A lot has changed in the six years since Angel City Football Club co-founder and CEO Julie Urhman first began pitching the formation of the professional women’s soccer team to potential investors in 2019. For starters, she no longer feels the need to say that “people will watch women’s sports.”
“I don’t have to make that argument anymore,” Uhrman said during a panel with professional race car owner Samantha Tan and ESPN broadcaster Malika Andrews at TheWrap’s Power Women Summit 2025, presented by STARZ #TakeTheLead. One other thing that has vanished? The perception that women’s sports is a “charity.”
“I don’t think anybody thinks it’s charity anymore. You’re seeing the investment that’s being made in Angel City, in the [Golden State] Valkyries, in the New York Liberty, they see that it’s a real business and investment,” Uhrman told those in attendance Tuesday at the Maybourne Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. “This is not slowing down. Media coverage in 2019 was 3% to 4%. It’s closer to 15% to 20%.”
“The number of female athletes that are becoming household names — you now need two hands, right? It’s not just Lisa Leslie or Candace Parker. It’s not just Megan Rapinoe or Alex Morgan,” the Angel City CEO added. “This isn’t a moment, it’s absolutely a movement. It’s investable. I think the phase that we’re in right now is the sponsorship element of women’s sports. You’re seeing more dollars go into women’s sports. You’re seeing more brands go into [it], not at the same dollar level yet as men’s, but it’s increasing and the data is incredible.”
In order for female sports teams and athletes to continue capitalizing on the current moment, Uhrman believes women need to start being more open about their accomplishments. “One of the big challenges with anything women-related, whether it’s sports or even our own accolades, is we don’t like singing our own praises, right?” Uhrman observed. “You have to talk about your successes and not be so afraid to share numbers, because that will perpetuate it.”
To not do so would be to adopt a level of humility Andrews noted you do not see on the men’s side of sports. “In those interviews with male athletes that I do all the time, who are wonderful and interesting and at the top of their game, they oftentimes, without flinching, will say something as simple as, ‘Because I’m the best in the world,’ and that’s the full answer to the question,” Andrews explained. “They mean it. It’s not disingenuous, and lots of times it’s true.”
“That simple confidence is something that I find is why I am so drawn to somebody like [American professional rugby player and Olympian] Ilona Maher,” Andrews added. “There is no pretense of apologizing for being as big or as talented or as good or working as hard as [her].”
Andrews sees growth not only on the on-field and on-court side of the women’s sports world, either. When asked whether similar progress is being made on the broadcast and commentary front, the ESPN host said, “The short answer is yes.” Shortly afterward, Andrews noted, “There’s still room to go, particularly because I think there are shows that are all men that talk about both men’s and women’s sports. That doesn’t necessarily exist in the opposite way around, and it should.”
Moving forward, Tan, Andrews and Uhrman all believe the biggest battles continue to lie on the investment side of women’s sports. For Tan, investing in the pipeline of female athletic development is at the forefront of her mind right now, both as a professional racer herself and as a team owner.
“You talked about saying my achievements with my whole chest, and I was the first Asian woman to win a major international endurance racing championship, the first woman to win a bunch of these really, really incredible races,” Tan told her fellow panelists. “But talent alone doesn’t guarantee me a seat.”
“Being able to offer that sponsorship [to] somebody, even [as] I am still struggling with this aspect of the sport, it just means so much to me,” Tan said. She is leading by example, too, having sponsored a 10-year-old girl who she sees “so much” of herself in earlier this very year.
Investment is also how Andrews believes fans can show the most support for their favorite female athletes and women-led teams. “Show up and spend money on it. Truly. I mean that. Buy a ticket,” Andrews urged. “This is an industry. This isn’t charity. I don’t know if it’s a stigma, but [what] needs to be removed from women’s sports is the idea that you’re supporting women’s sports just because [you] support women.”
“The moral idea of women’s sports, I think we’re moving away from and I think that’s important. It’s important to care about women and support women, but that’s not why we show up to watch men’s sports. It’s not because we need to support all the men, right?” Andrews noted. “It’s because it’s awesome, and that’s what women’s sports are.”
TheWrap’s Power Women Summit presented by STARZ #TakeTheLead is the essential gathering of the most influential women across entertainment and media. The event aims to inspire and empower women across the landscape of their professional careers and personal lives. PWS provides one day of keynotes, panels, workshops and networking. For more information visit: thewrap.com/pws.
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