New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu is becoming an investor for the NWSL club Bay FC, the club announced Monday.
The 2024 WNBA champion is also joining the club as an "official commercial advisor," a position that will help the organization with commercial and marketing strategies.
"I whole-heartedly understand how important investment really is and obviously you can talk about it and be about it, but you really have to want to be committed to it and invest to be able to see what you believe in come to light," Ionescu told ESPN.
Ionescu has been wanting to find a way to get involved with the soccer club since the franchise launched in 2024. The conversations started with her just planning on investing in the club. But quickly, Ionescu decided she wanted to have a bigger, more impactful role with the organization.
"That was a big part of it for me -- I want to invest, but I want it to be more than just transactional," Ionescu said. "I want to grow my relationship with the team and the players and be able to bring in the relationships that I have and what I've learned on the business side of things to help with their overall brand partnership strategy."
The first women's basketball player to have a unisex signature collection with Nike, Ionescu would like to parlay that business relationship into cleats for Bay FC and other NWSL clubs, as she did with a handful of NFL and MLB players.
She also wants to find more brand partnership opportunities with companies that have a longstanding history of uplifting women's sports.
"Sabrina is the ultimate innovator and creates new pathways for aspiring and current professional athletes," Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart said in a statement. "Adding her passion and vision to what we are building at Bay FC will allow us to further disrupt the sports landscape."
The Bay Area has been an epicenter for the growth of women's sports, with the region adding another female franchise this year in the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA's first expansion team since 2008.
While American women's soccer has been on the forefront from a national scale for a while, Ionescu wants to see it continue to grow on a club level, much like the WNBA has seen with local teams.
"It hasn't happened overnight for us. It's been years and years for us of athletes kicking down the door, voice what it is that they want to see. It's taken investment, and now expansion," Ionescu said.
"But to see it now in real-time -- viewership, attendance, sponsorships -- everything is at an all-time high. And you see it across different sports ... Soccer is a big one. Especially Bay FC."