How a leading sports investor picked their next big funding bet: MoneyCall – The New York Times

Sports Business
Alexis Ohanian (with spouse Serena Williams) has made multiple market-leading investments in women's sports. Greg Lovett / Imagn Images
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to get this emailed to you every Wednesday? Subscribe here.)
Name-dropped today: Alexis Ohanian, Stephen A. Smith, Cathy Engelbert, Jessica Berman, James Franklin, Adrian Wojnarowski, Caleb Williams, Angel Reese, Cape Verde, Aitana Bonmati, Christian Horner and more. Let’s go:
A formula for a winning investment
It has been a whirlwind 2025 for Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
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The latest news: As The Athletic reported this morning, the active and prolific sports investor and his Seven Seven Six fund are leading the ownership group of the new L.A. franchise in League One Volleyball, the surging volleyball operator that includes a soon-to-be seven-team pro league and grassroots ecosystem.
LOVB recently transitioned from a league-owned pro model to individually owned franchises, like the new addition in volleyball-crazed Nebraska. Ohanian’s enthusiasm and track record signal a bullish year ahead as the league looks for more team investors.
“I’ve been deep in women’s and emerging sports for the past five years, and volleyball kept popping up as one that checked a lot of boxes,” Ohanian, 42, told my colleague Asli Pelit.
“First, it doesn’t really have a male-dominated counterpart; the women’s game owns the culture. Second, the athletes already have massive followings and real fan engagement.”
Ohanian’s key investment thesis — women’s sports was/is undervalued — has led to a couple moves this year that walk the talk:
He bought a minority stake in Chelsea F.C. Women, one of the most popular women’s soccer teams in the world and a hub team of the Women’s Super League, also joining its board. (And Ohanian was an original investor in the NWSL’s Angel City FC before selling his stake at a massive multiple.)
Last week, his Athlos women’s pro track event series held a spectacular program in New York City, including a made-for-FOMO “street meet” on Friday night in Times Square.
(Want one more piece of evidence Ohanian is on a heater? Last week, in a guest spot on ESPN’s “First Take,” Ohanian defended his wife, Serena Williams, from a misogynistic joke Stephen A. Smith made about her after her Super Bowl halftime show cameo. It left SAS sputtering.)
If Ohanian is bullish on women’s volleyball for its strong grassroots foundation and sustainable business model, it’s worth paying attention.
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“When the opportunity came up to buy the (LOVB) Los Angeles franchise, it was an easy call,” he told Pelit in our story.
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
WNBA offseason-pocalypse primer: The CBA deadline cometh! Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman have your must-read FAQ on the state of play with just over two weeks until the Oct. 31 deadline. Money quote:
“Revenue sharing and player salaries are wedge issues in the negotiations. … Unlike the NBA, the WNBA does not explicitly use basketball-related income to determine its salary cap. Players seek to take full advantage of this explosive growth moment in the WNBA’s business.”
(Compelling sidebar: WNBA fandom among tween and teen boys is surging. The direction of the league remains phenomenal, if it can just get this rev-share right.)
Meanwhile, in a (currently) less contentious pro league: The thriving NWSL gave a three-year extension to its commissioner, Jessica Berman, who says she has more to accomplish.
Penn State: What next? Well, they’re going to owe James Franklin about $45 million. More interesting: Will the new financial realities in college sports end the era of the coach mega-buyout? Chris Vannini reported out that question:
“Direct negotiations over the money set aside for the roster will happen for the first time on a large scale in this college coaching cycle. Will coaches take less money if it helps them win? Will schools avoid committing to such long guarantees? It’s possible everyone gets smarter about what it takes to win in the new era of college football. It’s also possible short-term hysteria wins out. It always has.”
How it works: NBA players as college GMs. This trend — NBA players taking side gigs as “general manager” of their college basketball alma maters, like Steph Curry at Davidson, Trae Young at Oklahoma or Damian Lillard at Weber State — has been a fascination of mine. Lindsay Schnell dove into it.
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F1 x “Chicken Shop Date”: Totally fascinated by this new YouTube interview show featuring Amelia Dimoldenberg (known best for her series “Chicken Shop Date”), framed around F1 drivers helping her learn to drive. Madeline Coleman got the details.
Other current obsessions: How Woj is navigating NIL at St. Bonaventure … Flag football mania comes to the UK … 1977 nostalgia in the ALCS … Saturday’s spontaneous Oklahoma State “shirtless section” … RIP Sister Jean, college hoops icon … The Celtics coaching staff obliterating Celtics media in a scrimmage (57-4!) …
In 2010, Fenway Sports Group acquired Liverpool F.C., after its previous American ownership group left the club reeling. It took 10 years, but Liverpool won a league championship, then another last season.
What has been the legacy of FSG’s ownership of Liverpool?
A reporting team from The Athletic delivered a fantastic 360-degree review. A snapshot, from Chris Weatherspoon:
“Yes, there have been missteps, but there has been a professionalisation behind the scenes while not losing sight of the fact that Liverpool are still a football club. You can pinpoint a clear strategy throughout, which is harder at other clubs. It’s made more impressive when you consider that FSG hasn’t just poured in endless amounts of money every year.”
Explainer: TV ratings up big
You can’t escape mentions that sports TV ratings are up huge, from NFL to college football to the WNBA to virtually anywhere. I totally recommend Richard Deitsch’s excellent explainer on why this is happening. (Two words: “Big Data.”)
Data Point: $13.5 million
That’s the eye-popping purse for the Six Kings Slam, starting today on Netflix at 12:30 p.m. ET, live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Why are they all participating? Just refer back to the data point above. For background: I wrote an analysis of the event when it was first announced last month.
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Celebrity Investor: Caleb Williams
Now a part-owner of the NWSL’s Boston Legacy.
Branding: Angel Reese x Victoria’s Secret
One of the things I respect most about Reese is how she is so innovative about creating new opportunities for athletes to expand their cultural imprints. Today, she will become the first pro athlete to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Name to Know: Cape Verde
Cannot get enough of the small-population countries suddenly making the World Cup ‘26 field.
Case $tudies: College sports overhauls
• Oklahoma football
• Baylor basketball
Peak of the Week: Golf anguish
The entire staff of The Athletic was rooting for our colleague Gabby Herzig, who qualified to compete in golf’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She experienced a nightmare of a hole — a septuple-bogey 12. Her reflection on how she processed that was my favorite thing published by The Athletic in the past few days.
The MoneyCall Bookshelf
Out this week: “Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL into a Cultural and Economic Juggernaut.” New York Times reporter Ken Belson dives into the dynamics that have made the NFL a singular success in sports. Excited to read this one.
Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Puzzle #387
Time: 00:27
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Worth Your Time
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
You may have spotted Aitana Bonmati in last week’s MoneyCall about maximally paid players in their respective sports (as compared to the NHL’s Connor McDavid). If you don’t know much about her, this dive into her hometown and early foundation is a great place to start.
Two more:
(1) There is a fascinating arms race going on with Premier League training grounds. (“Smart urinals?”)
(2) ‘Please, quick … they’re coming’: The burglary spree that terrorized some of Seattle’s best-known athletes
Back next Wednesday! Text your colleagues this link so they can get MoneyCall every Wednesday for free. And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.
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Dan Shanoff is a Managing Editor for The Athletic, focused on Sports Business. Before joining The Athletic, he held editorial and content-development roles at a range of companies including ESPN, USA Today Sports, Monumental and Quickish, a sports-news start-up he founded. He is a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, has an MBA from Harvard Business School and was an award-winning adjunct instructor in Georgetown’s Sports Industry Management program. Follow Dan on Twitter @danshanoff

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