ESPN viewers have long been ready for some football. Now they will be getting more of a chance to watch a different take on the sport.
ESPN and Women’s National Football Conference have expanded their rights deal with a new two-year pact that will keep the WNFC IX Cup Championship Game on ESPN2 and put the Disney-backed sports-media giant in the mix when it comes to marketing the professional women’s tackle-football league.
“This deal, I think, is significant,” says Odessa “OJ” Jenkins, the league’s founder and CEO, during an interview. The new deal is twice as long as an initial one-year pact between the league and ESPN, she says, and will have ESPN executives working on innovative marketing and promotional ideas. What’s more, there appears to be some potential to make use of the broader ESPN portfolio, including the NFL Network, newly acquired as part of an investment in ESPN by the NFL, to help burnish WNFC.
Under terms of the deal, the league’s Championship Game will air live on ESPN2 on Sunday, June 21, from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, the 12,000-seat stadium and practice home of the Dallas Cowboys.
“We want to bring in the right people, bring more power and influence to this league,” Jenkins says. “And I think ESPN is where we are looking to grow.” WNFC has a partnership with the streaming platform Victory+ and a slate of sponsors that includes Dove, Ridell and Adidas.
