KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When new Kansas City Current President Raven Jemison says she started her career as a sports executive at the entriest of entry-level positions, she means it.
“I need you to think about the bottom of the barrel, $7.25 an hour, selling hockey tickets for someone who had never seen a hockey game from Alabama,” Jemison said.
It was 2006 and Jemison got a job in inside sales, selling Florida Panthers tickets to hockey fans in the Miami area.
Jemison worked her way up the ladder incrementally to become a manager of client services “before capping out a little bit from a growth perspective,” she said.
From there, her journey took her through North America’s other major sports leagues during the ensuing 18 years before Jemison was hired to lead the Current into a new era with the opening of CPKC Stadium.
“I saw this as an opportunity,” Jemison said. “I don't really like to say challenge, because I think that challenges are looked at negatively. Opportunities are seen as ways to stretch yourself to say, ‘OK, what can I learn about myself today, and how can I push myself and my team to be better?’ But the meteoric rise of women's sports, you cannot deny.”
And Jemison brings a wealth of experience to her new job, which she officially started last month.
After leaving Miami, Jemison served as the manager of season-ticket services and retention and later as the director of groups sales and service for the Pittsburgh Pirates for four years.
She helped the San Francisco 49ers open Levi's Stadium as the director of member services for more than a year then moved across the country to work in the NBA League Office.
Jemison filled various executive roles with the NBA during the next six years — eventually rising to become the league's vice president for team marketing and business operations, which then led to a three-year stint as the Milwaukee Bucks’ executive vice president for business operations.
“They were all my favorite,” Jemison said. “I know, it's kind of a weaselly way to get out of it. But they were all my favorite, partly because of where it was in my career and where I was personally.”
A vision ‘you want to be part of’
Jemison didn’t know Current co-owners Chris and Angie Long, but she’d grown to admire the couple from afar as she read about their plans for the NWSL club in trade publications.
When the Current reached out, Jemison was intrigued.
“Every week, there was something about what was happening here in Kansas City, and Angie and Chris were at the forefront,” she said. “They were talking about their vision, so, while I did not know them personally, I knew what their vision was. It made it easy for me to take the call and learn a little bit more.”
One call with Angie Long was enough for Jemison to be inspired to join the Current, who will open the first stadium in the world purpose-built for women’s professional sports on Saturday.
“It took one conversation with Angie, and I'm like, ‘What? How do I sign up? What do I need to do? Tell me. If I can sweep the stadium, I'll do that,’ because that vision is so clear,” Jemison said. “It is one you want to be a part of.”
Now, she’s eager to bring her experience from the NFL, MLB, NFL and NBA to the NWSL and the Current, who are attempting to reimagine the business model for women’s sports at a time when its popularity — not only for soccer, but women’s basketball, volleyball and softball among other sports — is surging.
“You can't deny what this means and the investment that Chris and Angie and (fellow co-owners) Brittany and Patrick (Mahomes) have done here with respect to women's sports and this new stadium, so the timing was perfect,” Jemison said. “It's a great opportunity, not only to play a role here in Kansas City, but what it means for women's sport, so I could not deny the opportunity.”
But opening CPKC Stadium isn’t a finish line; it’s actually just the start in Jemison’s mind.
“We want to be very clear, there will be a time on March 16, where all eyes will be on the CPKC Stadium and the Kansas City Current, but I will say that this is a movement that we want to spark and show what is possible and not just what happens when you invest in women's sports, and say, ‘OK, we're done. We did our duty. Now, let's move on to do something else,’” Jemison said. “This is the staple, this is the piece that will jump into that movement such that we will show others, ‘Hey, when you invest in women's sports, and you take what is an opportunity to do something different and really nurture it and grow it, this is what can happen when you do that.’”
Importance of finding support
Just as the Current aims to chart a new course for women’s professional sports, Jemison has walked her own path as “a queer, Black woman and prominent executive in the male-dominated sports industry,” which she details in her book “More Than Representation: The Cheat Codes to Own Your Seat at the Table.”
“There's definitely been growth there, because I can tell you, when I was selling tickets for $7.25 an hour, I didn't see anyone that looked like me at the top that I could say, ‘Oh, This is what I can do,’” Jemison said. “But what I did know is just because I didn't see it didn't mean that I couldn't be it. You hear that sometimes, but I kind of looked at it as though, ‘Well, maybe if I don't see it, maybe I can be it, right? Maybe I can be the example.’”
Along the way, Jemison has leaned on other rising-star female executives, especially a handful she met during her time with the NBA League Office.
“As I was kind of growing up in my career, there were a few of us that were growing at the same time, so we honestly leaned on each other,” Jemison said. “There's quite a few women in my circle that I hold very dear, that I crossed paths with at each of the levels that I've been at.”
That was especially true during her time with the NBA League Office, where she met Morgan Cato, who is now the first minority woman to serve as an NBA assistant general manager with the Phoenix Suns, and Liliahn Majeed, the chief EDI officer for L’Oreal.
“Sometimes, there's a misconception that you have to look up to get that mentorship, where the truth was we kind of looked across and said, ‘How can we nurture each other and fill each other's cups such that we have that support system so, when things get tough, we can lean on each other?’”
Jemison said there also have been allies along the way, but she’s happy to discuss her journey and what it took to become a high-level sports executive with the next generation of women and minority leaders in sports.
“There's absolutely been some obstacles and a lot of them have been things that are in my head that I'm like, ‘Ah, do I belong in this room? Or am I ready for this step?’” Jemison said. “But I think having that support system is crucial.”
Self-affirmation, sometimes even standing in front of a mirror in “a Superwoman pose,” helped build her confidence.
“There is something emotionally invigorating or psychological that you start telling yourself and you start believing that,” Jemison said.
Now, she no longer doubts that she belongs, “because I've learned that I've earned the seat that I'm sitting in because of the bumps and bruises that I've gotten along the way and the lessons that I've learned.”
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