Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Over 10,000 U.S. hotel employees went on strike, Joanna Geraghty’s JetBlue is delaying the delivery of 44 airplanes, and women’s sports are doing things differently. Have a wonderful Tuesday!
– Team players. This weekend, most players in the National Women’s Soccer League became free agents. The Sept. 1 milestone was part of the league’s recently negotiated collective bargaining agreement, which eliminated the draft in the sport.
The NWSL is now the first major North American professional sports league to get rid of its draft. It’s a historic decision that commissioner Jessica Berman hopes inspires other leagues to reexamine their baked-in assumptions about how things have to be done. “Just ask the question of whether this serves [your] interests,” she advises. “Once you ask the question, you’re forced to really analyze what you’re doing and why.”
For the NWSL, the decision to eliminate the draft came down to two factors. First, there’s the global nature of soccer; the 12-year-old American league competes with leagues around the world for talent, and those leagues don’t have drafts, which means that players at all stages of their careers can choose where they play. Second, that “free choice,” as Berman describes it, was deeply important to NWSL players. “We have moms in our league, we have players who have other interests that are part of how they define themselves,” she says. “Psychologically for our athletes, it was really important to them to have free choice of where they’re going to play.”
The historic agreement is a reminder that women’s sports aren’t a monolith. As excited as fans are about growth across women’s basketball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, and more, each sport and league is charting its own future—and what’s best for one may not be for the other.
And the NWSL’s pioneering decision is an example of how so many women’s leagues today are willing to experiment, not just do things as they’ve always been done. The WNBA is reckoning with similar questions amid record viewership—where to replicate the formula of the NBA and where to chart its own path. Athletes are building from scratch with leagues like Unrivaled, a 3×3 women’s basketball league, and Athletes Unlimited, a network of women’s sports.
“There’s been a default assumption that if you want to build a successful league, you have to build it like the leagues that have been around for 100 years. We know those leagues were built for men’s sports and at a different time in history,” Berman says. “The thing we’re most proud of is being in a position to innovate and pressure-test the status quo.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Inhospitable conditions. Over 10,000 employees at 25 U.S. hotels went on strike on Labor Day, pushing for raised wages, more staff after cuts during the pandemic, and more manageable workloads. Gwen Mills, president of the UNITE HERE union, said, “Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work.” AP
- Flight delays. JetBlue said that it will save around $3 billion deferring the delivery of 44 airplanes until 2029; the company currently can’t afford to buy that many planes due to increasing debt. CEO Joanna Geraghty said, “We need planes to grow, but taking delivery of aircraft that end up sitting on the ground after we’ve paid for them significantly worsens the problem.” CNBC
- Making more. Barbara Rentler, chief executive officer of Ross Stores, made 2,100 times as much as her average employee in 2023, according to a new report. Her pay package was $18.1 million that year. Ross Stores had both the widest pay gap and the lowest median worker salary out of the 100 S&P 500 companies that the Institute for Public Policy analyzed. Fortune
- Cookbook queen. Ina Garten built an empire as the Barefoot Contessa, the Hamptons-based icon of cooking and hosting. Her new memoir charts her journey from childhood to one of the most successful cookbook authors of all time. Fun fact: She turned down Glossier's proposal to name a fig lip balm in her honor. The New Yorker
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Citibank Nigeria appointed Nneka Enwereji as chief executive officer; she is the second female CEO of the bank and succeeds the first female CEO, Ireti Samuel-Ogbu. Previously, Enwereji was head of global network banking across sub-Saharan Africa.
Danske Bank named Cecile Hillary chief financial officer. She had been group treasurer at Lloyds Banking Group.
Dreamday, a PR agency, appointed Taylor Osumi as senior vice president. Most recently, she was vice president of Konnect Agency.
AMCP, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, appointed Mitzi Wasik as executive director, AMCP foundation and senior vice president, practice strategy and innovation. Previously, she was Optum Rx’s senior vice president, service and quality management.
Lumens, a lighting, furniture, and decor company, named Dana Gers chief marketing officer. Most recently, Gers was consultant, interim CMO at The Board. She has also served as CMO at Aritzia and Net-a-Porter and served as senior vice president, global brand marketing and communications at Jimmy Choo.
ON MY RADAR
What can we learn from menstrual blood? The New Yorker
I am childless, but not by choice Wall Street Journal
Meet one of America’s newest union leaders: Brooke Shields Washington Post
PARTING WORDS
“There’s a place for us on that court.”
— Sarah Adam on being the first American woman to play wheelchair rugby at the Paralympics
