Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has big plans for women’s sports—but it has nothing to do with basketball

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Melinda French Gates pledges $250 million to women's health nonprofits, Shari Redstone weighs in on a CBS editorial decision, and Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has a career path in mind for female athletes.

- In the ring. Sports is in Jeanie Buss's DNA. The daughter of longtime Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, she entered the family business four decades ago and now leads the Lakers as the team's controlling owner, bringing talent like LeBron James to L.A.

Amid a boom in women's sports, Buss looked for her own way to get involved. The Lakers once owned the Los Angeles Sparks, the city's WNBA team, but sold the franchise in 2006. ("I feel like it's still in the family," Buss says when asked if she'd ever get back into the WNBA business .)

In 2017, she became a co-owner in Women of Wrestling, or WOW; her business partner is David McLane, who founded GLOW, the women's wrestling franchise that was dramatized in a Netflix series. The sports entertainment franchise for female wrestlers (or "promotion," as it's called) films 52 shows a year, with a distribution partnership with Paramount. Its matchups are syndicated, airing at different times in different markets. Buss has said she’s invested a “couple million dollars” in the business.

Buss sees women's wrestling as a path for female athletes whose sports don't come with much opportunity in the pros. "If you're athletic enough to participate in a college sport, then you have the athleticism and the skill. We'll teach you how to be a wrestler," she says.

While wrestling is more explicitly about entertainment over competition compared to professional basketball, with its costumes and manufactured storylines, Buss says the same principles translate. "It boils down to, you've got to be able to sell tickets, sell sponsors, you've got to have a good platform to show your games, whether it's streaming or cable or YouTube—whatever works for your sport to get attention and create a fan base," she says.

Whether in women's wrestling or women's basketball, Buss says she's "a believer in slow growth." "Sports attracts a lot of investors who are looking to make a quick buck," she says. "That's irresponsible and that doesn't belong, especially in women's sports. Women deserve investment and the time and resources to grow and build something lasting."

Buss says that sports offers a unique benefit to its fans and investors. "I love that every year is a new season. There's the disappointment of losing, but there's a chance to go back and retool and win the whole thing," she says. "And when you have personalities that are intriguing, it's as good as any television show."

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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