Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Leagues and Governing Bodies

WNBA COO Christy Hedgpeth Ready For First Year With League

Hedgpeth said the league is focused and committed to building a healthy, sustainable economic modelNBAE/GETTY IMAGES

The WNBA tips off its 23rd season Friday, and it has been a busy offseason for the league on several fronts. The WNBA now has a new leader after hiring Cathy Engelbert as its first Commissioner and it recently struck a deal with CBS Sports Network to broadcast 40 games, nearly double the amount that were shown on national TV last year. The league also last month announced a “refresh” of its brand that included a new logo design and a new marquee partner in AT&T, though the new branding will now appear on WNBA uniforms, basketballs or the court until ’20. New WNBA COO Christy Hedgpeth spoke with THE DAILY to discuss the league’s strategy for growth and her role in the re-imagining of the WNBA brand.

Q: With Engelbert now on board, have you been able to meet to chart a course for this season and make plans for things you want to accomplish?
Hedgpeth: I am completely over the moon about the hiring of Cathy because of what she is going to bring to the league in terms of her experience, her network and her passion for the game. We have met on several occasions, but we have not begun in earnest plotting out our future strategy together. We’ve talked a lot about those main pillars of growth and our strategy together even in the hiring process, and so we’ll have the opportunity to get her thoughts and input on everything so that she can contribute and put her stamp on it. But right now, we’re really working to just get her up to speed and she’s obviously transitioning from Deloitte, so more to come.

Q: What does the NBA’s involvement in the league look like going forward?
Hedgpeth: Cathy and I will lead the team strategically and in the day-to-day, and look to the broader NBA organization certainly for support. We have a dedicated WNBA team that is growing, in terms of our commitment to building out league-dedicated resources, but it really takes a very committed organization across the NBA enterprise to help the WNBA really be successful. We have a lot of fantastic partners throughout the organization who have already been stepping up, and in my time here across different departments have really helped us get on the path of growth that we’re looking for, including of course Adam Silver and Mark Tatum.

Q: How do you see the CBSSN deal impacting the league’s reach and how has the streaming deal with Twitter helped grow the WNBA’s fan base?
Hedgpeth: One of our biggest strategic priorities is to expand our audience. We have been very focused on gaining additional exposure and partnering with someone like CBS with that type of brand strength and reach is something that will further our goals in terms of expanding our audience and our reach. What I also love about the CBS deal is that I know firsthand through speaking with their executives that they are very committed to women’s sports and have a real genuine belief in the high-quality product that the WNBA represents, so we’re very excited. We’re in the third year of our streaming deal with Twitter and we have been very pleased with the results. What we love about it is that it really aligns with our approach to targeting a younger, more diverse, socially-conscious consumer and Twitter, along with CBS, ESPN and NBA TV together create a really nice media mix for us and allows us to expand our audience and reach different segments of it.

Q: What was the impetus behind the WNBA’s “brand refresh” and what kind of impact will it have?
Hedgpeth: It’s really a complete brand overhaul and fundamentally a new brand positioning, a new voice in how we’re going to come through that is modern, edgy and relevant. Visually it’s going to come to life in a way that’s compelling, including a new color palette and new logo. The players themselves have been very involved throughout the reset process, which is really important to us to integrate their perspectives and insight. They really contributed to everything about the logo like what the hair should look like and the move and the physique, which was really cool. The vast majority of our rollout is happening this year, so every single piece of creative, every owned channel that we have like our app and our website, everything that you see on TV, social and digital and advertising will reflect the new brand positioning and the new look. In order to grow at the rate we really believe we have the potential to, we wanted to make sure that we reinvented everything about our brand to be modern, edgy, relevant and compelling to a younger, more diverse audience.

Q: What is the WNBA’s stance on players going to play overseas to increase their earning potential considering injuries, namely, to reigning MVP Breanna Stewart, that can hurt the league’s product?
Hedgpeth: We are very focused on building a healthy economic model that will sustain the league into the future. We don’t have that today. We all know the headlines and topics out there, and I will just say that we, from the very highest levels of this organization, are deeply committed to the WNBA and want to invest everything that we have in terms of our efforts, our talents, to get the league on a growth trajectory into the future. We want to see our players get the recognition they deserve, and we believe we are certainly committed to a fair and equitable agreement with them. That’s the path we’re on right now, and with Cathy and I both being former players, this comes from a very deep, genuine place. It is an economic issue, not a gender issue, and there’s much work to be done. But for us looking again at the landscape around women and women’s sports, we are very optimistic about the opportunity we have.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2019/05/24/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/Hedgpeth.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2019/05/24/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/Hedgpeth.aspx

CLOSE