Sophie Cunningham, the Indiana Fever guard entering her seventh WNBA season, has taken an equity stake in the CHAMP Fund, the athlete-investor vehicle backed by L Catterton and Patricof Company. She becomes the third WNBA player to join as a partner, after Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink signed in earlier tranches. The fund does not disclose check sizes, but the structure gives athlete partners carry on portfolio exits rather than flat advisory fees.
The CHAMP Fund launched in late 2023 as a deliberate answer to the endorsement-industrial complex: athletes write checks, sit on cap tables, and vote on allocation decisions alongside the institutional LPs. L Catterton, the consumer-focused private-equity arm with $35 billion in assets, anchors the fund with Patricof Company, the sports-finance shop that has structured minority stakes in six professional franchises since 2020. The vehicle targets early-stage consumer and wellness brands, the same categories where athlete advisory deals have historically paid $25,000 to $100,000 per year with no upside participation. CHAMP flips that: athletes commit capital, take board observer seats, and own a slice of the fund's 20 percent carry pool.
Cunningham's timing is worth noting. She averaged 7.2 points per game last season for the Fever, a team that went 13-27 and missed the playoffs but now employs Caitlin Clark, the highest-drafted player in league history. Clark's arrival has already pushed Fever season-ticket revenue past $4 million, triple the prior record, and sponsorship inventory is effectively sold out through 2025. Cunningham's off-court portfolio now includes equity in a fund that will see brands triple their athlete-marketing budgets to chase the WNBA's surging attendance and media numbers. The league drew 2.1 million viewers for its 2024 All-Star Game, up 154 percent year-over-year, and ESPN's new rights deal runs $200 million annually starting in 2026. Cunningham is betting on the infrastructure that will follow that money, not just the endorsement checks it generates today.
The athlete-LP model is still small—CHAMP has roughly 20 partners across NBA, WNBA, and NFL rosters—but the economics are clarifying. Plum, the Las Vegas Aces guard, disclosed in a podcast interview that her CHAMP stake has already returned more than her entire 2023 endorsement income, which included deals with Crocs, Bose, and Nike. That math works because the fund closed its first vehicle at $50 million and has already marked three exits at valuations above entry. One portfolio company, a hydration-mix brand, was acquired by a strategic buyer at a 4.2x multiple in under 18 months. Plum's carry on that exit alone exceeded her base WNBA salary of $200,000. Cunningham is now in the same structure.
What to watch: the fund's second close, expected before the WNBA season tips in May, will add 10 to 15 more athlete partners and likely include at least one NFL quarterback and two NBA All-Stars, per two people familiar with the process. L Catterton will also decide by March whether to seed a second CHAMP vehicle focused on sports-tech and media rather than consumer products. The Fever, meanwhile, will announce a new kit sponsor before opening night; the team's previous deal with a regional bank paid $1.8 million annually, a figure now considered 40 percent below market given the Clark effect.
Cunningham's move is not a headline, it is a datapoint. WNBA players earned an average of $150,000 in salary last season; the top endorsers cleared $500,000 to $1 million off-court. CHAMP offers a third lane, one that pays in years three through seven, not quarters one through four. The fund now has $68 million in commitments and a carry pool that vests only after LPs clear their 8 percent preferred return. Cunningham will be 30 when the first full fund cycle closes.
The takeaway
Cunningham's equity stake signals WNBA players are moving past advisory fees into carry-bearing LP roles that compound over fund lifecycles.
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