The Business of Women's Sports: Made for Her: Sports Facilities

Wednesday, July 8 | 12:30 PM ET

The Business of Women's Sports

Made for Her: Sports Facilities

Purpose‑built stadiums, dedicated training centers, and upgraded shared venues are becoming central to the continued growth of women’s sports — reshaping player experience, fan engagement, and commercial opportunity. As more organizations invest in facilities designed specifically for women’s teams, questions around ownership models, public vs. private funding, and return on investment come into sharper focus. This SBJ Live episode will explore how the strategy is evolving — and why infrastructure is now a critical lever in the business of women’s sports.

What We Will Discuss:

• The rise of purpose‑built venues and training facilities in women’s sports
• How facilities impact player recruitment, retention, and performance
• New revenue streams tied to sponsorship, premium seating, and community use
• What cities, owners, and leagues are learning from recent facility investments

Who Should Attend:

• Team and league executives overseeing facilities and operations
• Venue owners, operators, and developers
• Brand and sponsorship leaders evaluating on‑site integrations
• City officials, investors, and agency partners

Featured Speakers (Additional to be Announced)

Avignon (Avi) Greene is an architect at Populous specializing in women’s professional sports. She plays a key role in shaping industry thought leadership and works in close collaboration with influential partners and stakeholders who are advancing the future of women’s pro sports.

Avi sees sport as a powerful platform for impacting the larger culture. As a queer woman and former collegiate athlete, she understands the stakes of equity firsthand. To her, this isn’t an abstract goal but a lived experience, making her work in women’s professional sports deeply personal. Her recent portfolio reflects both her technical skill and personal investment in changing the industry from the inside out. She has been instrumental in shaping the design of some of the most influential women’s sports facilities currently underway.

Avi supports Populous’ values of equity, intentionality, and inclusion across every phase of the design process. Her role includes providing quality assurance, shaping design narratives, and advocating for environments that reflect the evolving needs of female athletes and their fans. Beyond her design work, Avi actively contributes to the broader movement of women’s sports and is a trusted advisor to influencers within the industry. Known as a collaborator, Avi’s colleagues seek out her valuable insight. She has made a name for herself in the industry through living her core values of remaining inclusive, approachable, and authentic in every aspect of her work.

Within Populous, she contributes to the firm’s sustainability resource group, EcoPop, and serves as co-chair of PopTogether, the firm’s DEIB Steering Committee. She has recently been named the 2025 Woman to Watch by Women Leaders in Sports.

Stacy Johns is President of the Los Angeles Sparks, one of the WNBA's founding franchises and a premier global sports and entertainment brand. In her role, she oversees all aspects of the organization's business operations, including revenue generation, marketing, communications, community impact, finance, human resources, and strategic growth initiatives.

Johns brings more than two decades of leadership experience across professional sports. Prior to joining the Sparks, she served as Chief Business Officer of LAFC Partners, LLLP, overseeing business operations for Los Angeles Football Club and BMO Stadium. During her tenure, LAFC became one of the most valuable clubs in Major League Soccer, growing from a $475 million valuation to $1.4 billion, while BMO Stadium emerged as one of the premier entertainment venues in the world. Under her leadership, LAFC and BMO Stadium earned numerous industry accolades, including recognition by Forbes and Sportico, Pollstar Top 5 Worldwide Concert Sales rankings, and Billboard Top Global Stadiums for Touring. Johns was also recognized individually as a 2023 Sports Business Journal Game Changer and a 2024 Los Angeles Business Journal CFO of the Year.

While at LAFC, Johns served on the Board of the European Club Association (now European Football Clubs), while also holding leadership positions as President of Grasshopper Club Zürich in the Swiss Super League and Managing Director of FC Wacker Innsbruck in Austria. These experiences provided her with a unique international perspective on club operations, commercial strategy, governance, and organizational leadership.

Prior to LAFC, Johns spent more than 15 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League, where she served in leadership roles across finance, business operations, data analytics, and human resources. She began her career as a Certified Public Accountant with Ernst & Young and Eli Lilly.

Johns currently serves on several boards and advisory groups supporting the advancement of sports and business leadership. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, cum laude, from Butler University.

Vince Kozar, now in his 22nd season with the organization, is the President of Business Operations of the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and Valley Suns (NBA G League). Kozar was named to the role of president after serving as Chief Operating Officer of the then-Arena Sports Group since 2018, which at the time oversaw the organization’s interests in the Mercury, NBA G League’s Northern Arizona Suns (until 2020) and Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers (until 2023). He was promoted to that role following three-plus seasons as the Mercury’s Vice President of Business Operations. 

Kozar oversees all aspects of the franchises’ day-to-day business operations, reporting to Phoenix Mercury and Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein. He works cross-departmentally on the Mercury’s revenue generation, brand awareness, and community impact, which includes ticket sales and service, partnership development and activation, public relations and social responsibility, social media and website content, brand marketing, and the in-arena experience.    

Kozar joined the Mercury and Suns organization in 2004 as an intern and has worked on the business sides of both properties. After serving as the communications manager for the Mercury’s title run in 2007, Kozar spent six seasons in the Suns’ basketball communications department. He returned to the Mercury in 2013 as the then newly-created director of communications and creative strategies in order to take a more active role in the team’s business operations, before being named vice president in 2014. Kozar and staff earned the WNBA’s prestigious President’s Award in 2014 after winning the team’s third championship, hosting the WNBA All-Star Game and leading the league in attendance. They were second runner-up in the WNBA’s Franchise of the Year competition in 2017 and 2018, and hosted what was widely regarded as the best All-Star Game in WNBA history in summer 2024. 

Kozar was a 2017 selection to the Phoenix Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,”  The Athletic’s “40 Under 40: Rising Stars in Women’s Basketball” in 2021, an American Cancer Society “Game Changer” in 2022, a Phoenix TITAN honoree in 2023, and was honored as a Spotlight Local Hero by ONE Community in 2017. Kozar received the 2025 Advocacy Champion Award from the Foley Foundation for his role in advocating for the return of Brittney Griner and other wrongfully detained Americans. Most recently, he received a regional Emmy Award for writing for Diana Taurasi’s retirement video, If This Is It — the first received by the Mercury in team history. He was a board member at Valley Youth Theater, serves on ONE Community’s Multicultural Advisory Board, and on ASU’s Sports Business Advisory Board. 

A native of Scottsdale and a resident of Phoenix, Kozar is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor.

Mike Whitehead, hired in October of 2024, is the Managing Director of RAJ Sports, the sports investment platform for the Bhathal Family, owners and operators of Portland Thorns and the Portland Fire. Whitehead has held prominent roles in the NBA, NFL and NFL. He served as Senior Vice President of Finance with the Sacramento Kings and Golden 1 Center while overseeing the company’s real estate assets. Whitehead also served as Senior Vice President of Team Finance at the NBA, helping develop the CBA and Revenue Sharing strategy in 2011.

At RAJ Sports, Whitehead played a pivotal role in the Bhathal family’s acquisition of the Thorns and Fire, and currently oversees business and sporting operations for both franchises. He is also managing the development of the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, a state-of-the-art training facility that will be headquarters for both the Thorns and Fire.

Registration is free. All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar following the event.

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