Nike, RAJ Epicenter Week And The Business Of Women’s Sports

At the Nike Global Sport Summit, grant winning journalist and podcaster Sarah Spain interviewed (from near to right) Craig Kessler, Commissioner, LPGA; Jessica Berman, Commissioner, NWSL; Jayna Hefford, EVP Hockey Ops, PWHL; Kim Ng, Commissioner, AUSL; Sandra Idehen, Commissioner, LOVB; Bethany Donaphin, SVP, Head of WNBA League Operations, WNBA

© 2026 Naji Saker Photography, each authorities reserved.

Nike’s Global Sport Summit brought 500+ athletes, executives, innovators and leaders from crossed the sports manufacture together arsenic portion of RAJ Sports Epicenter Week, a broader slate of events designed to analyse what comes adjacent for women’s sports.

Across the week, the speech moved from the boardroom to the community, pinch a $700,000+ fundraising gala, the EmpowerHer Awards for women and girls impacting their community, The Collective Brunch, gathering of women changemakers, opening of the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center and celebrations surrounding the Portland Thorns and Portland Fire.

Taken together, the events offered a snapshot of really acold the women’s sports manufacture has come, and wherever its adjacent opportunity lies.

Nike Global Sport Summit Highlights The Business Of Women’s Sports During Epicenter Week

The Nike Global Sport Summit was little astir answering whether women’s sports tin turn and much astir confronting what that maturation demands next.

Throughout the summit, conversations among athletes, executives, creators, and manufacture leaders many times returned to a communal question: How does the sports manufacture build an ecosystem that is tin of matching the momentum down women’s sports?

The answers varied crossed the room, but the themes were consistent. Investment has to widen beyond the field. Innovation has to relationship for women arsenic athletes and consumers. And the manufacture has to deliberation beyond short-term maturation to build the infrastructure, opportunities and pathways that tin prolong it.

Rather than a bid of isolated conversations, the acme offered a broader snapshot of wherever the women’s sports manufacture stands today, past the constituent of proving its value, but still successful the early stages of determining what a mature women’s sports system should look like.

First, Dr. Stacy Sims’ keynote made clear that the adjacent shape of women’s sports will require much than finance successful teams and leagues. It will require backing and championing the science, information and capacity systems designed specifically for women athletes.

Sims discussed the request to attack women’s peformance frameworks otherwise than that of men’s, which the manufacture still uses arsenic the golden modular contempt chopped differences successful men and women’s capacity and health.

Furthermore, Sims called for the continued pursuit of women-specific subject and information to create much optimal outcomes for women athletes, but besides advocated for attraction teams that are multi-faceted to supply this care.

Women’s Sports Leaders Say Infrastructure Is The Next Growth Challenge

If the keynote focused connected what women athletes request to perform, the commissioners sheet broadened the mobility to what the manufacture needs to grow. Across leagues, the answers many times came backmost to infrastructure, whether that meant the stories being told, the venues being built, aliases the superior being committed.

For example, Craig Kessler explained that the LPGA lacks visibility and authentic storytelling to seizure much fans, “If I could activity my magic wand, our wish is for personification to measurement up and thief america pinch 3rd statement content. We’d emotion our thrust to past aliases our type of afloat swing. And erstwhile it happens, group are going to autumn successful emotion pinch LPGA athletes.”

For others the accent was connected buildings, stadiums, and designs built for women athletes. Kim Ng, AUSL Commissioner answered, “For us, it’s venues. We are not mini men. We can’t conscionable play connected shot fields, truthful venues and softball fields. Purpose built softball stadiums.”

This sentiment was echoed by Sandra Idehen, Commissioner, LOVB, who pointed specifically to semipermanent and sustainable investment, “I deliberation our biggest opportunity is really astir investment. It’s astir bringing successful those squad owners, those strategical partners, those marque partners who person a semipermanent finance mindset."

She continued, "Being an emerging league, it takes clip earlier portion economics drawback up pinch the opportunity astatine hand. And evidently pinch volleyball, everything we' discussed, we spot the opportunity astatine hand. We request investors who are really successful it for the agelong word and really patiently increasing pinch us.”

In the adjacent panel, centered connected jock peformance moderated by ESPN’s Andraya Carter, and panelists Sherri Privitera, Senior Principal, Populous; Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 8-Time Olympic Medalist, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist; Dr. Jacqueline Brady, M.D., Lead Portland Fire and Thorns Orthopedic Sports Surgeon; Bridget Munro, Director of Women’s Research, Nike Sports Research Lab, and Susan King Borchardt, Director, The Athlete Blueprint, the group reiterated Dr. Sims earlier reside astir prioritizing the jock successful the halfway of attraction and taking a holistic attack that encompasses the full life rhythm of the female athlete.

Women Athletes Can Help Build The Next Sports Economy

The speech shifted successful the day from what the manufacture needs to build, to who should person a greater domiciled successful building it. Panels progressively centered athletes not simply arsenic participants successful women’s sports, but arsenic storytellers, creators, and organization builders pinch the expertise to grow the worth of the athletics beyond the title itself.

That athlete-led storytelling tin thief create a deeper relationship betwixt fans and the teams, leagues and brands surrounding them, while women athletes’ expertise to cultivate organization offers different mostly untapped asset.

The opportunity, speakers suggested, is to move those connections into a broader sports economy, 1 wherever the athlete’s sound and the communities they build go portion of the worth proposition alternatively than thing that exists alongside it.

For example, Thayer Laville, Managing Director, The Collective astatine The Team posited, “I’m a really avid and passionate sound astir the truth that teams and leagues request to do a amended occupation astatine catering to women fans."

She continued, “I would impulse teams, leagues and brands that tin play a immense domiciled successful this to really measurement up and create amended instrumentality engagement companies while besides putting awesome merchandise connected the tribunal aliases the section of play. And that is yet what will thrust much and much income because the infinitesimal you fto america relax into that acquisition and return distant those clash points, 86% of america will walk much money.”

Head Coach of South Carolina Women’s Basketball, Dawn Staley specifically said astir erstwhile athletes investing backmost into women’s sports and the value of the jock perspective. She stated, “When you springiness a subordinate aliases a female ownership, because a batch of times location aren't women astatine the array erstwhile we're talking ownership, right? Perspective. I'm not needfully saying that you request to really enactment connected my perspective, but listen, because sometimes having a different position whitethorn summation the worth of a franchise.”

Lastly, the time ended pinch a telephone to action for those wrong and extracurricular of the room to put boldly successful women’s sports from erstwhile USWNT players Lauren Holiday and Tobin Heath. Both athletes called for imaginative approaches that spot women’s sports arsenic a testing crushed to improve, change, and present caller concepts that are extracurricular the norm of the athletics business model.

Epicenter Week Shows The Business Of Women’s Sports Extends Beyond The Game

The economical imaginable of women’s sports isn’t constricted to what happens wrong a stadium aliases arena. Epicenter Week demonstrated really the attraction surrounding women’s sports tin besides beryllium converted into finance successful the communities wherever those teams, athletes, and fans live.

According to Karina LeBlanc, Executive Vice President of Strategic Growth astatine RAJ Sports, organization finance was paramount for RAJ Sports and Epicenter week, "Everything is starting pinch the organization because we are not present without them. And that’s the powerfulness of sport. We person the expertise to unite, inspire, and do otherwise successful the metropolis wherever you’ll spot it."

During Epicenter Week, a girls mediate schoolhouse shot section and hoops tribunal were refurbished by the Portland Thorns, Fire, and RAJ Sports. Through the gala arena much than $700,000 was raised for section non-profits successful Portland. The EmpowerHer Awards recognized alteration makers successful Portland’s ain organization programs.

Programs concentrated connected creating safe, inclusive spaces for each to acquisition sport, to impacting children and education, combating and providing services for homlessness, to wellness investigation and innovation.

The week besides included a tribute to erstwhile Portland Thorn Heath who signed a one-day statement for her status ceremony. Heath took a front successful beforehand of 22,017 fans astatine Providence Park, the Thorns’ highest attendance since 2024.

At the Fire game, successful beforehand of astir 15,000 fans, the glitter dragon mascot Rose was revealed, demonstrating the emergence of a caller personality and beat connected the caller consumers and fans successful the WNBA.

Thus, the business of women's sports isn't confined to summons sales, sponsorships and broadcast rights. It progressively touches philanthropy, entrepreneurship, organization improvement and leadership.

Furthermore, the intentional community-building extended beyond philanthropy. Events specified arsenic The Collective brunch and the EmpowerHer Awards brought together women entrepreneurs, executives, athletes, creators and organization leaders, creating different shape of infrastructure for the industry, relationships.

Relationships are a powerful rate to move women’s sports forward, and research has recovered that women deficiency the aforesaid diverseness and extent successful their master networks to those of men. This signals again, why Epicenter Week will person ripples beyond the programming, the web effects person economical worth for Portland and beyond.

Epicenter Week Is Betting On An Ecosystem, Not Just An Event

Epicenter Week offered a glimpse of what the adjacent shape of women’s sports tin look for illustration erstwhile the manufacture stops treating maturation arsenic the decorativeness statement and starts building for what comes next.

From Nike’s Global Sport Summit conversations astir science, infrastructure, storytelling and investment, to the $700,000 raised for Portland organization partners and the connections forged among athletes, business leaders and changemakers, the week underscored the expanding economical ecosystem forming astir women’s sports, wherever athletes, brands, investors, teams and communities progressively intersect.

That whitethorn beryllium the value of Epicenter’s broader vision. Women’s sports is nary longer simply looking for a spot astatine the table. It is building its ain tables, networks and economical opportunities astir a quickly expanding audience.

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