PHOENIX -- I’m now 2-for-2 on completely losing my voice at women’s basketball events (👀WNBA All-Star), but I’m coming back with a notebook full of ideas and reporting for future stories. While I get cranking, here’s my impressions of what stood out at the Women’s Final Four:
1. Phoenix is a women’s basketball town. The city hosted the Women’s Final Four for the first time ever, and the NCAA would do well to consider going back. Already high on women’s basketball with the hometown Mercury, Phoenix didn’t simply roll out a red carpet.
It did one better, with a multistory bracket on the side of the Barrister Building across from Mortgage Matchup Center. The towering grid of teams displaying the path to the Final Four was part of a centralized, walkable plan for the event to take over the downtown. Organizers put the Tourney Town and Four It All Fan sites at the convention center, a block away from the arena.
“What we tried to create is when folks stepped off the airplane at Sky Harbor Airport, that they knew they were at the Women’s Final Four,” said Jay Parry, CEO of the Phoenix Final Four Local Organizing Committee. “Then that just continued into downtown Phoenix, and the idea was to have this very compact, walkable campus. And I got great feedback on everything being so close.
“We’re just really proud about how it all came together.”
Parry asked me about my experience, and I co-sign on the walkability. Everything was close, so I’ll chalk my 30,000-step day on Saturday to doing a lot.
2. Give the fans what they want -- community and merch. I made a couple visits out to Togethxr House, the largest single activation the company has done. The vibes were great, and it was a good space to engage with the brands activating there (including Aveeno, Aflac, Paula’s Choice, Chase and Stanley 1913).
The secret sauce it taps into in women’s sports though is a need for community, but one that isn’t tribal in the divisive way we see in so many other sports. The fans that came through definitely supported their teams, but even after UConn and Texas lost in the semifinals, the community remains because it’s built on supporting women and the idea that they rise together.
(By comparison, as a lifelong Bills fan, I can assure you I am definitely not cheering for other NFL teams to do well if mine is not.)
Which leads to where Togethxr excelled, working with Dick’s Sporting Goods to create an extensive merch shop. It had team-specific gear, the company’s iconic “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” apparel and its new collab with Stanley 1913.
And Round 21 launched merch with the Valkyries’ Tip Hayes, with “Never Been Done” tees among the items in the shop.
“Fans of women’s sports, first and foremost, want to support women. Then it might be their favorite player or team, but they want to support women,” said Round 21 CEO Jasmine Maietta. “This new generation understands that sports doesn’t live at one address like the stadium. We want to empower sports to be in our scroll, on what we wear, where we spend time with friends.”
3. Podcasts still rule. As I wrote about late last year, the business of women’s sports podcasts is booming. It sure was at the Final Four. In the two days off competition, I saw live tapings of four shows -- “Between the Lines,” Lisa Leslie’s show with Just Women’s Sports; “Good Game with Sarah Spain” at Tourney Town; “Unsupervised with Syd and TP” at Togethxr House; and “A Touch More” at the Orpheum Theater.
Highly recommend any of those if you have the chance to go at the WNBA All-Star Game, NWSL championship or other major events.
4. Women’s basketball owns April. ESPN play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco compared it to a bomb cyclone. Reporter Holly Rowe called it “a perfect storm of chaos.”
No matter the adjectives or comparison, April is going to be a busy month in women’s basketball.
UCLA winning the Final Four came with the WNBA expansion draft taking place before the tournament semifinals. Up next for the league is free agency -- though exact timing of that is TBD since the CBA hasn’t been finalized -- followed by the college draft on April 13.
Amid all that movement, the transfer portal opened Monday and will surely have big ripples (👀 Iowa State), and WNBA training camp opens April 19.
“We should be capitalizing on the intersection of everything that’s happening now because this is something that most sports don’t have that small window from going from college to pro,” said ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike. “That to me is a beautiful time to show the transition, what makes us unique.”
5. A collab we loved. The championship featured the beloved performer Red Panda, with rugby star Ilona Maher (who was part of ESPN’s Megacast) throwing her bowls to Red Panda atop her giant unicycle. So stressful, but so entertaining.
