Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Victoria's Secret ditches its rebrand, Sen. Laphonza Butler won't run for a full term, and New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai invested big in the WNBA team—and is now reaping the rewards. Have a relaxing weekend.
- Slam dunk. When Clara Wu Tsai and her husband Joe Tsai bought the New York Liberty in 2019 for an undisclosed sum, the team was at a low point. Under previous owner James Dolan, it had been moved out of New York City to Westchester County. This week, Wu Tsai watched the Liberty make it all the way to the WNBA Finals before losing 70-69 to the Las Vegas Aces in a must-win game at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Wednesday night.
"I'm obviously disappointed," Wu Tsai, who serves as the team's governor, said of the loss by phone on Thursday. "But I couldn't be happier with the team, how far we've come in one year, and what we've done for the league."
Before they bought the Liberty, the Tsais were (and still are) co-owners of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. Their wealth mainly comes from Alibaba; Joe Tsai cofounded the Chinese ecommerce giant and now serves as chairman. Wu Tsai was previously general manager of Hong Kong operations for Alibaba-owned Taobao, a Chinese shopping site, and a VP for American Express.
When the couple bought the Liberty, they began putting real resources behind the team. They moved games to the Barclays Center (which the Tsais own), built a new locker room, added performance staff and front-of-office staff—the kinds of resources that are standard in the NBA. They then recruited star players like Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart. "We wanted to make New York a destination for great players," Wu Tsai says.
The result was the electric final, where two equally-matched basketball dynasties competed for the top prize. The Aces are now the league's first back-to-back champs in 21 years.
"This rivalry helped change the league," Wu Tsai says. "We showed that we could fill an arena with 17,000 fans—not just any fan, but a very engaged, rabid fan base." Merch sales were up 100% from last year, she added, and the series set a two-decade viewership high.
The Tsais' investment in the Liberty hasn't been without controversy. They were fined $500,000—the WNBA's largest fine ever—for chartering flights for players against league rules. Unlike in the NBA, players typically fly commercial, dealing with layovers and delays before big games. The rules were meant to level the playing field since not all WNBA owners are willing to shell out for private flights.
The fine helped push the league to update that policy, and chartered flights are now permitted for the playoffs. "We're going to continue to advocate for anything around player health and well-being. We think that flying charter is very important for performance on the court," Wu Tsai says.
She hopes to use the spotlight on New York to change conditions, increase sponsorship dollars, and boost media interest for women's players throughout the WNBA. "The future is really bright for this team and the league," she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune's newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women. Today's edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
