The message from our Game Changers 2016 conference was clear to me: Gender diversity has improved at the mid-to-lower level of the sports industry, but we still need to see significant progress at the executive level. The event, in its fourth year, has a feel of part celebration, part reunion, as an audience of roughly 80 percent women uses the day to make new connections and reconnect with colleagues. There’s an upbeat air in the room. The day’s discussions are largely filled with comments giving advice and guidance on professional development, and less about advancing women’s sports as a commercial property. That’s been the challenge around this conference — finding speakers willing to take on the status quo when it comes to women’s sports and corporate support.
Longtime sports executive
Mike Trager made perhaps the most controversial statements of the day when he implored women who are running some of the top corporations in America to sponsor women’s sports, much like their male counterparts have supported sports because they like sports. “My biggest concern is women need to support women,” Trager said. “Women who have positions of empowerment need to step up and support women’s sports, even though it may be an unpopular decision within your organization. And sometimes we can’t prove out there is a consumer reason or an ROI reason. But many times we see those same decisions made by men [to support men’s sports], even though there may not be any proof of a return on those investments.”
 |
Val Ackerman (right) was a sought after Game Changers networker and noted for her role as advocate, mentor and teacher.
Photo by: MARC BRYAN-BROWN
|
Two notes about that: Some in the audience took exception to Trager’s opinion, believing that a woman in a powerful position would be held to greater accountability than her male counterpart and would be unwilling to take such a risk. While this doesn’t necessarily run counter to Trager’s argument, it was interesting that Rich Luker, during a presentation of his latest research, showed that young women are becoming one of the main pillars of sports fandom, with the potential of replacing some of the losses that we are seeing among young males. Luker also said that female fans should be marketed to as fans (and athletes) and not just as female fans, supporting comments we’ve heard at some previous conferences that teams and leagues shouldn’t try to reach females just by “pinking” their products.
New WNBA President Lisa Borders certainly impressed the room with her compelling life story, but in being on the job for only six months, she had little in the way of specifics in how the WNBA can grow or establish profitability for its franchises. So while we still search for more data and details on how women’s sports can achieve greater visibility, coverage and corporate support, the focus on diversity hiring and professional development dominates the conference, to the great interest of attendees.
There has been noticeable progress, as the same day of Game Changers, the NFL announced that it tabbed Sam Rapoport to the newly created position of director of football development to target women for coaching and scouting roles. That continues a strong focus by the NFL, and comes after the league’s plan for a Rooney Rule for gender hiring, a female-focused conference at the Super Bowl and a league initiative targeting women at the team level.
“I’d like to be on panels that assume that women are there because they are contributing.”
LISA BAIRD
CMO, U.S. OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
During the last session in a day filled with themes of continuing progress and achieving equality, a question from the audience asked if it was possible to move on and not dwell on the day-to-day inequalities and if panels on growing women’s role in sports business in the future are needed. The feelings were mixed. “I’d like to be on panels that assume that women are there because they are contributing, rather than they are there because they are women,” said U.S. Olympic Committee CMO
Lisa Baird. “I still believe we need to raise the issues that are keeping women from the top layers of management.” Big East Commissioner
Val Ackerman had the final word, saying, “These panels can’t hurt. They can only help until we’re 50/50 in terms of hiring. It does more good than harm to keep at it.”
That is what we’ll continue to attempt to do with our Game Changers event.
> DOING WHAT THEY CAN: I like the effort of LeadDog Marketing Group CEO Dan Mannix in launching the firm’s Mentoring Challenge. Mannix has long been an advocate of diversity hiring, and his staff is a reflection of that. The LeadDog Mentoring Challenge pairs 10 women who are early in their careers with 10 women executives from the ranks of our Game Changers honorees. The group met during a reception at LeadDog’s New York City office, where Ackerman shared stories of her career. That began a yearlong process that will include both a one-on-one relationship and sharing of group content and discussions. I told Mannix it was a smart idea by his group to keep the development pipeline going in the right direction and giving these young women a valuable resource in their development. I’ll be watching to see how it progresses.
> THE ACKERMAN LEGACY: It’s hard to miss the level of respect and admiration colleagues have for Ackerman, and it is reflective of her leadership role over more than 20 years, being an advocate, mentor, teacher and inspiration to women getting into the sports business. It is easy to overlook when you look at the body of work over her career and her current role as commissioner of the Big East. But events like Game Changers, where Ackerman is constantly surrounded by well-wishers and colleagues, and looked up to, indicates the high level of respect and admiration she holds. It struck me again when Michelle Wilson, the WWE’s chief revenue and marketing officer, cited Ackerman’s legacy, telling the story of how she was inspired by Ackerman during Wilson’s first days in sports when at the NBA in 1996. “I was looking for people to look up to, and at that time, there was only one: Val. There weren’t a lot of role models in executive positions, so I thank Val for being a role model and being a trailblazer.”
It’s clear many share in that appreciation for Ackerman, whose influence shouldn’t be overlooked or minimized.
Abraham D. Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
