No slowing down

The GIST: Today, The GIST is exclusively sharing that Pro Athlete Community (PAC) — an organization that supports retired athletes in their post-playing careers — has named WNBA legend Candace Parker as a co-chair on its board of advisors. This is a pivotal move for the org as it recruits more women into its community of over 1.6K retired pro athletes, many of whom are men.

• We spoke with Parker on Friday to learn more about what drew her to this particular role and how the business world can benefit from having women athletes at the table. As Parker told us in her interview, it’s a space where everyone can eat.

The details: Parker joins the PAC board of advisors as the first woman athlete on the board, although powerhouse women sports execs Chrysa Chin, Robyn Glaser, and Kelly Mehrtens are also advisors. As the first woman co-chair alongside NFL twins Devin and Jason McCourty, Parker offers insight and guidance into ensuring women athletes have increased access to and awareness of PAC’s benefits.

• PAC members are able to navigate the uncertainty that follows many pro athlete careers, and benefit from advice from fellow like-minded athletes as well as career guidance from experienced executives, entrepreneurs, and mentors on how to excel in the business world.

The why: Since she retired from the WNBA last April, Parker has intentionally built out her business portfolio and been named to several key leadership positions, including president of women’s basketball for Adidas and the board of Mike’s Hot Honey, a role she was "hesitant at first” to step into since it was her first time advising a consumer product.

• Parker cited Magic Johnson as inspiration since he “wasn’t invited to a seat at the table in his business acquisitions and moves” yet has built a business empire in retirement. She also named Michael Strahan and Marc Lasry as role models in business but noted that she wanted to see more people that looked like her and Serena Williams.

Parker’s take: She emphasized leveraging transferable skills from playing pro sports — they helped her advise Mike’s Hot Honey and give her confidence in the boardroom. She also noted the value of athletes on advisory and company boards, because having “somebody with fresh eyes” who’s not involved in daily management is “beneficial 100%,” citing Bob Myers and Sue Bird as examples.

• Parker also advised fellow women athletes to own their space: “For so long in the world, it's been ‘shrink yourself,’ but in actuality, [women athletes] are the ones that are staying in college and getting four-year degrees, we are the ones that are doing the internships and have the experiences of playing abroad.”

The takeaway: PAC not only gives retired athletes a network of fellow teammates in a similar situation, but it connects companies and executives to motivated athletes looking to flex their entrepreneurial skills. And retired pros have uniquely valuable qualities, such as widespread name recognition and cross-generational appeal — consider the billion-dollar empires of Michael Jordan and David Beckham.

• Marketing with active athletes communicates values like trust and authenticity, and with retired athletes, brands can capitalize on personas that athletes have spent years cultivating, such as Megan Rapinoe’s fiery personality, which drove her campaign with Budweiser. Always an icon.

The GIST: Last week, collegiate NIL platform Opendorse shared data-backed insights on why brands should partner with women athletes. The platform points out only 8%-12% of House vs. NCAA settlement payments are allocated to women athletes across more than a dozen programs, totaling roughly $2M of a $20.5M maximum budget.

• Women are getting a very slim slice of the pie, yet as discussed in yesterday’s edition of The Group Chat and exemplified in this report, women athletes are more engaging on social media, outperform in NIL deals beyond what’s typical for their sport or school, and often beat male athletes in comparable sports in NIL marketing. Let’s look at the numbers.

⭐ Women athletes submitted 32.2% of the 500K NIL deal applications on Opendorse’s platform — and when football is removed, that share rises to 43.8%, signally huge growth potential. Additionally, women athlete profiles are 2.8% more optimized than their male counterparts, illustrating their increased NIL engagement and professionalism.

📱 Nearly half (48.9%) of DI women athletes are on TikTok compared to 34.6% of male athletes. Before this year’s March Madness tournaments, women ballers had a 3.2x bigger social following than the men’s side with over 21.7M followers combined on Instagram, TikTok, and X. This includes LSU star Flau’jae Johnson, who leads all women college athletes with 4.01M total followers.

🥎 College softball fans skew younger and more diverse compared to college baseball fans: 82% of college softball fans are under 34 years old and 28.6% are ethnically diverse. Among college baseball fans, these numbers are 42.9% and 16.8%, respectively.

💰 Brands are the most heavily engaged in NIL deals with women athletes in the South Atlantic region, spending $84.7M last year — consider Ally’s deep investment in the ACC and North Carolina and South Carolina. Overall, brands spent way more at Southern schools ($190.2M), far beyond the next-highest region (Midwest, $95.7M).

💤 The report also noted successful campaigns from brands that recently partnered with college women athletes, such as Epsilon’s March Madness NIL deals that celebrated Women’s History Month or Savage x Fenty’s campaign spotlighting athletes in loungewear and sleepwear.

• Epsilon notched 22.9M total media impressions, with 1.2M across Instagram and a 51% impression rate on the platform. Meanwhile, Savage x Fenty partnered with 106 athletes who authored 356 social media posts with a 66.5% view rate. That’s one way to win.