Souhan: Sarah Spain lauds success of Minnesota women’s sports, invests in Aurora

Sarah Spain is a powerhouse. She plays host to the podcast “Good Game with Sarah Spain,” has a new book entitled “Runs in the Family” and writes for espnW.

She has created a national profile while fearlessly championing women sports and social justice. So maybe it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that she became an investor in the Minnesota Aurora, or that she and her listeners helped the Aurora raise $830,000 during the women’s soccer team’s second round of community ownership fundraising.

This week, she flew to Minnesota to see the Aurora play in person and to spend time with team founder Andrea Yoch. Thursday night, the Aurora defeated the Chicago Dutch Lions 5-0 at TCO Stadium. They improved to 8-0 on the season with a 1-0 victory at Rochester on Saturday, having outscored opponents 23-1.

The Aurora’s success means that the Twin Cities boasts three championship-contending women’s teams. The Lynx should have won the WNBA title last year and should compete for it this year. The Frost have won the first two PWHL titles. And the Aurora have exceeded any reasonable expectations for a pre-professional soccer team, in terms of success and popularity.

“I wanted opportunities to put my money where my mouth is,” Spain said. “The more I looked into Aurora, the more I realized that they do everything right.”

Spain, who lives in Chicago and was a minority owner of the NWSL Chicago Red Stars before an ownership change, thinks that one of the next big steps in the popularizing of women’s sports is … anger.

“I was talking to Andrea about this,” Spain said. “When the Lynx lost in the WNBA Finals last year, people watched it like it was a real sporting event. They were angry about the calls. They were mad about losing. They hate New York now. It wasn’t, `Oh, that’s great they were in the Finals.’ It was the same level of real disappointment as when an established men’s team loses.

“The longer women’s sports teams exist, the more you get nostalgia and tradition.”

Spain is also brave enough to cite one major difference in the coverage of men’s and women’s sports.

“Women’s sports can only catch up if there’s sophisticated, critical coverage,” she said. “Fans have to care about more than the game being a good experience. They actually have to care about the sports part of it, which is about winning and losing.”

That’s a point I’ve made. Women’s sports deserve more coverage, but women’s sports teams are rarely comfortable with the results of more coverage — more criticism, more speculation, tougher questions and demands for more access.

The NFL became the pre-eminent sports league in North America when it placed its fans on a 12-months-a-year diet of information, pseudo-information, speculation and debates. Women’s sports need to be about more than good vibes and intentions.

“I still remember Prince being a fan of the Lynx, and wanting to party with them,” Spain said. “That’s the kind of authentic, organic stuff you need for people to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s cool.’ Unfortunately, I don’t love the way a lot of our Chicago teams have marketed themselves.

“It’s the old-school notion of infantilizing your little girl who’s all grown up. There’s not enough coolness to that. In a city like Chicago, where there are a million things to do, the families are going to show up. If you make it cool, the families will still be there and it will become more of a social option for everyone else.”

Asked about the success of Minnesota’s women’s sports teams, Spain said: “I’m jealous. In Chicago, it took a long time just to get the local media to stop making fun of women’s teams, to stop poisoning the well.”

What’s next? Spain noted that the WNBA is facing collective bargaining negotiations, and that you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to think that NBA owners who also own WNBA teams might not be forthright about how profitable the women are.

“Men’s teams never complain about the money they’re losing,” Spain said. “When women lose money, it’s a big deal. That feels like a crutch for not investing in women’s sports.”