Any consideration of sports activities storytelling should first acknowledge two necessary details. No. 1: Nothing connects with followers extra powerfully and extra memorably than a very good story. No. 2: Investment in ladies’s sports activities tales lags frustratingly behind funding in males’s sports activities tales.

Fact No. 2 helps clarify the importance of a docuseries about Athletes Unlimited and its community {of professional} ladies’s leagues. In late April, Athletes Unlimited introduced it could companion with Boardwalk Pictures and supply unprecedented entry to its softball, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse leagues. Boardwalk Pictures counts “Welcome to Wrexham,” “Cheer” and “Last Chance U” amongst its many well-liked productions.

After many years of considerably much less media consideration — 4%-5% of whole content material, as we regularly hear — ladies’s sports activities get pleasure from a singular storytelling benefit. They may give audiences the joys of discovery. Stories about ladies’s sports activities can introduce audiences to undercovered or unknown leagues, groups and athletes. Or, as Cheri Kempf, senior vice chairman of Athletes Unlimited stated, “Stories can expose people to something they knew nothing about, that maybe wasn’t even a primary area of interest.” From there, the hope is that curiosity develops and converts viewers to passionate followers.

Given the entire untold tales on the market and the expert storytellers in ladies sports activities, it’s a wise technique. It’s additionally a solution to management the narrative and maintain the momentum round ladies’s sports activities as speedy progress continues.

AU doesn’t know but the place the docuseries shall be out there. Maybe a streaming platform like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu. Kempf stays extra centered on the tales that shall be advised and their energy to generate buzz round AU. She seems to “Cheer” and the way in which that docuseries sparked curiosity in aggressive school cheerleading, the way in which phrase of mouth unfold concerning the present, and sees a possible trajectory for the AU docuseries. “Stories told in an entertaining way are stories you want to talk to your friends about and share in the family chat,” stated Kempf. AU believes it has these sorts of tales in abundance. Same goes for its inventive companion for the docuseries.

Last 12 months, when executives from Boardwalk Pictures took scouting journeys to Las Vegas for the basketball season and San Diego for the condensed softball season often called AUX, they skilled the joys of discovery. They received an opportunity to see how AU’s revolutionary competitors mannequin works, how athletes tackle management roles in a league with out coaches or workforce house owners, how brief, intense seasons create dramatic, behind-the-scenes moments. And they had been offered.

For AU, a docuseries affords a chance to achieve a bigger viewers and share its revolutionary mannequin. It’s a solution to spark and maintain curiosity in a community of leagues with five-week championship seasons. At the second, the plan is to begin the collection with this fall’s volleyball season. If all goes nicely, future episodes and seasons may function AU’s different sports activities. Regardless of sport, although, the content material will deal with the personalities and private tales of the athletes. That aligns properly with AU’s athlete-centric mission.

“The goal is to give people a 360-degree look at players,” stated Kempf. “We want people to understand and appreciate these women, the way they think, the way they lead, the responsibility they take on. We want people to see the whole aspect of them as people and players. That’s an aspect that we haven’t gotten to see a lot with women’s sports, while we are inundated with stories of incredible male athletes and we know everything about them.”

Again, there’s the joys of discovery. Another storytelling benefit for ladies’s sports activities: athletes constantly unafraid to be weak, genuine and reflective.

Maybe that’s a byproduct of receiving much less consideration than males’s sports activities through the years. Maybe that’s a results of time spent considering lives with out aggressive sports activities due to restricted alternatives and far-from-lucrative contracts. Maybe that’s a consequence of preventing for media protection. Whatever the trigger, their candor is spectacular and compelling. On a latest episode of the “Snacks” podcast, USWNT participant Kristie Mewis went deep and mentioned profession achievement and what it’s like to be a bubble player eager to make a World Cup roster.

Moments like that present a glimpse of tales ready to be advised. Listening to Mewis, it’s simple to think about a documentary centered on USWNT bubble gamers as they compete for World Cup roster spots.

Season 2 of Togethxr’s “Fenom” adopted Flau’jae Johnson, now taking part in for the 2023 champion LSU Tigers.togethxr

Promising information for ladies’s sports activities storytelling: More curiosity in ladies’s sports activities and extra platforms dedicated to ladies’s sports activities protection means extra tales and extra locations to inform them. Togethxr, the media and commerce firm based by Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel and Sue Bird, lately celebrated the documentary “Fenom” becoming an Oscar-qualifying film. Togethxr produces the “Fenom” documentaries, spotlighting younger, feminine athletes poised to turn into stars. Season 1 featured boxer Chantel “Chicanita” Navarro. Season 2 showcased the abilities of basketball participant and rapper Flau’jae Johnson.

In one other promising documentary growth, “Unfinished Business,” a movie concerning the early days of the WNBA, lately received a theatrical launch. The documentary seems again on the first 12 months of the New York Liberty. The historic perspective highlights how far ladies’s sports activities have are available a comparatively brief period of time and what classes have been realized.

These days, it’s widespread to listen to that ladies’s sports activities is having greater than a second. It’s now a motion the place the expansion potential is larger than males’s sports activities. We want tales and storytellers to seize that history-in-the-making and make sure the undiscovered doesn’t keep that method.

Shira Springer writes concerning the intersection of sports activities and tradition and teaches management communication at MIT Sloan.

Questions about OPED tips or letters to the editor? Email editor Jake Kyler at jkyler@sportsbusinessjournal.com