This week on ROAR we're re-running one of our favorite conversations of the season — our sit-down with Jason Wright. If you missed it the first time, it's essential listening on where women's sports, real estate, and revenue actually intersect.
Most people still frame women's sports as a movement. Jason Wright runs a fund built on the opposite premise — that it's one of the most under-researched and undervalued asset classes in sports. In this episode, hosts Caroline Valvardi and Adam Grossman trace Wright's path from seven years as an NFL running back, through a labor lockout that became his first lesson in sports business, to McKinsey, the President's chair of the Washington Commanders, and now Project Level, the women's sports fund he launched with Melody Hobson at Ariel Investments.
The conversation lands squarely where ROAR lives: the intersection of sports, real estate, and revenue. Wright breaks down the thesis driving Project Level — the modernization of men's sports that women's leagues can now draft on, two decades of family spending on girls' youth sports, and the "net-new fan" who never bought a men's ticket. From there the group digs into the economics of purpose-built women's stadiums, using naming rights to lower the cost of capital, and mixed-use districts that can out-earn the team next door. There's also a Northwestern reunion baked in: three Wildcats, two of them from the class of 2004, with Adam stepping into a dual host-and-guest role.
01:16 From NFL running back to franchise president
04:56 What Northwestern athletics taught them
09:36 NIL, the transfer portal & the leadership question 1
6:06 Why women's sports: the Ariel model & Melody Hobson
20:41 The thesis: three tailwinds & the "net-new fan"
26:52 Data, AI & closing the capability gap
34:28 Inside the LP base & diversifying the asset class
40:23 Purpose-built women's stadiums: the value case
45:11 Mixed-use districts & when real estate out-earns the team
48:44 The public-funding case for women's venues
49:59 What's next: leagues, youth sports & sleeper bets
