00:00I want to talk a little bit about some numbers. When you look at the Dallas Wings now, the valuation
00:05reported well over $320 million.
00:08Ticket revenue up more than 150 percent, and you're in playoff contention. Those are some good numbers for you.
00:15It's been a good summer so far for us, and we're very grateful and thankful for the support we've gotten
00:21from our fans,
00:22the support we've gotten from our corporate partners, and really the support we get from the community as a whole
00:27here in North Texas.
00:28Why do you think you've seen so much growth, and really a lot of it in a shorter period of
00:33time?
00:33I think we have the best class of world-class athletes we've ever had, i.e. the product has never
00:40been better on the court.
00:41So that's probably foundationally the most important piece.
00:45I think also that corporate America has understood now that partnering with a WNBA team is a get, not a
00:52give.
00:52There's actually benefit from a business perspective to align with a WNBA team or a WNBA brand.
00:58And then I think holistically, society in general has come around finally and accepted the fact that world-class female
01:07athletes are world-class athletes,
01:09and they see the value in what our athletes do every day on the court.
01:14And you've had some top-round draft picks in the last few years.
01:16You have big names.
01:18We've had the good fortune.
01:20The ping-pong ball gods have looked down favorably upon us.
01:24Last year, we had the number-one overall pick.
01:25We added Paige Beckers.
01:27This year, we had the number-one overall pick, and we added AZFUD.
01:30That's about as good as it gets over a two-year period.
01:33And the fans clearly reacting to this at this point.
01:36We're selling Paige Beckers and AZFUD jerseys in 27 different countries in all 50 states the last 90 days.
01:42You know, I want to talk a little bit about corporate sponsorships.
01:47You're getting some big names.
01:49Is it easier now with an explosion of women's sports that we're seeing?
01:53It's certainly easier than it once was.
01:55I would say it's still not as easy as it should be or needs to be based off the value
02:02proposition of aligning with the WNBA, the Dallas Wings, the women's sports team, in any league, really.
02:08There's such an upward trajectory, so much momentum around women's sports.
02:13If you're a brand that is consumer-facing particularly, it makes good sense to do a deal with the WNBA
02:21team.
02:22One thing you're working on is a move, which came out a little different than you expected.
02:27I know a lot of people have heard about basketball and hockey moving out of the city of Dallas.
02:32You're attempting to move in.
02:33Yeah, we made a contractual agreement official with the city of Dallas in April of 2024 to move downtown to
02:41play at a fully renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium as part of the Convention Center redevelopment.
02:47And we're excited to be a key piece of what's going to happen for the next decade-plus in downtown
02:54Dallas.
02:54It's taken longer than expected.
02:56There's been some bumps in there.
02:58Will that affect you in terms of getting high-class talent, in terms of having really your practice facility not
03:04right next to where you're going to be playing basketball for some time?
03:07I think we've successfully navigated the challenges of the timeline thus far.
03:12I think the practice facility we are now building in far west Oak Cliff, Dallas, will be world-class, 70
03:18,000-plus square feet of training space for our athletes, what they deserve, what they need.
03:25So now we can benefit the city in two ways.
03:28We can benefit in far west Oak Cliff through a community play.
03:31We can benefit downtown by being the anchor tenant in a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium.
03:36Now, originally you were not the developer on this project.
03:38Now you are.
03:39Yeah, so we decided to take over the developer role of the project in April.
03:45May 15th, we mobilized the construction site, and we are on schedule to deliver that building by April of 27,
03:51which will be in time for training camp next season.
03:54You know, a lot of people that will hear this that are not necessarily in Texas may say, okay, why
03:58not move to the American Airlines Center?
04:00It's there, and it's going to be vacant.
04:03American Airlines Center is a world-class facility.
04:05We actually played two games there last summer.
04:07We sold them both out.
04:08This year we're scheduled to play three games.
04:11It's a great venue for a limited number of outings for us.
04:16The building's very busy.
04:18NBA team, NHL team, one of the busiest concert and show schedules in North America.
04:23Scheduling for us becomes problematic in that environment.
04:26Our season starts in the spring.
04:29It ends in the fall.
04:30So we overlap with the NHL and NBA seasons on both ends.
04:34It creates challenges around date availability.
04:36The building also does not have space right now for us in terms of dedicated locker room and other facilities
04:43that our players need for an entire season.
04:46So right now, that is not a long-term solution for us.
04:50Right now, we are contractually obligated and solely focused on making the Dallas Memorial Auditorium our home for the next
04:5715 years.
04:57You know, we talked to you last year.
04:59Thank you again for coming back to see us.
05:01And you can even see the difference between last year and this year when it comes to the WNBA, when
05:07it comes to the Dallas Wings, and when it comes to women's sports overall.
05:11I mean, did you ever envision it being like this?
05:15I'm obviously a huge believer in women's sports, the WNBA, the Dallas Wings.
05:21But to know now that when we opened the season on ABC against the Indiana Fever, two and a half
05:26million people watched that broadcast.
05:27I'm not sure 10 years ago I would have believed we would average two and a half million viewers for
05:31any broadcast.
05:32To know that we have 6.3 million homes in our local broadcast network and 12 markets across the state
05:38of Texas.
05:39I'm not sure I'd believe that.
05:40To know that we've signed CVS, Geico, Kroger, Orange Theory, and Neutrogena in the last 90 days as corporate partners.
05:48I never saw that coming.
05:49So I'm a huge believer.
05:51But even I probably wouldn't believe the kind of success that we've been fortunate to experience the last year or
05:57so.
05:57Let's talk a little bit about media rights.
05:59You brought up when you opened on ABC this year.
06:02We're seeing so many changes in that landscape.
06:06Where do you see the WNBA falling with that?
06:08I think we're a buy stock.
06:11We're still early.
06:12We're still young.
06:13It's still relatively inexpensive to own media rights around a WNBA team.
06:18So we're a great value proposition for broadcast partners.
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