The ROAR Podcast: WNBA Innovation Summit

This episode is different, and it also makes me a bit envious. For the first time, Adam and Caroline sat down together, and they did it on location, in Chicago, at the WNBA All-Star Media and Innovation Center. The setting also matters. They record on Homecourt, the new basketball facility at the Obama Presidential Center, a purpose-built venue on a huge swath of land that captures exactly what this show is about, a place where sports, real estate, and revenue meet. And that word, purpose-built, becomes a thread running through the whole conversation. Because the story of women's sports right now isn't only about growth. It's about designing for it from the ground up. Adam and Caroline dig into why Pink It and Trink It is the wrong playbook and what it actually takes to build products, performance, and content made for women's sports, not borrowed from the Mets game. They get into the data behind the business case, Why AI has been uninvested in on the business side of sports, especially women's sports, and what fans really want from athlete creators, which it turns out isn't always the biggest names. Caroline brings the fan communication lens. Adam brings the data and revenue lens. And where they meet is where the episode lives. And the thing they keep coming back to, this is never charity. It's good business. The difference now is that the data can finally prove that. I'm Bryce

Clinton, and this is The Roar Podcast. Welcome to The Roar Podcast. I'm Adam Grossman.

And I'm Caroline Balvardi.

Well, we're here in Chicago at the WNBA All-Star Media Innovation Summit. We thought we'd give our live reaction. And since we're not usually together, we thought we would try to record one together and see how it went. So welcome to our first combined podcast. And where better to do it than in Chicago at the WNBA Summit. So Caroline, good to have you in Chicago.

Yes, amazing. And should also mention, we're currently at the new Obama Center. So getting to check out this whole new facility in Chicago, which is pretty cool. Lots of public space and the media and innovation summit that we're at now is at their home court facility. So in the background, the festivities are being held right now with different panels and such. But yeah, it's a whole basketball court. So pretty cool.

Well, I think before we jump into what it's like to be at one of these events, I think, Caroline, you have long history with the Obama Center and it's just stationed where it is now. It'd be good to hear more about it and your background with it.

Yeah, that's a little stretch. I just, it's now being in the kind of sports real estate side of things and having come from a community development background in my previous role, spent a lot of time in Chicago doing We had a lot of member organizations who are community development financial institutions who are funding small businesses and community facilities in Chicago. And so there was probably four or so years ago, I want to say. We were here and I remember we were visiting some of the sites that were funded around here, small businesses. I know there's one, Bronzeville Winery, which is not too far from here. But yeah, we went on a whole