WNBA Ownership Beckons Collegiate Superstars

As Caitlin Clark winds down her unprecedented collegiate career, signs are emerging that she and her agency, Excel Sport Management are positioning her for a long career in the WNBA. With national brands like NikeNKE, Buick, State Farm and H&R BlockSQ, she’s positioned to drive the league’s value to greater heights.

Along with other projected top picks in the 2024 WNBA draft (including Clark, LSU’s Angel Reese, Stanford’s Cameron Brink and UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards), for the first time, women athletes are coming out of NCAA competition as multimillionaires.

Let that sink in.

They are building wealth. And according to Atlanta Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery, their next step is to build equity via ownership.

She has some hard-earned advice for these superstars.

Despite Montgomery’s remarkable career (2x WNBA champion, All-Star, Honda Sports Award winner and NCAA Champion) while at UConn and in the WNBA, most players did not receive salaries that could initially lead to financial independence. Many players looked overseas to earn big money for much of the WNBA’s history. As Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has put her imprint on the association, she has seen franchise valuations grow rapidly leading to more investments.

Montgomery made the leap in 2021 when she joined Larry Gottesdiener (majority owner of the team) and Suzanne Abair as a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She sat down with me to discuss her financial evolution during the Invesco QQQQQQ Legacy Classic, an HBCU basketball tournament created by actor and entrepreneur Michael B. Jordan,

Montgomery credits WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert with embracing the idea of a player becoming an owner almost immediately. “She played a role. She saw that I could do the gig. And she took it seriously, because a lot of people (would say) if a player is coming up to you (and saying) ‘I’m trying to become an investor’ in the Atlanta Dream. It’s a hard concept. But she got it instantly”. In 2020, Montgomery took the significant step to retire from the game and began her new journey.

The idea of having ownership, of creating equity versus just earning a salary, was one that Montgomery initially had not considered. She credits her wife, Sirena Grace (an actress and social justice advocate who is also Montgomery’s business partner), for explaining the value of owning versus working for the league. She discovered she was required by league bylaws to retire as a player before she could be considered a candidate for franchise ownership. “(Grace) doesn’t know traditional barriers that my mind had, like, basketball players…