New WNBL CEO Jennie Sager reveals plans for league ‘rebirth’ as new owners prepare to take over

Only two weeks in to her role, new CEO Jennie Sager has opened up on her plans to ‘rebirth’ the WNBL. The media guru revealing how she’s building her army to lead the league into a fresh era.

It’s a potential risk for a sporting organisation to bring in someone from outside its tight knit four walls to lead them in a bold new direction.

But for the WNBL, new CEO Jennie Sager comes with plenty of enthusiasm and a whole lot of upside in the quest to make it the biggest women’s basketball league “outside of the WNBA”.

Sager, who comes from the world of entertainment production, social media and technology spanning both local and international markets, joins Australia’s oldest elite women’s sports league with a fresh mindset.

“A fresh look, a fresh energy, a fresh vibe to the WNBL,” Sager told Code Sports when asked about the new era under her watch.

“We really see this as a rebirth, in a way.”

Jennie Sager will lead the WNBL into a fresh era. Picture: Supplied

New York City born-and-raised, Sager has called Sydney home for over a decade now with her husband, three kids and their Bernese mountain dog.

In her early adult life, the new WNBL boss was a basketballer herself, dabbling in the college system - which she calls “a different world back then” - before stepping into her longstanding career producing television across major networks and major sporting events including American football’s Super Bowl.

She may seem a left-field choice but Sager’s appointment to the role appears to be a much-needed boost for the struggling league and she says the move has come at the right time and sees all of her passions combine.

“At all of my jobs, there’s always been an element of sport,” Sager said.

“Working in broadcast, I did big events like the Super Bowl, the Commonwealth Games and all those kinds of special broadcasts.

“And then when I moved into social media with Twitter, there was a lot of negotiating, partnership and revenue deals with the sporting entities, like the NBA, Cricket Australia and the NRL.

“So there was always an element of sport and it’s a huge passion point of my own, even just in my own personal life.”

Sager played basketball in high school and college. Picture: Supplied

If you looked at her resume or LinkedIn profile, you wouldn’t find a sports background - saying it’s a world that can be tough to crack.

“I think often in Australia, I’d say it’s more difficult because they tend to hire people that are just from that world (sport) so it’s hard to kind of break in if you haven’t come from there and so I just always ended up in other places, just naturally.

“This feels like all of my passions and my professional experience merging together.

“Had they called me probably 10 years ago, it might not have been the right time, but now it feels like it was meant to be.”

Although only officially being in the role for two weeks (starting on January 2), Sager has already been on and off planes around the country, visiting every team to experience the league first hand.

And to also identify the battles at the coalface for herself.

A media and entertainment guru, Sager on set of her discovery film in 2009. Picture: Supplied

INSTANT CHANGE: WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE AS OF NEXT SEASON?

Sager labelled it a “rebirth,” with an initial focus to elevate the game day experience for both fans and athletes, while attracting more eyeballs to the league with an increased financial investment from the new ownership group.

“We are relaunching the league and with that comes a lot of excitement, with new eyeballs on the game hopefully, and it’s going to look a little bit different,” Sager said.

“The level of the game will stay obviously because that is amazing but we want to lift the game day experience and the experience for the athletes themselves.

“It goes back to how far we can take the league?”

Despite those working at the WNBL doing the best they can with the limited resources, a lack of marketing and feeling “seen” has always been a common theme among feedback for elite women’s hoops in Australia.

With WNBA champions and Olympic medallists all featuring in the domestic game, it’s bewildering to Sager that your everyday person may not be able to name a handful of players.

She said that’s on the top of her list to change.

“Australia is the country that provides the most WNBA players, which in itself is amazing,” she said.

“We have so many Olympians still playing on teams and that is incredible but if you asked 10 people to name a WNBL player, they probably wouldn’t be able to and that’s the part that’s heartbreaking.

“So I want to get to the point even within the first 12 months where you can ask those 10 people and they can answer.

“Just raising that awareness for the league, clubs and players and I really hope we can get there.”

Taking the game overseas to the biggest league of all, building upon the WNBL’s relationship with the WNBA, is another goal.

“You can see that opportunities are there,” Sager said.

“Naturally, the partnerships we already have with the WNBA, can we elevate that and we do more together and help the athletes both in the USA and here? What can we do to elevate every single element around how we turn up publicly?”

This is not the first time WNBL officials have had grand ambitions to elevate the league on the Australian sporting landscape.

However, this time round, a huge investment in all aspects of the competition from the new ownership will play its part.

Behind the scenes, Sager is actively building an army of her own - the WNBL is hiring up to 20 new roles to purely work on the league, something that hasn’t occurred before while under Basketball Australia reign.

Sager said it would make the WNBL the “largest staffed women’s sporting league in Australia”.

“We want to bring more resources and opportunity into the league and to the clubs and players, so my hope is that even in this first season we’ll see changes.”

SO HOW WILL THE WNBL STAND ON ITS OWN UNDER THE NBL?

Under the new ownership consortium of NBL supremo Larry Kestelman and prominent business identity Robyn Denholm, the WNBL will be run side-by-side with the NBL according to Sager - not under their wing.

“We’re our own league and have our own athletes but we have the beauty and the benefit of learning from the NBL and Larry and we also have Robyn (Denholm) and her expertise coming in,” Sager said.

“Are we envisioning becoming the biggest basketball league in the world outside of the WNBA? Absolutely.

“Will we copy exactly what the NBL does? No.

“We’ll take a little bit of both, learn but also innovate and do some of our own things.”

Unlike what we’ve seen with the quick introduction of the 18 AFLW teams aligned to men’s sides, Denholm’s Hoops Capital is one of two owners to present aligned men’s and women’s teams - the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames. Perth Wildcats and Perth Lynx are the other when sports media identity Craig Hutchison bought in.

And there is a view the women’s game has only suffered as a result, unable to build momentum off the back of the drastic growth of the NBL across the past decade.

But now that the leagues sit alongside each other, expect to see more overlap between the two.

Expect to see more NBL/WNBL overlap next season. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“We’ll definitely be collaborating and working together and there’s obvious places to do so,” Sager said.

“One thing I noticed before I started in the job is there’s not a lot of cross-promotion right now.

“We want to have our own identity but the beauty of us all sitting under the one umbrella is now we can work closer together.

So will more NBL/WNBL double headers be on the cards? “Yes, there’s a huge opportunity there.”

KEEPING UP WITH THE FAST RISE OF FELLOW WOMEN’S CODES

Asked if she feels pressure of keeping up with the rising pace of the likes of AFLW, NRLW, netball and football’s Matildas, Sager says she sees the other codes as “allies” rather than competitors.

And she’s already been met with open arms from fellow executives across the board.

“Everyone has been so welcoming. When you step into the industry from the outside, you always wonder how that’s going to be received, but everyone has been so amazing.

“I think we all share the same goals, like hey we’re in this together, we’re trying to do something together, let’s get there together,” Sager shared.

“The momentum behind women’s sports right now is undeniable, so I don’t view them as competition, I view them as allies.”

And she’s also taking note of what’s worked elsewhere, highlighting how the Matildas have created a long-lasting brand built on their players’ personalities, creating what she calls the “Matilda effect”.

“The stats behind the WNBL are amazing, yet we don’t have the fan base that the other leagues have. And that goes back to the level of marketing and community engagement to boost them up and share those stories.

“If you look at the Matildas, what they are amazing at is actually doing that and building those connections.

Sager looks to how the Matildas have built their brand. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

“I have three boys and they are obsessed with many, many Matildas. My eight-year-old walks around with a McKenzie Arnold tee-shirt pretty much every other day when he’s not wearing his Flames tee-shirt.

“So they’ve done a really good job at sharing those players’ stories and building the connections that everyone’s behind them whether or not they are winning.

“But I think they kind of have the opposite problem that we have. I mean, we’re winning, we are doing so well globally, but nobody knows about us.”

If Sager has her way, that won’t be a problem for much longer.

Originally published as New WNBL CEO Jennie Sager reveals plans for league ‘rebirth’ as new owners prepare to take over