If you're a woman and aspire to work in sports, what options do you have? Like many women before her, surely, Jacquelyn Dahl saw the obvious paths.
“I could be in broadcast, but there's only so many broadcast jobs to go around,” says Dahl. “I could work for a front office, and again there's only so many front office jobs to go around.”
Spoiler: Jacquelyn Dahl is not in broadcast and she doesn’t work for a front office. She took a different path.
Dahl is the founder and CEO of 1UP Sports Marketing. She’s working in sports doing a job she didn’t know existed until it was right in front of her.
She was actually on the broadcast track, working for Fox Sports San Diego straight out of college. On the side, she started helping her friends who were athletes with their off-field branding. She saw marketing opportunities and ran with them. Then an agency came calling with an opportunity — and there Dahl was, a full-fledged sports marketer. A few years later? There she was, a full-fledged sports marketer and a business owner.
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When you see Patrick Mahomes in a commercial, it's likely because of Jacquelyn Dahl
There are more jobs in sports than you probably realize. And there are certainly more women doing those jobs than you realize. Dahl is one of them, matching up athletes and influencers with marketing opportunities. Now running her own company, she works with Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, his wife and fitness influencer Brittany Mahomes, former U.S. soccer star Alex Morgan, former Patriots wide receivers Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, and Dolphins linebacker Bradley Chubb.
“When I was first starting out, I wasn't aware of the role that I'm in, which was kind of part of the problem. I feel like a lot of the women in these positions weren't acknowledged, weren't highlighted. You've heard of these big dog, male agents who are negotiating XYZ contracts, but hadn't heard of many women doing it.”
But there have been women doing it all along. Dahl highlights Jill Smoller, the longtime agent for Serena Williams and a pioneer for women in the field.
“I like to say that she's like the secret weapon for so many of the stars,” says Dahl. “She's the OG. She's a gangster in my eyes.”
We’re hearing more about women in these roles now. Ahead of the Eagles two Super Bowl appearances, the fact that quarterback Jalen Hurts has an all-female management team made headlines. Rachel Everett is his marketing and branding manager, Nicole Lynn is his sports agent, Jenna Malphrus handles his brand management, Chantal Romain covers media relations and Shakeemah Simmons-Winter is his publicist.
Dahl’s client, Mahomes, was playing in both of those Super Bowls, but she says more people sent her articles on those women than anything else.
“Honestly, my favorite part about all that is how Jalen responded to it,” Dahl says.
The Eagles star told reporters his team came together because he was “seeking out the best and that’s how it happened.”
“That just shows that women have been doing this for a really long time,” says Dahl. “Jalen was just making a decision of who's the best at all these positions to support his business.”
As it happens, Dahl compiled her own team at 1UP in a similar way.
“My entire company is all female, and again it's not necessarily super intentional. I just hire great people,” Dahl says. “I think like my entire circle in this industry is all women and that has naturally happened over the last several years.”
Visibility matters for the women in sports who make things happen behind the scenes
The only way for Dahl and others like her to find quality women to fill those positions is for women to know the opportunities are out there in the first place.
“The best way to support other women is making sure that they're aware of the jobs that exist,” says Dahl. “Unless we're sharing that information and giving that out to young women who are wanting to pursue these careers it's going to end up going to the next dude.”
It goes beyond sharing job postings though. Visibility is key. Dahl is active on social media for a reason. It’s not just to drum up business for her company. It’s to show other women what is possible.
“I know a lot of women are uncomfortable with sharing what they do and things they're doing on social media, but I've gotten more inquiries from young girls via social media because they found out what I do because of us posting on our one sports marketing Instagram,” Dahl says.
“Honestly, I should take my own advice, but I think as women we’re often timid to talk about the work that we're doing and we want to put our heads down and work, which is exactly how I've done and how I have built my career, but I do think that if young girls don't know that there's a female CMO at State Farm, how are they ever going to know that that position is achievable for them?”
What's achievable for women in sports is now front and center. Women’s sports have never been more marketable. Just watch a basketball game on TV, and you’re likely to see ads featuring the likes of Caitlin Clark and JuJu Watkins, the next generation of star athletes.
“It's wild to me that for so long marketers were not servicing 50 percent of the population,” Dahl says. “It used to be working with female athletes or supporting or investing in women was kind of like this feel good thing to do but now it's a very smart business move.”
That means there are more opportunities than ever for the women behind the scenes to work with female athletes.
“In the past I used to get inquiries of ‘What NFL players do you work with?’ and now I get nonstop inquiries from brands of like ‘Do you have any female talent that we can work with?’” Dahl said. “So it's certainly a huge shift and you know what you're seeing on TV is clearly a reflection of that.”
Female talent. That's Dahl. That's the foundation of 1UP. That's the present and future of sports marketing.