Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe on the Booming Business of Women's Sports | Pivot
Kara Swisher (host), Megan Rapinoe (guest), Sue Bird (guest), Scott Galloway (host)
In this episode of Pivot, featuring Kara Swisher and Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe on the Booming Business of Women's Sports | Pivot explores sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Decode Women’s Sports Business Boom, Backlash Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe discuss the evolution of their project ‘A Touch More’ from a casual Instagram Live during COVID into a podcast focused on the intersection of women’s sports, culture, politics, and fashion. They argue that women’s sports, especially the WNBA, have already proven their value and are now crossing an ‘invisible line’ of celebrity long granted automatically to male athletes. The conversation explores underinvestment and rapid growth in women’s sports, the double standard around ‘potential,’ and the crucial yet toxic role of social media in building leagues and individual brands. They also touch on the challenges and boundaries of going into business as a couple while trying to preserve their relationship and personal time.
Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Decode Women’s Sports Business Boom, Backlash
Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe discuss the evolution of their project ‘A Touch More’ from a casual Instagram Live during COVID into a podcast focused on the intersection of women’s sports, culture, politics, and fashion. They argue that women’s sports, especially the WNBA, have already proven their value and are now crossing an ‘invisible line’ of celebrity long granted automatically to male athletes. The conversation explores underinvestment and rapid growth in women’s sports, the double standard around ‘potential,’ and the crucial yet toxic role of social media in building leagues and individual brands. They also touch on the challenges and boundaries of going into business as a couple while trying to preserve their relationship and personal time.
Key Takeaways
Women’s sports have already proven the product; now investors must catch up.
Bird emphasizes that the on-court product and business foundations in the WNBA have been strong for years; the league has grown largely without full corporate and media backing, and future upside depends on stakeholders finally investing based on demonstrated potential.
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Crossing the ‘celebrity threshold’ changes how fans and partners view women’s leagues.
Bird describes an ‘imaginary line of celebrity’ that male athletes cross automatically; women players are only now crossing it, shifting public perception so that attending WNBA games or partnering with teams is seen as desirable rather than optional.
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Underinvestment makes women’s sports one of the biggest growth assets in sports.
Rapinoe frames women’s sports as a massively undervalued asset class with room to grow across media, live events, and sponsorship because it has been historically neglected relative to men’s leagues.
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Cultural shifts are shrinking the old ‘excuses’ not to back women’s sports.
Rapinoe argues that overt sexism, homophobia, and racism are less socially acceptable, and high-profile investors entering women’s teams show that prior rationales for not investing have worn thin.
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Social media is both a growth engine and a mental health hazard for athletes.
Both note that social platforms have been essential for building the WNBA’s audience and player brands, yet they describe them as a ‘hellscape’ that normalizes negativity, urging athletes to avoid comment sections and maintain real-world support systems.
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Media and tech platforms have largely failed to curb online abuse.
Rapinoe criticizes platforms for doing ‘almost nothing’ to address bots, trolls, and toxic discourse, noting that the default online tone has become snarky and cruel, with real-world consequences.
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Couples in business need explicit boundaries, support, and time management.
Bird and Rapinoe rely on individual and couples therapy and a strong team, and they flag time management—deciding when they are ‘on’ for work versus just living their lives—as the hardest part of blending their relationship with their media business.
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Notable Quotes
“We already did it. The product on the floor has never been better.”
— Sue Bird
“Somehow, we have crossed that line [of celebrity]. And now that we're on the other side, I just imagine business is gonna continue to boom.”
— Sue Bird
“Men get invested on potential and what they might do eventually all the time. For women, it's like you have to do the thing, catch lightning in a bottle.”
— Megan Rapinoe
“It's a fake place with real consequence.”
— Sue Bird on social media
“I feel like the people with the money ran out of excuses for not investing in women's sports.”
— Megan Rapinoe
Questions Answered in This Episode
What specific metrics or milestones would finally convince major networks and sponsors to treat women’s sports on par with men’s leagues?
Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe discuss the evolution of their project ‘A Touch More’ from a casual Instagram Live during COVID into a podcast focused on the intersection of women’s sports, culture, politics, and fashion. ...
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How can leagues and players systematically protect athletes’ mental health while still leveraging social media for growth?
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What regulatory or platform-level changes would Bird and Rapinoe want to see to reduce online abuse of athletes?
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If women’s sports are such an undervalued asset, what’s preventing a surge of earlier, more aggressive institutional investment?
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How do Bird and Rapinoe plan to differentiate ‘A Touch More’ in an oversaturated podcast market while staying authentic to their relationship and interests?
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Transcript Preview
Let's bring in our friends of Pivot. Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are legendary athletes, Olympic champions, and have been dubbed by GQ the most beloved power couple in sports. I don't know how many of them there are, but anyway, they're also hosts of the new Vox Media podcast, A Touch More. Welcome to the family, Megan and Sue.
Hi.
Hi. Thanks for having us. Thank you.
How's it going? How's the podcasting going?
We are just learning on the fly. It's fun though. We're like figuring it out.
Yeah. All right, so let me, it's, it, let's start with that. The show was originally launched on Instagram during COVID. Explain, explain what you are doing here with the podcast first.
Well yeah, it started, you know, I guess one edition of it, which was just, we were in the pandemic, stuck in our apartment. What's something we could do together that would be fun? So we decided to go on IG Live like every Saturday at whatever time, 7:00. We were drinking, we were having fun, we were talking about current events, all the things. Um, and then fast-forward a couple years, somebody was like, "Hey, would you guys wanna do live shows?" So we were like, "All right, let's try to do that." And then it kind of morphed into what it is now as a podcast, which is definitely more women's sports bent, you know, where culture, politics, fashion, all the things meet women's sports, and we're just kinda figuring it out from there.
Yeah, shooting from the hip on a lot. It's kinda fun.
Yeah, did you feel like everyone has a podcast, you have to have one?
(laughs)
Kind of, yeah.
Honestly, that's probably what kept us out of it for so long was that everybody has podcasts. We're like-
I-
... "Oh, we don't wanna be that."
I can't tell you-
But then-
... how many people will just randomly say like, "Oh, man, does everyone have to have a podcast now?" And now I'm like, "We do too." Sorry.
But listen to ours.
Sue, uh, you are of course a WNBA legend, having played with the Seattle Storm for 19 seasons. That's an astonishing, uh, thing. But the WNBA's having a remarkable season with record viewership and attendance, thanks in large part to rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who's now out, um, uh, for the s- uh, for the season after an injury. I'd just love your assessment of, of what they should be doing to build the enthusiasm and Megan, I'd love you to jump in, uh, because it's sports, how to get people to do more sports. The New York Liberty has seen 130% year-over-year increase in season ticket membership. They've raised their prices as is, as have a number of WNBA teams. Um, and I also wanna mention Sue joined the ownership group for the Seattle Storm earlier this year. Why don't you start, Sue?
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