Minneapolis woman advocating for female athletes through growing sports agency

There's a growing chance you own something branded by a female athlete. 

According to an analysis from McKinsey and Company, revenue from women's sports has grown 4.5 times faster than revenue from men's sports, creating new opportunities both on and off the field.

Dani Foxhoven Young knows how to trust her intuition on and off the field.

"We need more women in the room speaking for women, especially women who were on the other side of it playing," she said.

She, herself, is on the other side of playing a sport she took all the way to the pros, a sport she's loved for a lifetime.

"I remember playing in the backyard with my younger brother and, just like, I actually remember at a really young age thinking that I wanted to try to use, like, both feet. Like, I wanted to be really good with my left foot, just as good with my right foot. So I remember that we would just, like, shoot against the fence; one of us would be goalie and one of us would shoot the ball at the fence," Foxhoven Young said.

WCCO asked her if soccer was a big thing in her life.

"Soccer was everything for me for, I would say, most of my life, Foxhoven Young said. "It was like the thing that I did. It became my identity. It became what I wanted to do with my life, and I remember at a really young age knowing that I wanted to spend my life in soccer."

She eventually made it to the pros, playing professionally for the Portland Thorns FC and making the team in Seattle for the Reign. She even played in Russia, a deal her agent made.

"It was, that was pretty messy. It was a pretty rough year of my life, if I'm honest. There was a lot that happened there. I ended up not getting paid. Learned a lot from that experience," Foxhoven Young said. "And so that experience, I would say, actually really is like a core reason to why I wanted to get into representation afterwards. Because I felt like my agent didn't necessarily represent the best of what I needed to get out of that experience and helped me when I felt like I was in a situation where I probably needed more help, you know, as a young woman coming out of college and moving across the world."

So after going into coaching and then into medical sales, she settled down with her family in Minnesota and settled her yearning. She started the Archive Sports Agency. The group represents professional women athletes in negotiations and secures brand deals.

"Talking to a lot of my friends who were playing in the NWSL still, the WNBA, and asking what their relationship was like with their agent. And found that a lot it was, well, they helped me negotiate my contract. But that's like I signed a two-year, a three-year contract. And after that, I don't really hear from them because they have to do that with their other 15 athletes," Foxhoven Young said.

"As opposed to getting them endorsements and more," WCCO said to her.

"Exactly," Foxhoven Young replied. "And so that's kind of where I was like, I think I could do this or I run right alongside their agent who's helping negotiate their contracts. And I get to focus more on the sponsorship, endorsement, speaking engagements, finding them activations, finding places where they can go speak about something that they're really excited about and use their platform in a way to tell their story."

The agency has helped form partnerships with the Minnesota Aurora FC, Women's Elite Rugby, Alline and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

As the business grows, Foxhoven Young says her mission is clear.

"I want to see women's sports be on an equal, if not, you know, higher level than where men's sports is right now because I think the growth trajectory is showing that we can be there. And I mean that in every term, right? Like having our own facilities, having tickets that are higher priced than what they are right now, having venues be sold out every day, have access through news and media and streaming rights deals and, you know, then have the women athletes feel like they're getting paid what they should be getting paid," she said.

To learn more about Archive Sports Agency and its work with women athletes, visit the company's website.