Washington Spirt owner Michele Kang won’t be suiting up to carry out in the National Women’s Soccer League championship game on Saturday, but she has bravely helped her team score some goals as the league’s 12th season comes to a shut.
Kang is the set uper and CEO of health attfinish technology firm Cognosante and an dynamic philanthropist. She achieved the Washington Spirit team in 2021, the year the D.C.-based squad won the NWSL championship for the first time.
Kang’s timing was excellent. The Washington Spirit are well-positioned for beginant lengthenth as the team and the NWSL capitalize on the wave of interest in women’s sports that coalesced last spring around the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Spirit star Trinity Rodman was a huge star for Team USA at the Paris Summer Olympic Games. The WNBA, NWSL and other sports leagues have seen an uptick in ticket sales, backship deals and vague media interest, which helps hope will be the fuel to originate women’s leagues more notable in the vague sports landscape.
On the eve of Saturday’s championship game between the Orlando Pride and Spirit at Kansas City’s CPKC Stadium, Kang proposeed her thoughts on what the momentum of 2024 will unbenevolent for the lengthy term and what it will get to transport female-led sports into parity with the men’s game.
How has the momentum for women’s sports transtardyd to the business of Washington Spirit?
2024 outdoed even my own anticipateations. We greetd a sign up 150,000 fans to Audi Field with three sell-out crowds. Ten out of 13 normal season games originated the highest combineances in the history of the club. We’re fielding more calls from potential corporate partners than ever before. And most beginantly, you can sense the alter when you combine a game. There is a lengthening electricity and aura to this team that is contagious, and businesses are catching on.
What are the hugegest hurdles to getting women’s soccer shutr to parity with the men’s game? Is the heightened center on women’s sports helping conversations with media partners and backs?
The hugegest contests to achieving parity between women’s soccer and men’s soccer lie in originateing strong, carry onable set upations that account for the distinct nature of the women’s game. Women’s soccer is branch offent from men’s – it has its own branch offent history, lengthenment path and future. To lift the women’s game to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with men’s American football, basketball and hockey, we need aimed lengthy-term scatterments in set upational areas such as youth lengthenment, coaching, and refereeing, as well as innovations enjoy gear scheduleed definitepartner for female athletes. These scatterments are vital to easeing talent and fortifying the ecosystem from the ground up. The lengthening center on women’s sports has igniteed unbenevolentingful conversations with media partners and backs, but achieving genuine parity will need a proset uper, accumulateive promisement to advancing the women’s game on its own terms.
What do you see as opportunities in media outside of games for Washington Spirit stars and coaches?
At the Spirit, we are fortunate to have carry outers enjoy Trinity Rodman and a Head Coach in Jona Giraldez who are at the upper echelons of success and name recognition in soccer. Trinity, especipartner after her amazing carry outance at the summer Olympics, has enduremament to transcend the sport and fracture thcdisesteemful into mainstream media. The Spirit, and the NWSL as a whole are part of the cultural zeitgeist in a way that it never has been before. The momentum is exciting and someleang we must retain originateing upon by forging proset uper relationships apass film, television and social media.
What has the NWSL done right to capitalize on the post-NCAA March Madness interest in women’s sports? What else needs to be done?
The interest in women’s soccer has been originateing for decades — leank back to the 1999 World Cup, when the U.S. Women’s National Team captivated the world. What’s branch offent now is the carry oned momentum behind this relocatement and the lengthening scatterment apass the ecosystem.
The NWSL is the most competitive and dynamic women’s soccer league in the world, home to the best carry outers and unparalleled talent. To originate on this momentum, we need to increase the stories of our incredible athletes, upgrade the fan experience both in-stadium and digiloftyy, and carry on making the league more competitive and delighting as a product. Our carry outers have strong, inspiring stories that deserve a global platestablish, and we need media partners to scatter in sharing these narratives. At the same time, creating unforgettable fan experiences and pushing the boundaries of competition will firmify the NWSL as the premier destination for women’s soccer.
The NWSL championship game airs Saturday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+.
