None other than Alex Morgan, the U.S. soccer superstar, slid into Ohanian’s mentions. “I can help you with that,” Morgan wrote, adding the winking emoji.
They met for a conversation. “I was just asking her questions, just like I would if I was building a business in any sector,” says Ohanian. “You talk to your power users.”
Ohanian learned from Morgan that NWSL games were shown on Lifetime, a network not known for sports coverage. Meanwhile, players—like World Cup champs Morgan and her teammate Megan Rapinoe—were hugely popular on social media with substantial followings. He left that meeting even more convinced that NWSL teams shouldn’t be playing pro matches in relative anonymity. “As soon as people realize that these athletes are excellent year-round, and not just every four years, you’re going to have a huge opportunity,” says Ohanian. “There’s tremendous value.”
His vision proved prescient. Over the past five years, Ohanian’s championing of women’s sports has helped grow audiences, elevate franchise values, and set up several enterprises for future success. In 2020, Ohanian served as the lead investor for Angel City FC, the NWSL expansion team that paid a $2 million fee to enter the league. In 2024, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism dean Willow Bay, bought Angel City for $250 million: expansion fees for the growing league have since skyrocketed to $165 million. Games are now shown on CBS, as well as the network’s sports cable channel and streaming platform, Paramount+.
In 2024, Ohanian launched Athlos, a women’s track and field competition series which has given out lucrative prize payouts, $60,000, to race winners and attracted blue-chip sponsors like Tiffany, Toyota and Cash App. “The good news is, a lot of brands want to be aligned with speed,” says Ohanian. Fans filled Icahn Stadium in New York City on a Friday night in October to watch Olympic gold medal-winning long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall soar through the air on an elevated stage, middle distance world-record holder Faith Kipyegon win the mile, and Ciara close out races with a medley of her hits. The night carried a party vibe, and commercial revenue tripled year-over-year. Ohanian plans on adding two more Athlos events, and a team competition—à la Formula 1—next year. “If we all get fired up about Mercedes versus Ferrari,” says Ohanian, “why couldn’t we get just as fired up about Nike versus Adidas?”
Ohanian’s latest bet is on volleyball: in October, League One Volleyball, a pro league that debuted earlier in the year, announced that Ohanian and his investment firm, Seven Seven Six, will buy a Los Angeles-based franchise in the league. His faith in women’s sports stretched beyond U.S. shores: in May, he bought a minority stake in the Women’s Super League champions, Chelsea, for a reported $26 million.
In 2020, Ohanian resigned from the board of Reddit, choosing to focus on women’s sports. “I was just really torn, having some hard conversations with my wife about what I wanted to do,” says Ohanian. “Boy, does it look like the right decision now.” The NWSL says it saw its fourth consecutive year of linear television growth—regular-season viewership spiked 22 percent year-over-year. Total live streams were up 30 percent year-over-year, and fans watched a league-record 2.62 billion minutes of NWSL action across all platforms. A few weeks ago, someone stopped him in a Denver pizza shop, and thanked him for helping the NSWL grow. An expansion team will begin play in the area in 2026. “I’m happy but far from complacent,” says Ohanian. “We have big ambitions. It’s exciting times ahead.”
This profile is published as a part of TIME’s TIME100 Impact Awards initiative, which recognizes leaders from across the world who are driving change in their communities. The next TIME100 Impact Awards ceremony will be held on Dec. 5 in Abu Dhabi.
