I got to interview tennis legend Billie Jean King and her wife Ilana Kloss for Inc.'s April 2024 Female Founders issue.
One detail you may not know about tennis icon Billie Jean King: She's long been a savvy businessperson.
Before she made history more than 50 years ago for trouncing former men's tennis champion Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes, King co-owned several tennis tournaments. She was then in her 20s, and her portfolio included the Oakland Pro Championships and the Billie Jean King Invitational, which was part of the all-women Virginia Slims series.
A year earlier, in 1972, King refused to play in the next year's U.S. Open unless all the women playing got paid the same as the men. However, she didn't just protest; she actively worked behind the scenes to secure a sponsor. "I did that so I could go to [tournament promoter] Billy Talbert and tell him, 'We have the money!' " says the now 80-year-old King. "Because money is everything in these situations." (Bristol Myers agreed to be the sole sponsor--and the U.S. Open became the first of the majors to offer equal prize money to women.)
Equal pay has continued to elude female athletes, but a shift is taking place as interest in women's sports spikes. In 2024, global revenue generated across the category is expected to surpass $1 billion for the first time, according to a recent report from Deloitte's Center for Technology, Media & Telecommunications. That same report predicted that women's elite sports team valuations would continue rising in 2024, with added clubs exceeding the $100 million threshold.
In a year when the business of women's sports is finally getting its due, Billie Jean King stands out not only for her pioneering efforts to elevate the field, but also for continuing to stay relevant. Through the Randolph, New Jersey-based Billie Jean King Enterprises, an investment and consulting firm, King and her wife, Ilana Kloss, 68, have invested in six sports, from volleyball to hockey. And they've invested in startups like Kinlò, the skin care line for people with melanated skin founded by 26-year-old tennis phenom Naomi Osaka, and the media company Just Women's Sports, led by 30-year-old former soccer star Haley Rosen.
But being a sympathetic investor is only part of King's appeal. "Billie is a legend and a mentor," says Osaka. "I have grown up in awe of her."
And she's not alone. From the tennis court to the C-suite, women and men have found continued pride and inspiration in King's trailblazing moves all those years ago. And while it can seem somewhat commonplace these days to hear about women playing to sold-out shows and standing up to massive corporations--Taylor Swift is just the most prominent recent example--doing so was far less typical 50 years ago.
"Billie took on the risk of saying, 'This isn't right, and we're going to do it the right way, whether we're successful or not,' " says Julie Uhrman, co-founder and president of Angel City Football Club, Los Angeles's new pro women's soccer team. Like King, Uhrman also landed on Inc.'s 2024 Female Founders list. King and Kloss invested in Angel City in 2020, and Uhrman says their support and mentorship has meant the world. She recalls how right before the club launched, Kloss sent a video of King telling the team how proud she was. King said, "Keep up the good work!"
"It was so meaningful coming from someone who laid the groundwork," Uhrman says. "Someone who did fight against the system, who did strive for a better future, who did break barriers and continues to break barriers and recognizes how challenging and difficult it is and how many people get in your way."
That King and Kloss are fiercely committed to investing in women's sports makes sense. The WNBA's combined viewership across all networks grew 67 percent from 2022 to 2023, as the league's overall partnership revenue notched double-digit growth. For BJKE, that's translated to annual revenue growth of 35 percent in 2023 over the year prior; the company declined to provide a specific number.
"People are thinking of women's sports as a great investment now--not just helping us or being nice to us," says King. "We're actually a good investment."
That's part of the impetus behind her company's role in propping up the new six-team Professional Women's Hockey League, with L.A. Dodgers co-owners and spouses Mark and Kimbra Walter. Creating the league took over five years, says King, who credits Kloss, BJKE's CEO, with doing the bulk of the work. "We're really thrilled that happened, because now the little girls have their dream. That's what I want," King says. "The boys have had their dream for 100 years, and the girls haven't--not at this level."
It's the kind of messaging King is game for as executive producer of Groundbreakers, too. The PBS documentary celebrates Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and other education programs, through the stories of prominent women athletes. BJKE is partnering with the International Tennis Federation and TWG Global to market all of the commercial rights for the Billie Jean King Cup, billed as the premiere international women's tennis competition. In 2022, the company launched Trailblazer Venture Studio in partnership with three other companies. Also under the auspices of BJKE, King and Kloss do consulting work and leadership training for sports organizations as varied as the NFL and the National Women's Soccer League.
Right now, the pair's focus is on helping women's sports get media exposure across all platforms--which can translate into more money for women athletes. A study released in 2023 by talent-management and marketing firm Wasserman found that women's sports averaged about 15 percent of media broadcasts, streaming, social media, and digital publications--up from around 13 percent in 2019. "If you get 15 percent exposure, you're never going to get as much money," says Kloss. "But that's starting to change across every platform."
King knows how much representation matters, especially to children. When she was 9 years old, she went with her parents and brother on Mother's Day to see a minor league baseball game at L.A.'s Wrigley Field. "Sitting there, I had this jolt through my gut and my heart: I cannot play baseball because I'm a girl," King says. "On the way home, I was really upset. Very quiet. My parents said, 'Are you all right?' And I said yes, but I wasn't, obviously. It made a big impression. I think it helped shape my life."
Four years later, when she was 13, she found early inspiration in Althea Gibson, the first Black person to win a Grand Slam event. "She was the first No. 1 in the world I ever saw in person," King says. "I was 13. I remember how excited I was that day. I went, 'She is so good. How am I ever going to be that good?' "
Adds King of Gibson, "You have to see it to be it."
People should never feel like they can't do something because the system isn't built for them, King says. It means the system needs to be rebuilt, which, she adds, the women and men who come next will have to do.
"My parents always taught us that every generation gets better," King says. Rest assured, future generations will still be looking to her for inspiration.