“Early days” - Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian optimistic about growth of women’s sports as NCAA women's basketball final draws huge crowd

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian rejoiced as the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball final drew a huge crowd and shared his optimism about women's sports.

The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball final between Iowa and South Carolina was played on April 6 and South Carolina defeated a spirited Iowa to win the title.

The match drew the attention of Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian, who is a huge proponent of women's sports, as he reshared a picture of the crowd outside the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

The Reddit co-founder mentioned that these are still early days in women's sports.

"We're still in the early days of women's sport," Alexis Ohanian wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

Ohanian recently reacted to Iowa star Caitlin Clark's match-worn jersey attracting a bid of $150000 by a collector of game-worn jerseys. Anticipating Clark's potential, he said he had advised Clark to save her match-worn gear a year ago.

"While I think this is a great moment for game-worn community finally starting to recognize the value of women's sports, I've told @CaitlinClark22 for over a year now to save & label all her own gear post-match. She knows the value — as should all athletes — and should keep it," Ohanian wrote.

---

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian on women's sports - "They're started almost as like a well-intentioned charity"

Serena Williams and husband Alexis Ohanian at the 2019 Met Gala

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian appeared on The Pivot Podcast and talked about women's sports. He said the impact of investment made in marketing during Venus and Serena Williams' era is still paying dividends as more people watched the women's final than the men's at the 2023 US Open.

"We have a great case study in American sports. If you look at the US Open, even if there is not a Williams sister in it, more Americans watch the women's US Open final than the men," he said (3:22).

He continued:

"What you had in tennis two generational talents and you had a sport that was marketed to, that was invested in, that was made relevant for the American public. The American public was like yo, we love greatness we love these women, get them paid, put them on television screens and even to this day more Americans are watching the US Open Women's final than the men."

Ohanian said that women's leagues are started as a charity and are not invested in properly.

"What I think has been missing in all these other leagues is they're not started from, in Tech we say first principles, they're started almost as like a well-intentioned charity. It hamstrings expectations because if you expect low things and you don't invest in it, you don't think about it with fresh eyes, you get bad results and that's what happened in soccer," he said.