It’s a small world after all

The GIST: After putting its controlling stake up for sale in March, Angel City FC is seeing even more big-name buy-in. As mentioned on Wednesday, longtime Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, USC journalism school dean Willow Bay, are reportedly purchasing that controlling stake in the NWSL club, which now has a reported valuation between $250M and $300M.

• This sets ACFC at 5.5x the average valuation of at least 11 other NWSL teams, making it the most valuable women’s sports franchise in the world. Not like us.

The details: According to early reports from Puck and Semafor, Iger and Bay would be investing at least $50M, a figure that would replace Alexis Ohanian as the team’s controlling shareholder. Of note, Ohanian wasn’t open to selling his equity when the sale was first announced in March. It’s unclear if either Bay or Iger would replace Ohanian as ACFC’s representative on the NWSL board of governors.

The buyers: Both Iger and Bay have media roots. Iger worked his way up ABC’s corporate ladder before it was acquired by Disney, where he became CEO in 2005. Bay began as a model in the 1980s before working as a TV anchor on NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. In 2017, she was named dean of USC’s renowned journalism school, Annenberg.

The backstory: According to Front Office Sports, Ohanian has been looking to sell a controlling stake in the club since last fall, partially due to the franchise’s spending habits. Last year, ACFC generated a league-high $31M in revenue but wasn’t profitable. The club has hired New York investment bank Moelis & Co. to handle the “control sale.”

• Although Semafor reported that the deal is based on a $250M pre-money valuation, Sportico’s October valuation of NWSL teams placed ACFC at a league-leading $180M valuation, far beyond the $120M price tag the San Diego Wave FC fetched in March.

Zooming out: Both Iger and Bay have demonstrated a passion for sports in their careers, and it makes sense to invest in the NWSL team with the speediest ascent and largest ROI to date — ACFC has $55M in commercial revenue booked through 2025 already.

• Private equity (PE) firms recently backed sales of the Seattle Reign FC and San Diego Wave FC — and if PE firms are pitching in, many business leaders will be taking note.

The GIST: The sports world is hungry to attract a Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience, and one way to do that may be partnering with Twitch streamers like Kai Cenat. Cenat, who’s already making headway in the NBA and sneaker space, pulls historic streaming numbers from young audiences, offering a whole new demo to women’s sports leagues. Genius.

Kai Cenat: The 22-year-old — Twitch’s most-subscribed streamer — uploads comedic unscripted content (think pranks and dares), often live-streamed on YouTube and Twitch. The 2023 and 2024 Streamer of the Year has even been credited for coining and popularizing Gen Z slang terms such as “rizz” and accidentally incited a riot during an NYC giveaway last August.

• From a sports angle, Cenat participated in February’s NBA All-Star Weekend as a friend of Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, and has featured pro women’s basketball player Digna Strautmane on his stream multiple times, including in a 1-on-1 match.

Collabs and results: Last month, Cenat invited actor Kevin Hart and comedian Druski over and streamed their interactions, which drew a record 721.7K concurrent viewers. On July 4th, Cenat streamed a fireworks special with MrBeast, one of the world’s most successful YouTubers, and saw a peak of 457.4K concurrent viewers.

• The holiday stream was last week’s most popular Twitch broadcast, bringing 3x the viewers of a stream of the U.S. presidential debate to the platform.

The sports connection: Earlier this year, Cenat made history as the first streamer to be signed by Nike, which has predominantly focused on inking pro athletes. While Cenat has dabbled in gaming on his streams, he doesn’t compete in esports.

• Women’s sports leagues have leveraged Twitch in the past, with the NWSL and WNBA previously streaming live games on the platform. Both leagues now have expansive streaming deals with Amazon, which acquired Twitch for $970M in 2014.

• Getting NWSL and WNBA viewers to switch to Twitch for post-game breakdowns would be worth it for creators, who still earn revenue from viewers tuning in from Prime platforms.

Zooming out: With Gen Z primed to be fans of women’s and men’s basketball and WNBA fans tending to be diverse and tech-savvy, a WNBA-Cenat collab would be a slam dunk. Women’s leagues and teams have successfully leveraged Instagram and TikTok influencers, and joining forces with Twitch creators could be the next step for leagues — and their brand partners — to reach and engage with Gen Alpha.

• Of the top Twitch streamers, 90% are male, and the audience is 73.1% male — a market in line with women’s sports’ significant male fandom. Anecdotally, it seems many Cenat fans became Strautmane fans after a few streams. The only question is, who’s got next?

The women’s sports movement is alive and well, and as a GISTer, you have a huge part in its success. To thank you, we’re giving away a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two to take in the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.

You and your bestie can watch the WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge and 3 Point Contest on Friday, July 19th before taking in the main event on Saturday, July 20th where Team WNBA will face Team USA in the All-Star Game. A slam dunk.

• And that’s not all. The winner will also receive $1K in cash to cover travel and accommodations to enjoy a perfect weekend in the Valley of the Sun.

Get your game on, go play, and enter to win today.