Here since day one

The GIST: Today, The Sports Bra and the Women’s Premier Basketball Association (WPBA) — a developmental women’s league similar to the NBA’s G League — announced a strategic partnership that will use the sports bar’s reach among women’s sports fans to promote the WPBA as it looks to strengthen relationships with the WNBA and sponsors.

• Yesterday, we spoke with WPBA founder Faatimah A and The Sports Bra owner Jenny Nguyen about how this partnership came to be, the value of the WPBA, and how the bar and other brand partners can help level up its game so everybody knows their name.

The WPBA: Founded in 2022, the league is “building the missing infrastructure for women's basketball that is a direct pipeline to getting players into the WNBA, into other top tier leagues around the world,” said Faatimah. Since then, the league has helped over 100 athletes further their careers while emphasizing financial literacy, wellness, and professional development off the court.

• The two entities will launch their collab at the 2026 WPBA Combine next month, where six out of 15 W teams will be scouting. The W’s small rosters have been a talking point as they limit the league and athletes, which is why Faatimah wants the WPBA to support a better pipeline for players.

• While no WPBA players have ascended through the league to the W (yet), several WNBA players have lost their roster spots in the past and played their way back in through the WPBA. “We’re starting to see the need for these pipelines,” Nguyen added, and The Sports Bra has a history of supporting local grassroots sports organizations.

The alignment: Nguyen said her bar is focused on “telling stories of underrepresented groups” and wanted to boost the WPBA’s visibility with its immense “social capital,” something it's positioned to do as a gathering space for women’s sports fans. Faatimah noted “everyone loves a great underdog story,” and The Sports Bra’s reach allows them to “strengthen the ecosystem as much as possible.”

• And for those wondering: The WPBA is ironing out a streaming deal right now with content currently available on YouTube, Bench, and Instagram, and it will be available to watch at The Sports Bra soon.

Zooming out: The WPBA is filling a crucial role in the women’s basketball ecosystem. Google Pixel and the U.S. Coast Guard have already partnered with the WPBA, but The Sports Bra partnership highlights how two up-and-comers reaching the same community of women’s sports fans can amplify reach with mutually-beneficial partnerships.

• Nguyen and The Sports Bra’s patrons clearly believe in the value of storytelling around all women athletes at all levels. That’s the kind of community who could be converted to fandom and make a difference for the WPBA’s reach and awareness, which could beget future partnerships. And on and on and on…

The GIST: Ally and Scripps Sports are teaming up to present the PWHL’s first-ever nationally televised game in the U.S. on March 28th. This Takeover Tour stop in Detroit will give the PWHL the chance to reach more than 126M households via Scripps Sports network Ion, home to the NWSL, WNBA, and the upcoming SI Women’s Games.

• Last week, we spoke with Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer about the importance of televising the game nationally and why first movers should jump at such opportunities in women’s sports. If you’re not first, you’re last.

The context: The PWHL has had four Canadian national broadcast partners since the puck dropped in 2024, yet none in the U.S. — American teams only have partnerships with local broadcast networks and stream games on YouTube.

• Brimmer, a self-described fan and hockey mom living in a hockey town, noted how hockey fandom isn’t as widespread in the U.S. and on the men’s side, the NHL “doesn’t have the ubiquity” of the NFL or MLB. “It's a very regional sport, and I think it has more regional interest,” Brimmer said.

• However, she noted that unlike the NHL, the PWHL can utilize a targeted strategy to “ride more of the wave of the excellence of women's sports in general,” giving them the “ability to create rabid fandom…because people are ravenous to consume as much women's sports as they can.”

The why: Brimmer and Ally have experience bringing women’s sports to primetime with the NWSL Championship in 2022 and hosting Unrivaled watch parties in 2025. Media exposure has been a major key in fully unlocking the women’s sports opportunity for leagues and sponsors — reaching millions of Americans will, ideally, prove the PWHL’s viability to a national media partner.

• And why Ion? The network has enjoyed its own success with its women’s sports strategy, and Ally believes they share the same passion to amplify women’s sports. “They're a deeds, not words, kind of platform…they've really put their money where their mouth is,” Brimmer said.

Zooming out: Brands can help close gender gaps in sports, whether it’s through media exposure or prize money. Ally has enjoyed boosted brand affinity through such partnerships, and convincing the league and Ion to put a game on primetime will, like the Takeover Tour, prove its broader appeal. Brimmer advised now is the time to get into the PWHL before “it’s about to explode.”

• “There's a lot to be said for getting in when you can still shape it,” she said, noting how saturated other women’s sports leagues are. “You still have a lot of room to get into something that's very evergreen and help shape the narrative, and to punch above your weight as a brand,” she added.

• And Ally knows a good investment when they see it: It began backing the NWSL eight years ago, while Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier pitched the concept for Unrivaled to Ally, its first and founding partner, over a Zoom call. Here since day one.

The ultimate long shot? A perfect college hoops bracket. The easiest win? Joining the fun with The GIST’s college hoops bracket.

🤏 One in 9.2 quintillion: The odds of creating a perfect bracket for the upcoming college basketball championships. They’re the sports world’s most chaotic tournaments, and your guess is as good as anyone’s when it comes to choosing the champ, so you might as well give it a go.

💯 One in one: The odds of having a blast and supporting women in sports when you participate in The GIST’s very own women’s and men’s college basketball bracket challenges. LFG. 

Fill out up to three brackets for each tournament, and join a community of GISTers cheering on every buzzer-beater, upset, and Cinderella run. Plus, you’ll be up for epic prizes, a shoutout from The GIST, and eternal glory. May the odds be ever in your favor.