Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and now head of venture firm Seven Seven Six, said his work in women’s sport is only just beginning as he visited Abu Dhabi to receive the Time100 Impact Award, which recognises leaders from across the world for driving change in their communities.
Ohanian, who has become one of the most influential investors in women’s sport – notably as an investor in Chelsea Women FC and Angel City FC – said the idea grew from an obvious market gap in the United States. “Women’s soccer has always been considered greater in America than men’s simply because the women are exceptional and the American men have never won anything [on the world stage],” he told Aletihad exclusively. “So while people thought I was crazy, it was a no-brainer for me.”
He added that the popularity of the Women’s World Cup translated naturally to club football.
“If all these people are watching the Women’s World Cup and all these brands are attached to the Women’s World Cup, why wouldn’t they also be attached to the same athletes, the same women, during their football season? And so that’s what led me to start Angel City.”
Despite his track record, there is still scepticism about his recent interest in women’s volleyball. Ohanian insists that even though women’s volleyball is undervalued - as women’s football once was – unlike football, it has not yet broken into mainstream culture.
“Professional volleyball is not really on the cultural radar at all,” he said. “But I think broadly in the world, women are front and centre. It is already sort of accepted that this is a women’s sport and we celebrate women playing it.”
He pointed to massive collegiate followings in the American Midwest as evidence of a readymade fan base. “There are college programmes for volleyball that have tens of thousands of viewers, packed auditoriums to watch the sport,” he said, explaining that League One Volleyball’s youth-first model created both a talent pipeline and a sustainable audience. Many of the sport’s biggest names, he added, are already earning seven-figure salaries abroad.
Ohanian believes women’s volleyball in US will become a major professional sport within a decade. “It’s going to come quick,” he said. “All of that is attention – and all that attention is monetisable. That means value.”
He said women’s basketball was also an option he studied earlier in his investment journey, but he did not pursue it due to time constraints. That time was invested in women’s football.
Ohanian drew parallels between the WNBA in the US and women’s football in England, where he has recently bought a 10% stake in Chelsea Women. “Football was invented there,” he said. “As soon as people realise you shouldn’t be comparing a woman footballer to your favourite men’s footballer... very quickly we’re going to see that pendulum swing in England.”
He expects the Women’s Super League to experience the same rise in relevance that the WNBA has seen in the United States over the past decade.
On tennis, Ohanian – husband of Serena Williams – said the sport proved long ago that parity in pay and prestige is attainable. “Tennis was the example that I had in mind when I knew that it would be possible to have certain women’s sports be at the same level as men’s,” he said.
While he credited Billie Jean King as a pioneer, it came as some surprise to Ohanian that Dubai will host a Battle of the Sexes exhibition match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios, a match being held 52 years after King beat an older Bobby Riggs in 1973.
Ohanian immediately dismissed direct comparisons between male and female players. “It’s an exhibition,” he said. “You’re asking the wrong question if you want to see who’s going to win, because they’re different vehicles at the end of the day.”
He likened men’s and women’s tennis to different racing machines. “Is anyone out here watching a Formula 1 car versus a NASCAR? No... because we know those are fundamentally different vehicles,” he said, adding that women’s and men’s football should be viewed in the same way. “There are reasons to love women’s football that don’t diminish men’s football. They’re just different sports.”
