By Michael Castellano
Syracuse, N.Y. -- What's your dream job?
For Laurel Richie, who will enter her fifth season as President of the Women's National Basketball Association this summer, her dream job happened upon her in an interesting manner.
"I was speaking at a Girl Scouts event in Seattle[she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA prior to joining the WNBA] and the owners of the Seattle Storm were in the audience," Richie said. "They evidently sent my bio to New York and said 'you should talk to her.' And two weeks later, I got a call and the next thing I knew, you know, it was tip-off."
That's one of the stories Richie told during a visit to Syracuse University to speak as part of the University Lectures series at Hendricks Chapel. Her visit included an informal dinner with selected students, faculty and administration and a one-one-one interview with the Newhouse Sports Media Center.
When Richie was hired by former NBA commissioner David Stern in May of 2011 the league was struggling to stay afloat outside of financial support from the NBA. But since Richie was hired, she says the league has extended its TV partnership with ESPN thru 2025 and has seen steady growth in its television ratings and attendance numbers. But one of the main focal points of the recent boom in popularity of the W has more to do with Richie's skills as a marketer than anything else.
"We have our marquee partner in Boost Mobile who will be with us again this season," Richie said. "So I think this is going to be a good year."
Advertising background
A Dartmouth College graduate, before joining the WNBA Richie spent 20 plus years at advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather working for such prominent clients as American Express and Huggies. But with all her experience in branding and marketing she had virtually no experience in sports besides cheerleading and synchronized swimming during her youth.
As Richie admitted she tends to answer most questions nowadays with stories rather than cookie cutter remarks and one story worth hearing is how her interview went with David Stern as she was in the process of being hired.
"I was sitting there in his office and he said there's got to be something about you we can market," Richie said. "And I said well I was a synchronized swimmer when I was younger. He dropped his heads and put his hands in his face."
She says the relationship between the NBA and WNBA is greater than ever considering former commisioner Stern and new lead man Adam Silver were both major parts of the original blueprint for the league way back in 1996.
"He[Silver] has a great desire for experimentation," Richie said. "He has really taken on the notion of transparancy and I think we'll see the same things in the WNBA and I think we will continue to receive the support from Adam Silver."
We've already seen the idea of transparency represented in the W with the recent WNBA Pride initiative that debuted last season.
Richie said when she took over that "we need to identify segments of the audience that we can efficiently and effectively go after" and the league has achieved that with WNBA Pride which celebrates inclusion and equality while combatting anti-LGBT bias. 29-percent of the WNBA audience is lesbian, Richie said.
Who better of the league's star athletes to represent the WNBA Pride initiative then the larger than life Brittney Griner. Griner, who came out publicly as lesbian in 2013 two days after the WNBA Draft, was the face of women's college basketball while starring at Baylor University and has assumed a similar role in the W.
Recognizable stars
"At the end of the day people don't really follow leagues or teams, they follow players," Richie said.
Another top player from that 2013 draft class is Tulsa Shock star Skylar Diggins. Diggins actions off the court to further brand herself aside from basketball have helped in the overall marketing vision of Richie who is trying to improve the image of the league and its players.
"Both her off the court and on the court performance is terrific for the league," Richie said.
Diggins has been featured on the cover of Vogue, inside Sports Illustrated, has sponsorships with Nike and Sprint and is one of the few star WNBA athletes who chooses not to play overseas in the postseason, but rather to enhance her basketball skills and brand name here in the states.
Richie told the audience of well over 100 people at Hendricks Chapel for her speech on the WNBA: "Showing the World What's Possible" she wants her league to be a destination for "the next generation of women."
The WNBA leader takes a motherly approach to the league she runs.
"I don't have any children of my own," Richie said. "But I have 140 women who are like my
daughters now."
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