Allie Kleva
The Success of Women’s Basketball in Nashville
Allie Kleva is Chief Growth Officer for Athletes Unlimited, overseeing strategic communications to increase brand awareness and develop strategic relationships. Athletes Unlimited has been named Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2023 for delivering a new exciting way to elevate women’s sports. This year has just concluded the first of a multiyear relationship with the City of Nashville to keep AU Pro Basketball in Music City for 2026 and beyond after a record-breaking season at Municipal Auditorium.
What kind of success has Athletes Unlimited had in Nashville in its first year?
Athletes Unlimited Pro basketball was only in Nashville for four weeks in February and saw their viewership grow by 96%, attendance by 89%, and merchandise sales jumped a colossal 151%. Their engagement across platforms this last year increased by 116%, confirming the fans desire for more women’s pro basketball.
How does AU Pro basketball work?
Allie responds “AU Pro basketball happens on the off season of the WNBA, so it happens in the winter and allows for 40 professional women’s basketball players to play domestically. Our format is different, but we are five on five full court basketball, but instead of being assigned to a team at the start of the event for the duration of the tournament, teams are drafted every week. And so they’re playing really to be the individual champion of a team sport. So at the end of the tournament, a champion is crowned, which makes for really exciting basketball because every moment on the court counts, you’re going up and down a leaderboard and it’s really high intensity competitive basketball. It’s pretty awesome to watch. It’s very different. If you’re a fan of basketball, you’re going to love it because it’s good product. And if you are following a particular player, you’re kind of like a live fantasy follow. It’s very engaging.”
What types of marketing have you used in Nashville?
Athletes Unlimited has used a combination of strategic partnerships, media and public relations to get the message out. Allie says “ I think again, those strategic partnerships with key ally organizations and leveraging their networks to get the word out via newsletters or membership lists or databases, et cetera. We also did a lot of local media buy, like we had billboards up, we had spots on local tv. Somebody said to me, I can’t wake up in the morning and put the TV on without seeing sitting tv. So I think we really focused on Nashville. We wanted to make Nashville a success. And I think we deployed the kind of traditional, like I said, media pieces. But then we developed a content series with two of our players around Nashville. And so they went to the Predators and they went to the Titans, and we brought them to a cowboy boot shop And it was trying to, from a content standpoint, over the course of weeks, get people to be excited about them experiencing Nashville. So we’re trying to be really thoughtful. And then like I said on the PR front, just really hitting hard, partnering with a local agency here to help us to make sure that we are connected with the community and really being intentional.
How did Athletes Unlimited come about?
Athletes Unlimited was founded in 2020 by Jonathan Soros and Jon Patricof; they wanted to start by launching softball and brought in volleyball and basketball. The vast difference compared to most organizations in the sports industry is that it is authentically female player driven.
How does women’s basketball fit into this incredible time of women’s sports success?
We are now seeing such a monumental moment in women’s history, and it is a moment in which women are able to move in the right direction. This is possible through the players, audience, media, marketing teams, and anyone who is involved in making this mission of women’s empowerment possible. Allie Kleva discussed how “It takes time, it takes investment, it takes audit. You need to watch so that everybody’s playing a part in this ecosystem. You need to have a good product on the field or the court. You need to have people come and buy tickets so that you can have metrics to report to sponsors. People need to watch on television or on linear. You need to engage, and you need to buy merchandise because those are all things that commercially say you’re successful. So I think there’s an urgency to be involved so that it has to be sustainable. I think we have the power of social media behind us and community around women’s sports, but I think I’m hopeful that the runway is given to women’s sports so that it can actually succeed and meet that moment.”
The biggest takeaway is that it’s not solely one person’s duty to change the industry but us as a whole. The dream is to always make it equal to men’s sports since there is such an astronomical difference in pay as well as respect given; this mission isn’t to take away anything from anyone but solely live as an equal part in the sports industry. To see how they were even able to get this far so fast, Allie Kleva shares that the most important thing she’s learned was the power of relationships, and we see that prevalent in how she works in the industry today and how that allowed such a growth in a community in such a short span of time.
So you’ve been with CNN and worked for the city of New York. What do you think you brought into this from those experiences?
Allie responded with saying “I think the through line is really working for mission-driven organizations and helping them innovate and grow. And I think when I left news, I was ready to take a break from current affairs, but I loved the cultural relevance and energy around the urgency of media news. There’s an urgency there. There’s a way to impact and influence audience. I felt like sport was a natural place where that could also happen in a positive way. I think sports unifies people and in a time when everyone feels very polarized, I think sports is providing a really unique place to unify community.
