New York Liberty CEO weighs in on the WNBA and social justice reform

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Roberts sat down with New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke to weigh in on the WNBA, social justice reform, and inclusion in the workplace.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: We talk a lot about inclusion and diversity in the business world, but we also want to talk about gender diversity when it comes to major sports. Dan Roberts has an interview that a lot of people will want to pay attention to regarding the WNBA. Dan?

DAN ROBERTS: That's right, Adam. This was earlier this week for the From Day One conference, and I interviewed Keia Clarke. She is the CEO of the New York Liberty, the WNBA team. She's actually been with the team for 10 years, and before that she worked with the NBA.

We talked about a broad range, obviously diversity in hiring and her job and the team being owned by Alibaba exec Joe Tsai But most interestingly, you know, the WNBA has of course received a ton of new attention. The ratings were up for the WNBA during the bubble, which it's the only major sport right now that saw its ratings rise. All the other major sports, the ratings are down.

And of course, the "New York Times" just last week did a big feature on the WNBA. The headline called it "the most socially progressive pro league," really interesting. So I asked Keia Clarke, is that a title that the WNBA wants, embraces? And here was her answer.

KEIA CLARKE: I'd like to say-- behind closed doors we've been saying it for years now-- that in a lot of ways, maybe we were ahead of our time. And again, I can't take credit for being there at the onset, but when I speak with legends who were in this league, and, again, former executives who were running this league in the beginning, it's almost like the world wasn't quite ready for our very socially progressive, in-your-face like, you know, we're feminists. We are majority, you know, minority. We are from-- we're international. We have so many players who play internationally. But I just think things have finally caught up, and it's good.

DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, and so, Adam, interesting for me to hear her say, look, we've always been this way. You know, behind closed doors we always said that, and now it's just that the media and maybe fans are waking up to it. And as I mentioned, ratings for the WNBA were up about 13% for its overall season compared to a year ago.

You know, take that however you want. Maybe the social progressivism was a positive, whereas you have a lot of people claiming that politics in sports is hurting the ratings. Maybe it was just that, you know, the WNBA returned and people had been without live sports for so long that when the WNBA first returned, it got more eyeballs. But very good season for the league.