The Year Ahead for the W: Previewing the WNBA’s Most Important 2023 Storylines

Wednesday, May 3 | 12:30 PM ET

The Year Ahead for the W: Previewing the WNBA's Most Important Storylines

Sports fans are finding women’s basketball. The LSU-Iowa NCAA Championship just attracted the best women’s college audience ever. This past WNBA season was the most watched since 2006, while the league had its best postseason audience since 2007.

Now, with the 2023 WNBA season coming up, how can the league continue to build on that growth? Join SBJ Managing Editor/Digital Austin Karp as he leads a panel of industry insiders in a discussion focused on the future of the W in 2023 and beyond.

What will we discuss?

• Investment in and growth of the WNBA -- and women’s sports generally
• Compensation for WNBA athletes and NIL opportunities
• Women’s basketball media rights – both for the WNBA and NCAA
• Strategies for entertaining current fans and recruiting new ones

Who should attend?

• WNBA team and league representatives
• Media companies working with WNBA or looking to work with women’s hoops
• Fan experience technology companies working with WNBA or looking to work with WNBA
• Stakeholders from women’s sports generally
• Investors in sports teams and leagues

Featured Speakers (Additional speakers to be announced)

Cathy Engelbert was named the first-ever Commissioner of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2019 and is charged with bolstering visibility for the sport of women’s basketball and leading the business through transformation. Since Cathy stepped into the role of WNBA Commissioner, she has:

• Executed a historic player-first Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2020 which tripled the pay of top players and provided an array of progressive benefits.
• Built and socialized a new economic framework to drive league revenue growth and stakeholder success.
• Led the longest tenured women’s professional sports league in the U.S. through its 25th anniversary season and through the COVID-19 pandemic over her two seasons at the helm.
• Raised $75M capital from outside investors to fund league transformation projects.

Prior to the WNBA, Cathy retired as the CEO of Deloitte in June of 2019, after 33 years with the firm. Elected as Deloitte CEO in 2015, she was the first woman CEO in the history of a Big Four professional services firm. In her role as CEO of Deloitte, Cathy led the largest accounting and consulting organization in the United States with more than 100,000 professionals.

Cathy is a member of the Board of Directors of McDonald’s Corporation, Royalty Pharma, and the USGA Executive Committee. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Partnership for New York City and is member of the Business Council, Council on the Foreign Relations, and Catalyst, a global non-profit organization that promotes inclusive workplaces for women.

She has been listed as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women for four consecutive years, was ranked on Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards honoring the 100 Highest Rated CEOs, and is one of Fast Company magazine’s Most Productive People. In 2021, Engelbert was listed on the Forbes’ ‘50 Over 50’ list and Adweek’s ’40 Women to Watch’.

Cathy received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Economics (Accounting) from Lehigh University. She has two children—earning her the recognition as one of Working Mother magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Moms for three years.

Flora Kelly, who joined ESPN in 2006, is currently the vice president of ESPN research in the strategy department. In this role, she and her team are responsible for TV audience research, digital media research & analytics, consumer and brand research. The goal of her department is to provide reliable data and tangible insights to grow the ESPN brand and increase audiences.

Over the years, she has delivered valuable insights for key priorities such as ESPN’s reimagined Brand Promise, insights that drove the successful launch of ESPN+, and award-winning research that has led to ESPN’s groundbreaking creative and marketing campaigns. This includes a gold, silver, and bronze medal sweep at the ARF David Ogilvy Awards (2020), which honors the best campaigns that exemplify the power of research and insights.

Kelly also serves as a highly followed source for fan and media trends in the sports industry as she powers ESPN’s research Twitter account (@ESPNFlora).

Kelly began her ESPN career as a research analyst. She has progressed to manager, consumer insights; associate director, consumer insights; director, distribution research; senior director, brand and consumer insights; and vice president brand strategy & content insights.

Prior to ESPN, Kelly worked at Radius Insights as an analyst working on projects for media brands like HGTV and OWN. She started her career at SSRBI conducting polling work for government institutions.

Kelly is a graduate of Hofstra University and earned her Master’s degree in social research from Hunter College.

Registration is free. All registrants will receive a link to watch the recording once the session concludes.

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