PivotSue Bird and Megan Rapinoe on the Booming Business of Women's Sports | Pivot
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 1:15
Launching “A Touch More”: from IG Live pandemic hangouts to a Vox Media podcast
Kara welcomes Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe and asks how the new podcast is going. Sue explains how “A Touch More” began as a weekly IG Live during COVID and evolved through live shows into a podcast with a women’s sports focus.
- •Origins during the pandemic: weekly IG Live from their apartment
- •Early tone: casual, fun, current events, “shooting from the hip”
- •Evolution into live shows, then a formal podcast
- •Current positioning: where women’s sports meets culture, politics, fashion
- 1:15 – 1:33
Do we really need another podcast? Finding a distinct voice in an overcrowded medium
Kara jokes about the ubiquity of podcasts and asks if they felt pressured to join the trend. Sue and Megan admit the saturation initially kept them out, but they’re leaning into making theirs worth listening to.
- •Podcast fatigue: ‘everyone has a podcast’ hesitation
- •Reluctance turned into participation once the concept felt right
- •Humor and self-awareness about joining the space
- •Commitment to differentiating their show’s perspective
- 1:33 – 2:17
WNBA boom: record demand, new stars, and Sue Bird’s ownership perspective
Kara pivots to the WNBA’s surge in viewership and attendance, citing ticket growth and rising prices, plus Sue’s role in the Seattle Storm ownership group. She asks what the league should do to build on the current enthusiasm driven by rookie attention and broader momentum.
- •Market signals: record viewership/attendance, season-ticket growth, pricing power
- •Rookie-driven spotlight (e.g., Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese) as accelerant
- •Sue’s dual lens: former player and new team owner
- •Core question: how to sustain and scale the moment
- 2:17 – 3:48
Sue Bird: the product was already elite—now the league has crossed the “celebrity line”
Sue argues the on-court product has been strong for years and that teams are now being run with long-term business strategy. She frames the current moment as finally crossing an ‘imaginary line of celebrity’ that men often receive automatically, unlocking new perception and demand.
- •On-court quality as the league’s long-standing foundation
- •Teams shifting from survival mode to future-oriented business operations
- •The ‘celebrity threshold’ changing how fans and gatekeepers value tickets and attention
- •Implicit barriers (‘-isms’) held the league back despite quality
- 3:48 – 4:04
The next growth phase: invest in women’s sports based on potential, not proof
Sue emphasizes that the league has succeeded despite limited support and calls on networks, sponsors, and corporate partners to underwrite the next level of growth. The message: women’s sports has proven viability—now imagine the upside with proportional investment.
- •Proof achieved without commensurate institutional backing
- •Call for partners to price in upside/potential
- •Media rights, sponsorship, and corporate support as growth multipliers
- •A shift from skepticism to serious long-term capital
- 4:04 – 5:50
Megan Rapinoe: excuses ran out—social change, social media, and new money changed the tide
Megan links the momentum to broader cultural shifts and a diminishing tolerance for overt discrimination, alongside the ability for players to tell their own stories via social platforms. She notes prominent investors joining women’s teams and argues women are forced to ‘catch lightning in a bottle’ while men get funded on potential.
- •Cultural/political climate influencing willingness to invest
- •Player-led storytelling and distribution enabled by social media
- •New high-profile investors entering women’s sports ownership
- •Double standard: men funded on potential; women must over-prove
- 5:50 – 7:25
Sports as asset classes: where value is rising, and the limits of maximizing men’s leagues
Scott asks which leagues are increasing or decreasing in value. Megan suggests men’s sports are heavily monetized already (betting, tech overlays), while women’s sports has broad room to grow due to underinvestment; she also questions the long-term sustainability of football given player health concerns.
- •Men’s leagues ‘milking every last thing’: tech and betting-driven monetization
- •Women’s sports as the biggest upside category due to the investment gap
- •NFL sustainability concerns: aging audience and brain-injury realities
- •Sue’s view: top leagues may not decline—others will rise to meet them
- 7:25 – 8:33
Athletes and social media: self-expression vs. the ‘hellscape’ of comments and trolls
Kara asks whether social media’s benefits outweigh its harms for athletes. Megan describes using platforms primarily for expression and advises avoiding comments, while acknowledging how difficult that is—especially for younger athletes raised inside the ecosystem.
- •Megan’s approach: post to express, not to seek validation
- •Practical coping strategy: stay out of comments; anchor in real-life support systems
- •Generational divide: younger athletes’ identities and social lives are entwined with platforms
- •Recognition that disengagement can be ‘impossible’ in practice
- 8:33 – 9:29
Sue Bird on balance: a ‘fake place with real consequences’—but crucial for women’s sports growth
Sue characterizes social media as artificial yet impactful, requiring constant recalibration. She also credits it with materially growing the WNBA and athlete brands, amplifying messages, and building awareness—while hoping media literacy becomes standard for kids.
- •Core tension: benefits for reach and brand-building vs. mental/behavioral toxicity
- •Social media’s role in accelerating WNBA visibility and player-driven narratives
- •Need for boundaries and personal ‘re-centering’ when the balance tips
- •Advocacy for education/media literacy for younger generations
- 9:29 – 10:12
Platform accountability: why internet companies haven’t stopped the degradation of discourse
Megan broadens the critique to tech and media companies, arguing they’ve done little despite knowing the harms. She points to bots, trolling, and normalized negativity as the default online behavior and asks where corporate responsibility lies.
- •Perceived failure of tech platforms to mitigate known harms
- •Bots/trolls and the broader collapse of decorum/kindness online
- •Negativity as the default incentive structure of social media
- •Demand for accountability rather than placing the burden on users alone
- 10:12 – 12:05
Being a power couple in business: boundaries, therapy, and time management
Scott asks about best practices for couples working together. Megan and Sue describe leaning on couples therapy and strong teams, and Sue highlights the challenge of defining ‘work time’ vs. ‘off time’ when their professional focus overlaps with everyday conversation.
- •Using couples and individual therapy to navigate business stressors
- •Relying on capable collaborators and infrastructure
- •Biggest challenge: time boundaries and shutting off ‘work talk’
- •Athlete mindset: being ‘on’ is familiar, but the blur can still wear you down
- 12:05 – 12:19
Wrap-up and plug: where to hear more from Bird and Rapinoe
Kara thanks Megan and Sue and directs listeners to their show for more discussion at the intersection of women’s sports and business. The conversation ends with an invitation to follow “A Touch More.”
- •Closing thanks and recap of their expertise
- •Call to action to listen to “A Touch More”
- •Reinforcement of the show’s focus on sports business and women’s sports
- •End of segment
