Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Karen Lynch’s CVS considers a break up, ladies boomers are flooding into the inventory market, and the job of WNBA commissioner is sophisticated because the league soars in recognition. Have a terrific Thursday!
– Play ball. Cathy Engelbert arrived on the WNBA in 2019 to a second she known as “existential.” The previous U.S. CEO of Deloitte, Engelbert had left a job overseeing $20 billion in income and 100,000 workers for a workers of 12 because the WNBA’s first commissioner. When the pandemic hit months after her arrival, 5 to 6 groups out of 12 within the league would have folded with out a season, she estimated.
This 12 months, the WNBA has risen to highs that might have appeared near-impossible at that low level 4 years in the past: 21 common season video games with greater than 1 million viewers, 400,000 tickets offered in a single month, and a rush of sponsors—all pushed by a surge of curiosity in ladies’s sports activities and a famous person rookie class together with gamers Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
It’s an thrilling and high-stakes second for the 28-year-old league. And it’s one which has led to debate all through the sports activities world about how finest to satisfy this heightened curiosity, as I spent the previous few months exploring via conversations with gamers, house owners, league execs, and different stakeholders in a brand new function for the October/November difficulty of Fortune.
Mackenzie Stroh for Fortune
As commissioner, Engelbert is tasked with a balancing act between serving gamers, house owners, followers, and the NBA, which owns 42% of the WNBA. That act has solely turn into extra delicate with the calls for of this season’s consideration—and accompanying frustrations. As agent Allison Galer places it: “Each metric is up—besides participant compensation.” Salaries are collectively bargained, so that they gained’t change till 2026 on the earliest and nonetheless common $135,000. With tens of millions of recent viewers, too, have come elevated on-line trolling, hate, and racism—and debates over how the league and Engelbert have handled that actuality.
Regardless of the meteoric rise in media consideration, the WNBA remains to be a comparatively small enterprise. Its groups and leagues took in $200 million in income in 2023, and whereas ticket gross sales and sponsorships are up this 12 months, the actual cash—from a brand new $200 million-a-year media deal—gained’t begin coming in till 2026. The league and its groups are projected to lose $40 million this 12 months.
Within the meantime, the league and Engelbert are caught in a messy center—with numerous eyeballs and opinions, however not essentially the sources to totally meet this historic second within the methods the game’s many stakeholders are demanding.
Learn the total story right here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s publication for and in regards to the world’s strongest ladies. Right this moment’s version was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe right here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– It’s not you, it’s me. CVS, below CEO Karen Lynch, is reportedly contemplating numerous choices to show round its struggling enterprise, together with breaking apart into separate insurance coverage and retail items. CVS acquired insurer Aetna in 2018. If the corporate goes via with the separation plan, CVS would wish to decide on which facet its prescription drug supervisor Caremark would take. Axios
– Taking inventory. Older ladies are taking cues from their daughters and granddaughters by getting into the inventory market. A brand new Constancy research finds that the share of boomer ladies who’re investing rose a staggering 23% from 2023 to 2024. Seventy-one p.c of all ladies say they put money into the inventory market, up from 60% final 12 months. Fortune
– Prepared for launch. Meng Wanzhou is again in cost at Huawei below the Chinese language telecommunications gear big’s rotating chair system. She’s anticipated to supervise the corporate’s subsequent main smartphone launch throughout her six-month time period. South China Morning Put up
– Spill the tea. Actress Kerry Washington has invested in Spill, a Black-owned social media platform based by Twitter’s former world head of editorial. Washington, an energetic member of the Spill neighborhood and an angel investor in different early-stage firms, stated, “In a digital world the place marginalized teams, particularly Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA people, not often really feel prioritized, Spill stands out.” TechCrunch
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Clue, a menstrual and reproductive well being monitoring app, appointed Rhiannon White as CEO. Beforehand, she was the corporate’s chief product officer.
Rome2Rio, Omio Group’s trip-planning platform, named Wendy Olson Killion chief govt officer. She beforehand served as Expedia’s world senior VP and GM.
SMCP, the dad or mum firm of manufacturers Sandro, Maje, and Claudie Pierlot, named Ida Simonsen president and chief govt officer for North America. Beforehand, she served as president at Stella McCartney.
Genesco, a footwear retailer, named Cassandra ‘Sandra’ Harris senior vp of finance and chief monetary officer. Most just lately, she was CFO at Artisan Design.
Newsweek appointed Megan Knapp as senior vp of occasions. Beforehand, she was president of occasions at Digiday.
Panasonic Nicely, Panasonic’s wellness-focused enterprise and enterprise incubator, added Elise Neel as world head of technique and innovation, Sandy Anuras as world head of engineering and AI, Stacey Burr as world head of product administration, and Maggie Stanphill as world head of design. Beforehand, Neel was SVP, new enterprise incubation at Verizon. Anuras served as CTO at Sunrun. Beforehand at Google, Burr was GM/vp and Stanphill was senior UX director.
CNO Monetary Group, an insurance coverage, advantages, and monetary companies supplier, appointed Jess Turner to its board of administrators. She was govt vp and world head of open banking and API at Mastercard.
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PARTING WORDS
“To have somebody have a look at you and say, ‘Hey, the factor that you just assume is bizarre about you, that’s truly what’s going to avoid wasting you as a grown up.’ …To offer that to another person could be the respect of my life.”
— Actor and comic Kate McKinnon on her new kids’s ebook, The Millicent Quibb College of Etiquette for Younger Women of Mad Science
