Sports
New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai gave her team NBA-like amenities. The investment helped them reach the WNBA Finals – Fortune
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Victoria’s Secret ditches its rebrand, Sen. Laphonza Butler won’t run for a full term, and New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai invested big in the WNBA team—and is now reaping the rewards. Have a relaxing weekend.
– Slam dunk. When Clara Wu Tsai and her husband Joe Tsai bought the New York Liberty in 2019 for an undisclosed sum, the team was at a low point. Under previous owner James Dolan, it had been moved out of New York City to Westchester County. This week, Wu Tsai watched the Liberty make it all the way to the WNBA Finals before losing 70-69 to the Las Vegas Aces in a must-win game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Wednesday night.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” Wu Tsai, who serves as the team’s governor, said of the loss by phone on Thursday. “But I couldn’t be happier with the team, how far we’ve come in one year, and what we’ve done for the league.”
Before they bought the Liberty, the Tsais were (and still are) co-owners of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. Their wealth mainly comes from Alibaba; Joe Tsai cofounded the Chinese ecommerce giant and now serves as chairman. Wu Tsai was previously general manager of Hong Kong operations for Alibaba-owned Taobao, a Chinese shopping site, and a VP for American Express.
When the couple bought the Liberty, they began putting real resources behind the team. They moved games to the Barclays Center (which the Tsais own), built a new locker room, added performance staff and front-of-office staff—the kinds of resources that are standard in the NBA. They then recruited star players like Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart. “We wanted to make New York a destination for great players,” Wu Tsai says.
The result was the electric final, where two equally-matched basketball dynasties competed for the top prize. The Aces are now the league’s first back-to-back champs in 21 years.
“This rivalry helped change the league,” Wu Tsai says. “We showed that we could fill an arena with 17,000 fans—not just any fan, but a very engaged, rabid fan base.” Merch sales were up 100% from last year, she added, and the series set a two-decade viewership high.
The Tsais’ investment in the Liberty hasn’t been without controversy. They were fined $500,000—the WNBA’s largest fine ever—for chartering flights for players against league rules. Unlike in the NBA, players typically fly commercial, dealing with layovers and delays before big games. The rules were meant to level the playing field since not all WNBA owners are willing to shell out for private flights.
The fine helped push the league to update that policy, and chartered flights are now permitted for the playoffs. “We’re going to continue to advocate for anything around player health and well-being. We think that flying charter is very important for performance on the court,” Wu Tsai says.
She hopes to use the spotlight on New York to change conditions, increase sponsorship dollars, and boost media interest for women’s players throughout the WNBA. “The future is really bright for this team and the league,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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– Secret's out. Faced with slumping profits, Victoria's Secret will start selling swimwear, activewear, and other attire again in an attempt to revive sales and reclaim market share acquired by competitors like Fenty X Savage. The strategy reverses the company's two-year transition away from catering to the male gaze. CNN
– Short-term job. New Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) announced that she will not seek a full term in the 2024 election. "Knowing you can win a campaign doesn’t always mean you should run a campaign," the former Emily's List president said. Politico
– Journalist jailed. Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested in Russia on Wednesday and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and collecting information on behalf of foreign governments, charges that another Russian journalist claimed could apply to simply asking for the names of Russian soldiers. Kurmasheva, who has yet to establish contact with anyone to comment on the charges, writes for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague. BBC
– Snail's pace. Startups founded by all-women teams accounted for 1.9% of venture funding raised so far this year, a share that has barely budged over the past few years. However, companies that have at least one woman cofounder raised 28.1% of all venture funding this year, an almost 10-point increase from last year. TechCrunch
– Wellth distribution. Companies like Best Buy and Meta are offering access to Wellthy, a network of expert care specialists, as more employees care for elder relatives. Wellthy was cofounded by Lindsay Jurist-Rosner after her own struggle managing her career and taking care of her elderly mom. Bloomberg
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Metro Public Relations promoted Rebecca Rolnick Knaack to senior vice president of entertainment. Parity hired Marianne Schroer as director of marketing. Medallia appointed Simonetta Turek as chief product officer. TEAK Fellowship named Clear CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker to its board of directors.
An elegy for a late, great American composer The Atlantic
Making up Madonna Vulture
‘I had been exploited:’ Takeaways from Britney Spears’s memoir New York Times
"I used to do a lot of things out of fear, even making connections with people, checking in with people…not taking a chance, a risk. Now, fear doesn't play nearly as big of a part in my life. I push myself more."
—Actress Courteney Cox on overcoming her personal fears to launch Homecourt, a line of home care products
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