NEW YORK– Billie Jean King founded the Women’s Sports Foundation with a check for $5,000.
She turned that investment into $100 million and a half-century of helping girls and women achieve their dreams through travel and training subsidies, local sports programs and guiding athletes and coaches.
King will celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary by honoring 1999 U.S. Women’s World Cup champions, PWHL and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter, and the 2024 WNBA rookie class on Wednesday evening in New York.
“What makes me happy is creating opportunities and dreams for others,” King recently told The Associated Press. “I look back and that’s what drives me.”
Nearly 100 female athletes will attend the awards dinner to celebrate the milestone and King, a tireless advocate for equal pay and more investment in women’s sports.
This also applies to award winner and football honoree Julie Foudy. She graduated from Stanford and played for the 1999 U.S. soccer team that won the World Cup before a record crowd of more than 90,000 people at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
“She has remained a friend and mentor and a major catalyst for changing the course of women’s soccer and so many other sports,” said Foudy, former president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and current soccer broadcaster for Turner and TNT.
After the World Cup victory, Foudy and the team turned to King, Donna Lopiano and Donna de Verona for advice on improving wages and starting a professional soccer league.
“I’ll never forget (King) saying, ‘What are you doing about it?’” Foudy said, of their collective influence on the U.S. Soccer Federation. “And as players, that was exactly the revelation we needed at that moment.”
Foudy and the ’99ers ultimately witnessed the successful fight for equality, laying the foundation for the current U.S. Women’s National Team to receive the same pay and benefits as the men’s team. A players lawsuit against the federation resulted in a milestone $24 million settlement in 2022.
“Billie doesn’t just have one meeting. She checked in, reached out and asked, ‘What do you need?’” Foudy said. “She was at that first (WUSA professional) game in Washington DC (in 2001) and was a strong believer in the importance of a league and player pool to the longevity and growth of women’s soccer.”
The current version is the NWSL, which was founded in 2013 and now has 14 teams. Foudy is part of the Angel City FC ownership group. New owners Bob Iger and Willow Bay acquired a controlling interest into the team in July, worth $250 million.
King recently joined forces with Mark and Kimba Walter to form the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which kicks off its second season in late November. U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield reached out to King to help unite the fractured professional hockey landscape into one viable competition. King, who is part of the Dodgers’ ownership group, worked with Walter to form the new six-team league.
The WNBA rookie class, led by No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, will receive the Next Gen Award for “showing up, standing out and courageously carrying the torch.” The popularity of Clark from Indiana and Angel Reese from Chicago generated unprecedented WNBA visitmore nationally televised games and record-breaking TV ratings this summer.
“Caitlin Clark is fantastic,” King said. “It reminds me of Chris Evert in 1971, when she changed everything at the US Open. Every time a player does well, she helps everyone.”
The rookie class includes Cameron Brink (Stanford), Kamilla Cardoso (NCAA champion South Carolina), Rickea Jackson (Tennessee), Jacy Sheldon (Ohio State), Aaliyah Edwards (UConn), Reese (LSU) and Alissa Pili (Utah).
The WNBA lags in pay equity, with Clark receiving just $76,000 in her rookie season compared to the NBA No. 1 pick, who gets $12 million. WNBA players may see a salary increase in 2026 versus a new 11 year media rights deal for approximately $200 million per year in the run-up to the next collective labor agreement. The players’ union is interested in increasing the WNBA’s revenue share from 9.3%, while NBA players receive about 50% of the money generated from TV deals, ticket sales, merchandise and licensing.
King says it may take more time to close the pay gap because women’s sports are “still in their infancy.”
“The NBA is 78 years old, the WNBA is 28 years old,” King said. “(Former NBA commissioner) David Stern made a huge difference, he was a marketing genius. We must continue to do that for women’s sports.”
King and the ‘Original Nine’ helped market early women’s professional tennis circuitand she formed the WTA with players a week before Wimbledon in 1973. She advocated for Title IX, defeated Bobby Riggs and fought for equal prize money in tennis. In between, she won 39 Grand Slam titles during her career.
The next milestone for the 80-year-old king will be receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. It is one of the highest American civilian honors for individuals whose achievements have a lasting impact on their field.
“The Women’s Sports Foundation, no one knew how long it would last,” she said. “I see the 50th anniversary as a continuation of creating more opportunities. You can’t give it up.”
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports