Inside the Movement: Alex Morgan & Dan Levy on Elevating Women’s Sports | Sports and Entertainment

Please welcome a fireside chat featuring two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan and Wasserman EVP Dan Levy, moderated by Cynthia Littleton, co-editor-in-chief Variety. Thank you, and really I want to thank so much our panelists here, Alex Morgan and Dan Levy. They had a long night. It was a long night. Congratulations are that long. Sure. Well, no, not that long, but surely we are on the West Coast and it aired live. But the ESPN awards were held last night, and Alex was one of two incredible female athletes that received the ICON award, which is a big deal for ESPN. It's a big deal in sports. Congratulations. It was part of an incredible night of recognition for female athletes, and I felt so fortunate that you are spending your morning here with us. So again, deeply appreciated. And Dan, you've got a lot going on with, in addition to being Alex's business partner, you're EVP of the collective and Wasserman, which has a little thing called the LA 2028 Summer Olympics to plan. So we know he's a busy guy, but we're really appreciative. We couldn't be two more people that are more in the thick of what we're trying to really focus on here today, which is that nexus of sports, media, entertainment, and I would add entrepreneurship, which is quite a, you know, which is quite a, just such a boom right now. We're really going to talk about that, but let's start with last night. It was a big moment. Sports royalty was at the Dolby Theater. Alex, what was that moment for you like having, receiving the ICON award with Diana Taurasi, an incredible, fierce WNBA player who just recently retired as you did recently from soccer. Yeah, she had a incredible, really long, extravagant career. Lots of gold medals, WNBA championship MVPs. So it was great to share the stage with her. Also Dan's wife and daughter were honored as well. They were up for best team as his wife coaches the UNC women's lacrosse team and his daughter plays on that team. So we were there celebrating a lot of things. Awesome. Yeah, no, it was really neat. It was a full circle moment, as you can imagine for me. A lot of applause for you yesterday. No, not for me, but from me. Yeah. But, you know, seeing Alex at this stage in her career, receive that kind of an award is just incredible. Incredibly gratifying for me to see how far she's come. And then to have our daughter and Jenny up there was pretty neat too. It's all in the family. But Alex, I mean, again, looking out at that crowd where you, I'm sure you saw so many familiar faces and stars and, you know, probably people you're a fan of. To get that kind of recognition for you at this stage of your career, you're recently retired, you're doing a lot more in business and media and content and incredible advocacy. What was it like to kind of be in that moment? Was it pretty surreal? Yeah, it was really incredible. I look back to 10 years ago when Abby Wambach stood on that stage with Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant and received that Icon Award. And I just looked up to her for so many years. One of your teammates on Team USA? Yeah, for 10 years or however many years. So to see her receive that award and see everyone just applaud her and recognize her in the way that I did and then be in that position 10 years later, it was a little bit of a surreal moment. But it was incredible and brought a lot of my family along with me. So they got to enjoy the night as well. That's fantastic. Well, let's talk, where do we start? Let's talk about you are one of four co-founders of a company called Together, the people that make this fine t-shirt. And I will say too, it's a very good t-shirt. It's very well made. Good quality. There you go. Good quality t-shirt. And you probably get lots of compliments too. I get, I mean, you know, people like at an airport, people will, you know, wave at me. I mean, it really is a conversation starter and it's and it's so good because it is so true. But you are one of four co-founders of Together. Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, who is also an alumni of the Sports and Entertainment Breakfast, snowboarding, snowboarding champ, Simone Manuel, and Sue Bird. Again, names that don't need much introduction to sports fans. Together, it's an interesting company because you're doing a lot of different things, but front and center is representation in women's sports at all levels. And I love you have a, there's a, there's a, there's a slogan on the website that says, legacy isn't just about wins and losses. Can you talk about the, the ethos and really what, what you're trying to do and, and what, how you're going to measure success over time? Yeah, absolutely. Actually, this was an idea that myself and Dan came to the table to talk about many years ago and eventually came into us launching the business in 2021. We really wanted to create a community for FEMA athletes, fans, people around the women's sports, just atmosphere and a real safe space and great community for people to come together and support women in sport. And so we've, we've been able to do that over the last four years, but it was really started as an idea, what, eight, eight or nine years ago. Can you give me a, for instance, I'd love to talk to Dan about setting that up in the business. Can you give me an example of something, something really concrete that you're doing for women's sports? Is it supporting young athletes? Yeah. So we we work with brands to activate in the women's sports space. We also do a lot of studio work in either partnership with other media brands or production companies or doing, we just actually signed a deal with Dear Media to ramp up our podcast category. So we're doing, and then we are a space where we are trusted by FEMA athletes and brands within the FEMA athletes within the women's sports space, because it is a company built by female athletes and for FEMA athletes. And we have, we want the voice coming from the FEMA athlete completely unfiltered. And, and because of that, women come to us when they want to highlight their retirement game. You know, Brianna Stewart and her, and her wife, we were able to shoot the birth of their child, you know, in the hospital room. So it's, it's a lot of FEMA athletes coming to us and wanting to highlight stories. And there are so many incredible stories that go unrecognized and unheard and unread in the female sports space that Together is focusing on now. Interesting. 2021 is, you know, two years before the kind of catalyst moment that has, that has activated a lot of what has come in the last couple of years, which of course the NCAA Women's, Caitlin Clark, really, you know, getting out there and just putting up points like people couldn't believe. Dan, what did you learn in setting this company up again, well before this sort of current wave? What did you learn about the market for women's sports and where the opportunity was by helping them put this, put this really interesting multifaceted company together? Yeah, well, we've been in women's sports for two decades plus. So I started my career with me and him. So I go way back. But the reality is, is the great thing about Together and Alex was that was during her peak powers as a player, you know, and a lot of athletes struggle with trying to figure out how to manage their career and be the best at what they do on the field, on the court, at the same time, put in the time, effort and work to, to build their business outside of it. And so for me, it was just really inspiring to see her take this idea, run with it, but also dedicate the amount of time and effort that it took for us to go out and find partners and build this company. So I think it's, it's rare that you have someone who can sort of do all those things in the middle of, you know, in the prime of their career. But we were able to, we were able to find some great partners. And obviously with Sue and Simone and Chloe, we had a great group, some of whom are Wasserman clients too, which was helpful. But the reality is, is that it was not about Wasserman. It was about Alex's vision and us just being there to help her realize that. What do you have benchmarks? Like, are there, are there things that you're looking for in terms of whether it be salary, whether it be, you know, the amount of time for women's sports on television, which has grown exponentially in these last 24 months? What are you looking for to say, in five years time, you know, this is where we moved the ball? Yeah, well, one of the, one of kind of those markers when we started the company was that women's sports got 4% of the total attention in the sports landscape. And we wanted to push that number. It's now 16%. Next year, it might be 20%. We need to keep getting it up to way higher than that. But I feel like Together is taking it, taking, holding, is taking accountability and making sure that that number continues to grow. So that's one of the biggest markers for us. But just looking back, I wanted to also note about our vision for Together initially was Dan has been in the women's sports space for over two decades, like he said. So there was no other way. There was no better way to build a business than with him in women's sports. He was advocating and representing female athletes before it was cool to represent female athletes before women's sports was cool before it was a big business. So now seeing where we are now with Together, seeing the fact that Together is profitable, is a great moment for us in the growth of this company. What would you say, because I know you're producing content, you produced the docuseries Surf Girls with Hello Sunshine. What is your driver? What is driving the profitability? Profitability after four years, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, I think, well, first of all, I think the main driver is the community. You know, when you have a community that realizes you show up every day and it's real and the authenticity is there, I think that's what you build off of. We caught fire with everyone watches women's sports, which meant so many things, yet it was such a simple message. So the merch piece of it was not necessarily front and center to what we were building, but it ended up being a nice, exciting opportunity. Tell us the origin story of this shirt, because it just sort of, it just seemed to me that it just sort of popped into my social feed and I said, you know, must have, like as soon as I probably possibly could. Tell me the origin story of this phrase in this shirt. I really think that's what happened with a lot of people. And it was a simple phrase that we were, you know, merchandise isn't a big part of our company, but it's, you know, it is in a way, a way for together to continue to create revenue, but also be something that can bring the women's sports community together. As you say, the community factor. Yes. So putting that on a t-shirt, we just decided, let's put this on a t-shirt, let's put it out there. And within 24 hours, we had sold out all of our inventory. We didn't want to sit on any inventory. So we didn't, we didn't go big with that initially. We had to keep ordering. We had a hoodie then, and eventually Nike came knocking as they were a long-term partner of ours since the launch of Together. And now Nike is, Nike and Together are working together with everyone, women, everyone watches women's sports t-shirt, and they are getting out there globally. So now I believe if anyone wants to go online and purchase one, it is available. Well, that's a pretty good marketing partner in Nike. Dan, tell me, tell us, drill down in terms of, you know, and I don't want to overstate that everything changed in 2023, but it was a moment and it did catalyze a lot of discussion, and it came on a lot of discussion of parity and gender equity from the incredible work that you and Diana and others have done. So what's changed in, let's call it the last five years, 10 years for women's sports? More dollars? Have brands recognized that there is just so much potential here versus the, you know, extremely high-priced, compared or in addition to the extremely high-priced sports that are, you know, established on television? What's really changed? Yeah, I think, well, we've always known that there was an audience there, because we'd have these tentpole moments for years that would capture, especially in the United States, but even globally, sort of the hearts and minds of sports fans, but also society at large. World Cup, we all remember. Absolutely. I mean, Brandi and Mia and Jules and those guys in 99, and then Alex's group, you know, Equal Pay, and we're winning it prior to that. It had taken so long, but it was every four years. You know, there's an Olympics every four years. It wasn't like day in and day out, and so the leagues went through their struggle, whether it was basketball or soccer or others, and so we knew that that audience was there if we could tell the stories, and quite frankly, people needed to start to invest in it, just like they did on the men's side for years and lost lots of money along the way. So, and it takes special people, quite frankly, athletes like Alex, like Abby or Mia, and you know, Caitlyn came along and was as extraordinary, and that run to two straight national championship games alongside, like, some fun rivalries with, like, an angel and other people, like, it just captured people's attention, and brands also started to realize, like, it's good business, and you know, we have, at The Collective, we do a lot of research and analytics and start to, like, explore what the women's sports fan and consumer actually looks like, and there's a lot of buying power there, and I think people just started to wake up when they really dug into the numbers that it was going to move the needle for them as companies, and I also think, and Alex was a part of this, 2011 World Cup, but that was, like, social media, Twitter, you know, Insta after that, like, that was a big part of the growth of women's sports, because fans didn't need the networks to show up every day, reminding them that there was women's sports, like, they could follow their heroes every day on social. And people could see writ large that there were enormous communities, and especially because so many women had to leave the U.S., there are actually, to play in overseas leagues, there's actually an international audience for a lot of women's sports, and it's, I know it's been a, one big thing has been that, you know, fewer athletes just to make it, just to make a living have to do that. There's more WNBA players, more women's soccer players that can stay here because of, you know, in no small part to the work that you did to just raise the general awareness of gender equity before you all started talking about it literally a couple of years ago, nobody even thought that, gee, that why there would be this gigantic differential, not that there isn't a differential between women and men's pay, but it was so, it was so egregious in this area, and it took a lot of guts for you in the middle of your career, in your prime playing days, as Dan said, to really stand up and say, this isn't right. Yeah, we filed a lawsuit against our employer against U.S. Soccer in 2019, in March, we had a World Cup to play in June. Raise your hand if you've ever sued your employer. I have never sued my employer, I mean, that's really, it's quite a bit. In the middle of trying to win a World Championship. Yeah, it was like a, another full-time job, but I feel like it bonded us even more, and winning a World Cup was going to put us on, like, a stage and set us apart in a way where, you know, they couldn't close the door, they couldn't quiet us, and that's exactly what we did. It took until 2022 for us to sign equal contracts with U.S. Soccer, so it was, it was a long and drawn-out fight, legal battle, but we were committed, and I feel like the effects of that we're still seeing today, in and out of the sport. What general, I know this is a broad question, but what generally, for the, excuse me, the National Women's Soccer League, which is really taking root, what generally do you feel like they are, you know, obviously being a women's league, but do you think they're aware of these issues? Are they, are they aware that there's a need to continually kind of raise the bar and get people to, get the women to where the MLS soccers are, soccer players are? Yeah, well, I mean, there's a lot of aspects to that. We're looking at the valuations, and now, you know, owners coming in and paying, I don't know what, what Bob and Willow paid for Angel City over two, I think. Bob Iger, head of Disney, and Willow Bay, his wife, yeah, owners, majority owners of the Angel FC club, which has had a huge impact here, yeah. I want to say it was potentially 200 or over, San Diego Wave also coming in over 100, and three, four, five years ago, those teams were sold for 2 to 5 million, so you just look at those numbers, and you look at the entry point for, for investors wanting to come in, and I think it's, it's a lot better of a deal than coming into, you know, a men's league that has been operating for 50 or 100 years. We're only in our 15th season of the NWSL, and to see the growth just in a short period of time, so you look at, well, who's, who's the driving factor of it? It comes back to the players. It comes, they're the ones grinding, playing, creating the product on the field, drawing the 10, 20, 30,000 fans, so naturally, you look at salaries. They, they have to go up, or players are going to find elsewhere to play. They're going to go to Europe or wherever it is to find the best compensation, to find the best value that they deserve, so that's been something that I had fought for as a player. Now, as an investor in the San Diego wave, I'm, I'm on the other side of it, per se, but, but, but seeing it from a player's perspective, I know exactly, I can give valuable, you know, advice and, and information to ownership groups about where the player's perspective lies, and how to keep our best talent here in the U.S., and how to keep the NWSL the best league in the world. Yeah, I'd love your perspective on, because, because, yes, Alex, you just recently became a part owner of the San Diego wave, one of the National Women's Soccer League major teams, and that, to me, that, that's got to be like, you know, for a team that you used to play for, that's got to be a little bit like Lucille Ball being under contract at RKO, and then 20 years later coming back and buying the studio. Pretty cool, but I'd love to, you know, talk about sort of the entrepreneurial opportunities that are available, and including team ownership, which for years, it's much more common now, but for years was utterly unattainable for male athletes, let alone, let alone female athletes. What has changed to allow, allow that to happen? Well, I think that the value in the business has changed, and, and I think you also have real stars who have business acumen, because they've been forced to really dig in and, and build their own businesses along the way, and I think that's super exciting. I sort of touched on it before, but like, Alex has always been incredibly involved and excited to do the work off the field without it affecting what she was doing on it, and so that goes also to sort of your next career, too. You know, you can't start planning or talking about what's next after you retire. You know, that had to happen a few years ago when we didn't know when it was going to happen, but we knew that at some point it would, so understanding like where the areas of opportunity are, what's exciting to her and to her peers, and certainly investing in either other companies that care about your sport, or women's sports, or health and wellness, or whatever it may be, or actually the league was something certainly on our radar, and it was exciting to kind of look ahead and put the pieces together, potentially. And, and again, for you to, to take all that expertise and channel it now in a different way to, just not only helping to bring a team together and to help their performance, but also, you know, grow a business. That's got to be pretty exciting, and I just want to say, by the way, Alex also has two young kids, including a three-month-old. Yeah, there's the mom thing, too. Yeah, the mom thing. The most important thing, right? Yes, absolutely. Got to two, two nights away from the kids, so I'm well rested. The ESPYs break. Let me, I mean, we talked about the San Diego Wave. Let's talk about the Alex Morgan Foundation, which is on top of everything else we've talked about. You have a, they have a philanthropic effort. Where, what is your area of focus for that, and where, where do you see the need for that kind of impact? Yeah, over the last three or four years, me and Dan started talking about building out my foundation, what was important to me. Dan has a lot of experience with helping Mia build her foundation and, and helping her throughout the last 10, 15 years? 25. 25 years. So, he was a perfect person to, to go to and say, okay, let's dig into really what you're passionate about, how we want to activate. Moving to San Diego three or four years ago and being a part of the Wave, knowing the, the long-term goal was to eventually be a part of the Wave in a business aspect, which I was able to do over the last couple of months with investment. We started the Alex Morgan Foundation about two, two years ago now, and it has three pillars. The first pillar is, focuses on sports equity, and then we go into creating opportunity and confidence for girls using sport as a platform. And the last one I'm, you know, that's near and dear to my heart is supporting, supporting moms, new moms in particular, when moms are at their most, you know, vulnerable stage and need way more resources and support than we are given, you know, both, you know, with work and at home. So, to be able to activate in the community, one of the last, one of the most recent campaigns that we did was our Coaching Moms initiative, where we identified moms who coach at universities around the country and helped give them a child care grant or, yeah, a grant to be able to use that for child care, just as a little support for them and creating awareness to moms that are, you know, working day in and day out. And Dan's wife, Jenny, is actually the perfect example of it, and she, I believe, had a, gave birth and was back on the field coaching within two, within 10 days, and that's after a C-section and strapped with your son on her chest, but yeah, she's a beast. So, we took a lot of advice from Jenny in creating that campaign, but that's something that we've activated in San Diego and then gone nationwide with the Coaching Moms initiative. I think, I mean, it's just the level of activity and what you've been able to accomplish in a short time with your business, with your foundation, it's absolutely incredible. Really, really thank you. As a sports fan, I thank you for your work. As a woman, I thank you for your work, and I really also thank you for taking the time for this conversation. Thank you for having us. Thank you, everyone.