, the players, the league
(08:23):
in general that I don't think I appreciated like the
ramifications of that. Yeah, when you walked in to sit
in the studio today, we had to move the tissue
box out of the way and we were joking about
how guests often cry on this show, but you describing
having Monashim come over, having the calls or Bony come over,
like now I'm going to cry because now I also
(08:44):
have the context for how much they mean, like to
the league, to women's sports in general, and have also
now become friends. They are such incredible people. Like I
think we've just gotten to know so much more about
how strong they are, how their positivity has kept them
moving forward, like how much they've done to make a difference.
(09:06):
Like when I think about the fact that they came
over to you, like that mattered a lot, Like that
really mattered. So when we first came in, and I
think probably last year when I sat here, I talked
about why that the importance of treating this as an investment,
and you know, again, I could share all the reasons
why on a piece of paper this made sense. And
I still continually talk about it as investment because it's
(09:28):
critical for people to understand that women's sports is a
good investment and that brands should be part of it,
and media partners should be a part of it, fans
should be a part of it. But what I was
speaking to the player leadership council for this year's team
a week or so ago, and one of the things
I said to them is I think they didn't tell
me this, but this is what I think that when
I say that for players like that, they don't like it,
(09:53):
may lose the human the human piece of it, which
to your point is so important and so one hundred percent.
We run this as a business. We will continue to
run this as a business, and it's critical for the
growth of women's sports to run it as a business.
We also, I think that you know, a year and
a half in really, I think have a deeper all
of us have a deeper understanding of the human piece
(10:15):
of it too. Of like, these women have given so
much to this league. You hear these stories of like
it was, you know, when Lynn Williams talks about making
ten thousand dollars as a professional athlete and changing in
the bathrooms and not having a locker room to change,
and like these women have been that have been a
part of this league for a long time, have been
through so much and the league is still has so
(10:37):
much more room to go to be what it should be.
But it's really the league has been built on their backs.
And I'm so indebted to everyone that has like been
on this journey before we got there, so that it
was even interesting to us or even like on our
radar screen to come in as new owners, right, you know,
I think about in this week, I also interviewed Michelle Betos.
(10:58):
We're going to have an episode with her, who was
our goalkeeper and is now one of our goalkeeping coaches,
and she was talking about the same thing of the
growth of the league. That what she said is that
Mandy Freeman, who's been on our team since before it
was Gotham. She said that Mandy didn't have showers at
the training facility, and now this week we're taking Mandy
in to meet the editor and cheap of book. Amazing.
(11:18):
I love that to think about that growth and someone
like Mandy. I'm so glad you brought her up because
so she's now on our leadership council and it's just
incredible to have her perspective as exactly like she has
seen the league at the bottom, you know, at the beginning,
and has been with this and to stayed devoted to
a team through what I can't imagine the lows are
(11:42):
to now be sitting here saying like you flew us
to Spain as the first NWSL team who has ever
done preseason internationally like that, Like what an incredible experience,
and like these are the great things about it, and
these are the things that could be better next year.
And so to have that perspective is in valuable to
us as as still relatively new owners in the league.
(12:04):
This is a perfect segue into what is your perspective
now a year in? Like what worked? What are you
thinking about differently? What had you potentially thought as like
a big growth place that now maybe you'll put energy
into a different place, Like what surprised you about places
of growth? So one of the things I often talk
about with our team is we want to be the
(12:26):
an iconic global sports franchise. And the thinking behind that
actually came from work at the Giants. So when I
was working with the Giants, my team and ext three
and I were working with the Giants about potentially launching
in Germany and taking having NFL marketing rights in Germany,
and so we were talking about doing some research on
what does it mean to be a global brand and
(12:47):
who are the you know, who are the big global brands,
what do they look like, what do they how do
they act? And that was I think we hadn't even
looked at the Gotham investment yet. I think of I'm
getting my timing right. But what we saw there was
that was our first moment to realize there's no women's
team on that list, and it was just it was
just this we again, we don't have a thesis around
(13:08):
women's sports, but it was this moment to say, like,
wait a second, we're talking about at Manchester United, A
Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, New York Giants. There's no
women's team on that list, and it's going it's going
to happen, Like there's enough tailwinds to say there is
going to it is inevitable that there will be a
women's team on that list. And when you think about, okay,
so who would be the right one to be on
the list, Well, the number one sport globally is soccer.
(13:32):
The number one, like fean market is the US. So
then you're talking about basically New York or LA, and
you know, decide if you're from New York or LA,
which you think is going to be the market, so
that you know fast forward to Gotham, we set our
vision on we want to be an iconic global sports
franchise and if that's the goal, so then you back
(13:53):
into okay, so what are the what does it look
like to be an iconic global sports franchise? What do
those teams do? And number one, they win and they
win a lot, and so our goals on the business
on the soccer side were about winning, and so we
you know, and as to think about the last year,
So we came off the twenty three championship, we added
a ton of new free agents to that roster, and
(14:15):
we succeeded. We we were I think we were the top.
We had the most points we'd ever had as a
as a team. We had the top finish in terms
of standings of any of the teams that have been
in the playoffs. The year before, our goalkeeper won goal
Keeper of the Year. We had a bunch of players
I think six that won Olympic gold medals. So we
had an incredibly successful season on the soccer side. As
(14:37):
we thought about, so then what does that look like,
you know, year two? How do we build on that?
One thing that was clear to us is that we
were so focused on we never want you never want
to be a team that wins like trades. Winning this
year like gambles your future to win this year. And
so we've talked about what does it mean to be
a winner every year and like what are the things
you need to do to be to be a sustainable winner?
(14:58):
And so one of the things we thought about is
how do you bring in new talent? And the NWSL
is the first league in the US to get rid
of their college draft, and so how do you bring
in young new talent if you don't have a draft?
And right now, so we have I want to say,
five rookies on our team, and if there had been
(15:18):
a college draft, probably all five would have been first
round picks. And so our GM, our soccer team, did
an incredible job building those relationships, recruiting those new players
in to say like, okay, how do you win? You
bring in top talent, We're going to go like there's
a new system in place, there's no rules, We're going
to go figure out how to do it. So I'd
point to that. The other piece on the soccer side
I would focus. I would think about is we spent
(15:40):
a lot of time talking about it kind of internally,
what our mission is, what our values that we want
to live by, what our vision is, for the team.
And that work has come about because when you think about,
you know, do you to go back to the Giants
for a second? When a player you know gets drafted
and says like I always dreamed of being a New
(16:00):
York Giant, or I just I want to be a
part of the Giants, what are they really saying? There's
no you know, coaches come, coaches go, gms come, gms go.
What they're really there's something about like the identity of
the team that they want to be a part of.
And Gotham is new, so we didn't really know what
that identity was. So a lot of the work we've
(16:23):
been doing in the off season is to say, like
what is our identity? You know, when some new player
is saying like do I want to come to Gotham?
Do I not question maybe around you know, do I
like the coach, do like the GM door like they're
playing style, but also like do I want to be
a part of that identity? And that's been a lot
of the work we've been doing in the off season.
So what is the identity? Well, it's still working progress,
it's still working on it. I'd say one of the
(16:46):
kind of key pieces that we've been kind of a
shift in how we've been thinking. Is you know, as
I said before, this kind of iconic global sports franchise idea.
Our original mission was about being the best some version
of like being the best women's soccer team. And the
more we kind of noodled on the language, the more
we realize, like we actually don't want to be the
(17:07):
best women's soccer team. You know, as I said before,
we want to be the best. We want to be
the one of the best brands period. We want people
to walk down the street in Paris, London, Beijing, you
name it, wearing a Gotham shirt and like if you
ask them who are you know, starting eleven, they would say,
what are you talking about? Like they have an association
just like the Yankees, just like the Knicks, all these
great brands do with just you're a great brand you
(17:30):
want to be a part of. And so I think
a lot of our work around our mission vision was
actually just like setting the ambition higher and saying, again,
it's not enough to be the best NWSL team, but
you know we should that is on the road to it,
but we want to be one of the best in
the world. After a quick break, we talk about just
(17:51):
how one becomes the best team in the world and
the savvy plans Carolyn has to make it happen more soon.
When we left off, Carolyn was laying out Gotham FC's
(18:13):
ambitious plans to become the best in the world. But
what does that mean and more importantly, how do we
make it happen? So, as I said, you know, when
you look at the best brands in the world, they
win and because they win, so that's kind of the
core product on the field. Then you think about what
is the rest of the product. And they have a great,
(18:35):
really strong fan base, partly because the fan experience is
so good. And so last year we were really focused
on saying, okay, we know the ninety minutes of soccer
is going to be good because we have a great team,
what is the rest of the fan in game experience?
What is the rest of the fan in game experience like?
And so we implement We created a fan fest, so
it's no longer ninety minutes of soccer, it's two hours
(18:56):
of soccer. You come early, you get your face painted,
you listen to live music, have a drink. So that
was sort of, you know, idea one, But most importantly,
what we needed to do was to understand what was good,
what was bad, you know, what would we need to keep,
what we need to throw away. And so this is
where my tech background and my team's tech background is helpful,
because we implemented something that is pervasive in the tech
(19:19):
world and no one's ever heard of in the sports world,
which is a net promoter score. And when you say
that your team, it's because you brought a lot of
your top talent over from Peloton and they built out
from there. Yes, exactly. So our chief business officer at
Gotham is someone named Ryan Dillon who was worked with
me at Pelton. Laura Petro runs marketing at Gotham, also
(19:39):
worked with me at Pelton. So we have a sort of,
you know, best of Peloton influence at Gotham, which has
actually been really helpful because we also have a ton
of great people on our staff that come from the
sports world, and so we've tried to you know, I
think overall, there is no path that we're following, and
so we're trying to kind of take the best of
(20:00):
the sports world, take what works well at other teams,
and also take the best of the tech World and
kind of bring the two together. So net promoter score,
what it's basically saying is did you like it? Would
you come back? Is the idea, and what we saw
good news. People really like it and really want to
come back. So our net promoter score has been in
(20:20):
the eighties the whole season, which just to be to
take a step back. If you don't know net promoter score,
it's a score of one hundred to negative one hundred.
So having a score of a zero is actually not
a bad score. It means people are neutral, some people
really liked it, some people didn't. To have a score
of eighty means it's almost unheard of. I mean, these
(20:44):
are like the best brands in the world have like sixty,
you did seventy? What was the context of Like Apple's
is like sixty or something around this. I didn't look
at it before, so I can't remember exactly, but it's like, yeah,
like sixty. Probably Starbucks also probably around there are like
beloved brands. If you ask any ten year old who
have spent a lot of time with they will tell
(21:04):
you these are beloved brands and they're at a sixty.
I mean, so what we're seeing is almost universally, people
come to a game, you know, they they may have
heard of it, not heard of it before, and they
are having a fantastic experience and they want to come back.
And more importantly, I think for us, because we are
not you know, resting our laurels and saying we're done here,
(21:26):
is when they don't have a great experience, we can
point to exactly what it was about it that wasn't great.
So we often hear you know, transportation issues where our
STATEI where we play is on the path, and the
path is great when it comes, but sometimes it'll be late,
doesn't always run that often on a weekend. So we
know very clearly, you know, we want to go talk
(21:47):
to New Jersey Transit. We want to talk about adding
more trains so that they come more frequently. Like we
know exactly what it is that people are that is
detracting from their experience and we can work on that.
Can you talk about you said, you know, like you
pull from tech and you can pull from all these
different backgrounds. One of the interesting places that you've seen this,
as you say, you know, we're forging a new path
(22:08):
is at the league level in the NWSL that you
are now one of the more tenured owners, which must
be a wild experience. I mean, these are people who
are coming in with like massive backgrounds and portfolios and
ownerships in other leagues, yet is wild to think about. So, yeah,
we came in in November twenty three, so a year
(22:29):
and change ago, and we're definitely one of the most
tenured owners at this point. So there has just been
tremendous change and kind of turnover of ownership throughout the league.
So and everyone coming in, I don't want to speak
for everyone, but I think I can generalize it. Anyone
coming in now I think is eyes wide open to
(22:51):
both the investment level that is required for us to
do what we need to do as a league, but
also what the opportunity is. I think, you know, I'd
love to Seity and say our vision for Gotham is
unique to be one of the best brands in the world.
I think most owners are probably sitting there saying we
want to be one of the best brands in the world.
And that's a real change for the league. So that
is raising the bar for everyone across the league, which
(23:14):
which I think is great and needed in terms of
the different experiences that As I think about the other
owners that have joined recently, it really is kind of
best in class at what they do all bringing those
experiences to the league, so that so we can really
create the best league in the world because we can say,
you know, Mark Wilf, owner of Minnesota Vikings, how do
(23:37):
you do things? You know, as we're talking about whatever topic,
how do they do things at the NFL. David Blitzer,
you own in the NBA, how do they do things
in the NBA? Lisa bethal who just they own the
Portland team. They just became the expansion franchise for the WNBA.
So we now have the front row seat there where
you know, as we think about our next media deal,
is there anyone you would rather have on your board
(23:57):
than will Obey who's incredible and happens to be married
to Bob Eiger. I mean there we just have this
Melody Hobson, who just we met with, who just came
in at Denver. Every new owner that has come in
brings such an interesting and different perspective that it really
feels like, you know, we all feel very comfortable saying
this is how it's done. It, you know, fill in
(24:18):
the blank, league or company that I've been a part of.
But you know, there's no roadmap. We can do it
however we want to do it, and that's allowed us,
i think, to make decisions that are potentially different than
other leagues would make. And you have some news to
break about the NWSL board. There's been a real vote
of confidence in you. Yes, So I just became the
chairwoman of the Executive Committee of the NWSL. Congratulations, What
(24:44):
does that mean? That's a good question. So the Executive
Committee of the league is it's kind of like the
Commissioner's first phone call, so you know, when it sets
the direction of the league. It deals with issues like
governance and you know, what do we want to be
focused on? What are our priorities? Reviews the commissioner. So
that's kind of the Executive Committee in general. It's like,
you know, when something goes wrong, who do I call?
(25:05):
It's the executive Committee. Now we whit hold that down
to the chairperson of the Executive Committee. So I would say,
kind of first and foremost, it's that it's like, you know,
if Jessica Berman, the Commissioner, needs something, she calls me.
It's it's the sort of like go between between the
board and the commissioner, so owner, other owners and other
teams if they're dealing with an issue with the league
(25:27):
or have questions about something, they will call me kind
of as a first line of defense. And then what
I found the most interest, So that all kind of happens,
it's a lot of time. But then what I found
most interesting is there's a committee called the Strategic Committee,
which is the chairperson of each of the other committees.
So it's the person who runs the Finance committee, the
person who runs the commercial committee, expansion, sporting, and myself,
(25:50):
And so that's the sort of through between Like we
may sit the Sporting committee may sit and talk about
you know what, or the commercial committee may sit and say,
what do we want the next media deal to look like?
But then the Sporting Committee may say, like, oh, that
actually impacts us in a way that you may not
be thinking about, so let me tell you what I
think about it. The expansion committee may say, oh, wait,
(26:10):
as we're thinking about new teams, like this is what
we should be thinking about. So it's sort of kind
of you're getting each aspect. The league is so multifaceted,
you're getting each aspect of the league all together in
one room, and that's been really interesting. Definitely a lot
of work. I think when Jessica and I had a
lot of conversations about it before I accepted it, and
(26:31):
I think ultimately what made it feel like the right
use of my time is I think at this point,
you know, year two, season two into Gotham, I think
we understand what it's going to take for us to
be successful, and we are, you know, a long way
away from doing that. But I think we we know,
you know, to your question, before we know what's working,
we know it's not we know where we want to go,
(26:53):
but every team is only going to be as successful
as the league is, and so spending you know, more
time thinking about what do we want this league to
be and how will this league continue to compete for
talent and continue to compete for eyeballs? And are we
telling the right stories as a league, Like that's really
what's going to make all of us successful. And so
that's why it felt like a good use of time.
(27:18):
When we come back, we chat about the new Amazon
docu series For the Win, which features Gotham FC and
a behind the scenes look at their visit to the
White House. Stay tuned. Okay, let's talk about sports and culture.
(27:45):
So it's funny when you do interviews and you talk about,
like why you looked at Gotham as the growth opportunity,
like the biggest growth opportunity to end up as the
biggest growth opportunity, it's that women's sports hadn't really hit culture,
which now seems a year and a half later like
a dinosaur idea. But how do we fully enter culture,
(28:07):
Like how do we how do we make I mean,
you did that so well at Peloton, how do we
do that now so that the NWSL even hits WNBA
status or bigger. So I do feel like we are
in step one of this right now with this documentary outright,
in our docuseries out right now. So you know, if
you think about why people watch sports, obviously there's you know,
(28:28):
the live element, there's the you know, you don't know
what's going to happen element in a world of like
everything being scripted. But the other piece of why you
watch is the stories. It's the storylines, and so this
docu so maybe I should take a step back that
there is a docuseries right now on Amazon Prime which
follows the final four teams in the playoffs last year
and kind of through the championship, and hopefully everyone will
(28:50):
watch it. It's called for the win, It's called for
the win. Thank you on Amazon Prime. Everyone gets it.
Everyone gets it. You could watch it. It's great. So
but I think what you see in that is so
you'll see in it that Gotham loses in penalty kicks
in the semi finals, just trud It was gut wrenching,
truly gut wrenching. But you know, you can imagine if
you're a sports fan, losing in penalty gigs in a
(29:11):
semi finals is gut wrenching, period. Losing in a semifinals
in penalty kicks. Once you've gotten to know the players
and you understand what's on the line for them, and
you understand the dynamics between the team and you know
who's playing for what, it's just you're so much more
invested in it. And so storylines are kind of the
(29:31):
reason people show up for sports. But we as you know,
owners and as teams need to go tell those stories.
And so something like having a docuseries on Prime right
now is kind of step one, I would say to
being a part of culture. It's obviously, you know, not
the end, but but very much step one. Another piece,
(29:53):
you know, let's say, kind of borrowed from the pelts
On playbook has been the focus on stars and helping
players turn into We very much saw that at Peloton
that when people said that they were a fan of
they would say like, oh my god, I love Peloton
and then they jump right to like I love Ali
or I love Robin or Cody. And so with Gotham,
we very much see that, you know, I love Gotham
(30:14):
like I would go anywhere for Rose Level or you know,
I can't wait for Midge to get back on the
pitch because she tore a cel last year. So it
is on us to tell those stories of our players
and to really elevate them. And there's so many interesting
stories to tell, and I think we've we've done a
good job of that. We were going to continue to
do more of that. So part of this, in this
(30:34):
last year of you leading the team in many more
ways that you thought you were going to, is that
you have also become much more public than you ever
intended to be, which you're handling very well. Thank you,
Thank you for working on it. But what has that
been like for you. So again, when we first came
into this, the opportunity to invest in Gotham, it was
(30:57):
very much as an investment, and I didn't really appreciate Again,
we looked at a vestment, we decided it was a
good investment. We made it, you know, the end, or
so we thought, I guess the end. I didn't really
appreciate what it would mean for me to become one
of the faces of women's sports. And I was actually
(31:18):
just speaking at a sports conference last weekend at MIT,
and after my panel, there were a bunch of people
waiting to talk to me after and I start talking
to people and there's like fifteen of them young women
saying like, oh my god, I've always wanted to They
would go to MIT Sloan, they go to Harvard Business Foe,
where I went like, I've always dreamed of working in
(31:39):
women's sports. And I was like, you did. Like when
I didn't go to HBS that long ago, there was
no I don't know, there was no conversations around whose
path is women's sports? And so one of the things
that you know, again has been sort of an unintended consequence,
but a positive one has been this this feeling that
I think I can help represent what does it mean
(32:01):
to work in women's sports and you can actually dream
about working in a place like women's sports. So that part,
I think, I feel like I have been able to
kind of elevate the entire business of it. But I
would say the kind of that adds pressure. I think
for me it adds part like I feel like, you know,
I'm an over prepare anyway, but I feel particularly like
(32:23):
if I'm going to be on this panel with a
bunch of people talking about their investment in F one
and their investment in you know, LAFC and all these
other men's sports, and like if I'm there representing women's sports,
I better do a great job and have people realize
like this is something you can invest in. Yeah, people,
I mean ask me all the time while you're like,
why isn't you know one? I want I want to
(32:44):
learn what Carolyn's doing and she's such a role model,
like I want to see more of it. Can I
talk to her? And I'm like just very busy. And
then last week when we were relaunching this season of
the podcast in DC, a bunch of people came up
to me and They're like, well, I assume that Carolin's
headlining Forbes next week for as Women conference next week,
And I was like the one in Abu Dhabi. First all,
(33:06):
I wasn't invited. Second of all, I'm intimidated by the idea.
But the follow up was that Carolyn should be headlining
every conference right now, like every like you should be
speaking everywhere, Like why isn't she And my answer was, well,
she's really busy. Yeah, like you're really a worker. And
then also still trying to protect your kids are still young,
(33:27):
like still trying to protect some of that time. So like,
how have you been thinking about I mean knowing you
like you don't really think about how to become the
face of it, like you just work, But do you
think about trying to make that more of the way
you spend your time or it's not that phase right now. No,
I do feel like I'm still there. I am. I'm
a worker, like I am in it. We don't have
(33:48):
a CEO like that is I spend a lot of
time with our general manager. I spend a lot of
time with our CBO Ryan, So I'm and now at
the league, so I'm very much in it. So I
would say number one, I just you know that is
my number one focus is the work. Number two, well,
I don't want to put in that order. Let me
start with my number one rarity is my kids and
protecting that time. I do feel like as they've gotten older,
(34:12):
it's funny like I'll travel for work. I try not
do that much, but I'll go through like leaps and
bounds to get home so that I'm only gone like
one night, not two nights, or two nights not three nights,
and pinelpe my daughter who's about to be ten, like
when I'll say like, okay, I'm getting on like the
four thirty flight tomorrow morning and then like the eleven
pm flight home, and she was like, why do just
stay over? I'm like, oh, I'm trying to get home
(34:34):
for bedtime and she's like, We're good. Like I think
as they've gotten older, I think they appreciate not only
you know that I work, but also like that what
I am building and that they see. You know, they
might not understand like this is a unique moment in
time and this is not forever, but I think they
do start to understand, like even they have memories at
(34:55):
this point, so like the idea of what they saw,
what Gotham looked like. They were actually the first time
I went to a game, I brought THEO, my middle
one to see, like, you know, do we want to
do this? Do we not want to do it? And
so that was you know, two years ago probably and
like for what the stands looked like and the experience
was like from then to now, they feel the difference,
(35:15):
They see the difference, and so I think they as
much as I am mostly saying no to things like
going Abu Dhabi because I want to be with my kids,
they also do appreciate that I'm really building something. What
do you hear back from your kids? Like I can
see how proud they are of you, Like they stand
on the sidelines when you do post game announcements, like
they're so proud, But like, how do you feel that
(35:37):
reflected back to you? That's a really good question. I
think they So I do feel like, you know, I
feel like, you know, kids don't say that much, so
like they're not giving me like a whole you know,
poem on like what you've done. But I do I
feel it. I feel like I watch I think I
watched them watch me and see like this is something
(35:59):
I'm proud of, and I've tried really hard to not
make it feel like a burden. Like, you know, anytime
there's a Gotham game, a'll you know, I'll say to
my kids, like you don't go to your friend's birthday party,
go to your soccer game, Like this is not this
is how I've chosen to spend my time, but it
doesn't need to be how you've chosen to spend your time.
And I think the biggest way I, you know, feel
(36:19):
their support is that nine times out of ten they
choose the Gotham game and they do want to be
a part of it. And you know, I took Pinelpe
to the opening of the docu saries the other night,
and you know, I said, like, you don't have to go,
you know, this is just this is meant to be
a treat, but like if you want to come with
me to work for the afternoon and go be a
part of it, you know, come, And obviously she wanted to.
And so maybe that was about example because that was fun.
(36:41):
But you know, I think they want to be a
part of it. And that's the biggest sign that I
see that they recognize that this is something bigger because
they have a choice, they can do something else, and
like this is where they want to spend their time.
But I think that's ultimately what sports are about, is
that it's about family traditions, it's about I also that
it's say funny you were saying about like the people
(37:02):
love it for the storylines. Like I will often say,
like I'm like as a shorthand, I'm like, hey, yes,
sports is men's gossip. It is totally. Yes, sports is
what brings people together. I think in our family, you know,
the Giants was the thing that brought us to people together.
I wrote my college essay about our three generations of
women bonding over football and moms like popcorn, you know,
dropping behind her. And I think for our kids, obviously
(37:25):
they have the Giants and you know that's a part
of their family connection. And so is Gotham. And you know,
when I my little one, Alexander will his like favorite
if I've gone to one of the New Jersey offices
that I go to either the Giants or Gotham, and
I come home, he'll always say, like, you're wearing your
fancy clothes today. But then he'll say, you know which
office did you go to? And I'll say, and then
(37:46):
he always asks, like who's your favorite team? The Giants
or Gotham, And it's his like go to bedtime, Like
I can't go to bed until you answer the question,
you know, is it the Giants or is it Gotham?
And obviously don't as because no child is better than
the other, But I would say the idea that you know,
in his mind they're equivalent, and like, of course, you know,
(38:08):
half a dozen of one, six of the other. You know,
some days I like Gotham, some days I like the Giants.
And so I think for their generation, they are growing
up with a lot of sports games to go to
number one, but number two, they're really seeing them as
the same and equal or maybe equal not the same,
And I think that is I'm hoping part of what
(38:29):
we're building in this ambition to take it back to
the beginning, like the ambition around creating one of the
best brands in the world and not kind of putting
ourselves in the box of women's sports. Is in this
next generation. I the hope and I see it playing
out it with our kids is that they're just seen
as the same, Like I like Gotham, you like, maybe LAFC,
(38:50):
I like the Giants, you like this women the Spirit,
and maybe those brands don't mean I think, but basically
like alternating between men's brands and women's brands and not
seeing it as it's like, oh, this is my women's
team that I like, and this is my men's team
that I like. Yeah, at my kids' school, they wear uniforms,
but Friday is dressed down day, and I'd say, you know,
a third of the boys wear Gotham like every Friday
(39:14):
dress down day because they all wear jerseys and so
they all wear their teams and they like they just
love it, like they love to be able to follow it.
And again like with this generation, like they don't know
that they're not supposed to be as dedicated, Like they
are just as dedicated because the competition is there, the
athletes are there, the storylines are there, like it has
it all you'll see it all in for the wom exactly.
You know, the early kind of days of women's sports,
(39:35):
people talked about it as a charity and it was
sort of like, oh, you should go to a women's
sports team because like you have a daughter, and that's
what's good for the women, like let's support them, But
it wasn't to your point around like, no, these are
professional athletes. These are the best athletes in the world
at what they do. There's an intense game to watch. Sports.
Sports brings people together, there are traditions there, it's a
(39:57):
great fan experience. That's why you're going, not because you
like feel sorry for the women. And I think in
a younger generation they're not coming with that baggage. So
they can just show up because it's a great game. Okay,
Now that our listeners are so hyped up and so
excited to see the rest of this season, what can
they do? How can they engage? Okay, well, number one,
watch if I have not sold you on the docu series,
(40:18):
I don't know what will download for the win on
Amazon Prime. Show up to our games. You know, as
I said, this is we are still in the building phase.
I think you know we are making a commitment to
be a part of it because we think we know
that this can be something great. We want everyone to
be a part of it. So home opener March twenty third,
and then a long list of games after that. You
(40:39):
can find the schedule online and follow us on social
You know, however, it is that you want to engage
with it. We want you to engage in it because
it's such a great product and brand. Okay, thank you, Kat,
thanks for coming on again. This is fine for your
swan song of she Pivots exactly your final and She's out.
I'm done. Carolyn is still championing GOTHAMFC and women's sports
(41:02):
as a whole. Gotham plays nearly every weekend, so be
sure to follow them on Instagram at GOTHAMFC to stay
up to date on how to watch the games, and
if you're in the New York area, grab your friends
and come see us at a game. I can't say
enough good things. The soccer is good, the merch is good,
the vibes are great. So get your tickets and I'll
(41:26):
see you there. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to
this episode of she Pivots. I hope you enjoyed it,
and if you did, leave us a rating and tell
your friends about us. To learn more about our guests,
follow us on Instagram at she Pivots the Podcast, or
sign up for our newsletter where you can get exclusive
(41:47):
behind the scenes content. On our website at she Pivots
thepodcast dot Com special thanks to the She Pivots team,
Executive producer only Eda Vlosk, Associate producer and social media
connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics
(42:08):
coordinator Madeline Snovac, and audio editor and mixer Nina pollock
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