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Who are the most powerful women in U.S. sports? In an industry that for decades has been dominated on the field and in the boardroom by men, a select group of women have made tremendous progress in not only breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling but shattering it altogether.
Atop that list is Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. As the first woman to lead a major professional sports union in North America, the 62-year-old Roberts, a UC Berkeley Law graduate and former trial lawyer for Skadden Arps, now plays a pivotal role in representing the interests of some 350 NBA players and more than $3 billion in league salary distributions.
While time will tell what legacy Roberts leaves from her tenure with the NBPA, there is little question that she already serves as a tremendous inspiration for aspiring female sports executives everywhere, which is why a panel of sports insiders ranked her first on this list of the 25 Most Powerful Women In Sports. (See the methodology for the list at the bottom of this article.)
Coming in second on the list is racing executive Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and vice chairwoman of NASCAR . Kennedy manages 13 of America's biggest racetracks while also playing a key role in steering the multibillion-dollar racing conglomerate NASCAR as a member of its board of directors.
The granddaughter of Bill France Sr., a 1930s-era stock-car racer who founded NASCAR in 1948, and the daughter of Bill France Jr., who ran the organization from 1972 to 2000, the 56-year-old Kennedy recently oversaw the $400 million renovation of Daytona International Speedway, transforming the massive complex into what she calls “the world’s only motorsports stadium.”
In third is Serena Williams, the world's highest-paid female athlete. Williams has captured an Open-era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, including the 2017 Austrian Open while pregnant, and has won 86% of her career matches, bringing her career prize money to $84 million — nearly $50 million more than any other female tennis player. She has more than a dozen endorsement partners, including Intel, Tempur-Pedic, Audemars Piguet, Beats By Dre, Berlei, Gatorade, JP Morgan Chase, Nike and Wilson. She also joined the board of SurveyMonkey recently and was one of the celebrity investors to purchase a stake in the UFC in 2016.
With so many verticals in a diverse industry like sports, our list includes women in a number of roles, including executives from teams (No. 8 Jeanie Buss of the Los Angeles Lakers), leagues (No. 12 Pamela El of the NBA), college athletics (No. 5 Val Ackerman of the Big East Conference), entertainment conglomerates (No. 9 Michelle Wilson of WWE), media companies (No. 25 Erika Nardini of Barstool Sports) and startups (No. 19 Angela Ruggiero of Sports Innovation Lab).
There is a 38-year age difference between the oldest member of the list (74-year-old Billie Jean King, No. 6) and the youngest (the 36-year-old Williams) while the average age of those on the list is 53. Not surprisingly, the list's members are well educated, with 13 of the women having obtained advanced degrees from prestigious institutions like Harvard, Duke, Stanford and Northwestern.
The women on the list represent a true minority in a business dominated by men. While some progress has been made over the last two decades, the glass ceiling for women may be lower in sports than in any other industry. In fact, of the more than 450 combined NCAA Division I athletic departments and "Big Four" professional sports clubs, less than 10% have a woman at the head of their organization. The numbers across other areas of the industry are equally low — all the more reason the executives, athletes and influencers on the list should be celebrated for their ability to overcome any number of obstacles to rise to positions of power, all the while becoming role models for the millions of women aspiring to reach great heights not just in sports but in all aspects of life.
Voting Panel And Methodology
In compiling the list, we enlisted the help of eight individuals who have firsthand insight and knowledge of sport's top female movers and shakers. All panelists are themselves influencers in the business and are highly respected for their work and advocacy in helping move female executives up the corporate ladder in the sports industry.
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