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The Oregon Ducks and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu is now an investor for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Bay football club. Bay FC plays out of PayPal Park in San Jose, California. The inaugural season for the club was in 2024.
According to their website, the investors within the club include a diverse group of Bay area women leaders, professional athletes and business executives who share the vision of women’s sports being one of the smartest investments for today and the future.
“I want to invest, but I want it to be more than just transactional. I want to grow my relationship with the team and the players and be able to bring in the relationships that I have and what I’ve learned on the business side of things to help with their overall brand partnership strategy.”
–Â Sabrina Ionescu via ESPN
The 2024 WNBA champion will also hold the title of Official Commercial Advisor with Bay FC, a position that requires input on the franchise’s commercial and marketing strategies.
“Sabrina is the ultimate innovator and creates new pathways for aspiring and current professional athletes. Adding her passion and vision to what we are building at Bay FC will allow us to further disrupt the sports landscape.”
–Â Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart
Women’s sports has been on the up and up for decades now, especially in basketball. The WNBA added the Golden State Valkyries as the league’s13th franchise which is set to debut this summer. The Toronto Tempo will be the first WNBA franchise outside the United States in 2026. It was recently announced that Portland and Cleveland will now have a team in the coming years as well.
“It hasn’t happened overnight for us. It’s been years and years for us of athletes kicking down the door, voice what it is that they want to see. It’s taken investment, and now expansion… But to see it now in real-time – viewership, attendance, sponsorships – everything is at an all-time high. And you see it across different sports… Soccer is a big one. Especially Bay FC.”
–Â Sabrina Ionescu via ESPN
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Ionescu is an entrepreneur and a trailblazer, becoming the first women’s basketball player to create a unisex signature clothing and shoe collection with Nike. The best selling item of hers on Nike’s website is the Sabrina 2 basketball shoes for children which comes in 8 different colorways for $100.
The other popular shoes are the Sabrina 2 “Traditions” in 16 different colorways for $130 and the Sabrina 2 by UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers in two different colorways for $160.
She is actually looking into creating soccer cleats for Bay FC as well as other clubs in the league. This seems like just the beginning for Ionescu’s brand partnership and business side of her young, promising career.
