In a previous JohnWallStreet column, I wrote that one reason that women’s sports were undervalued is that a substantial number of men are women’s sports fans. Men represented a relatively under monetized fanbase for women’s sports leagues and properties.
The converse argument is also largely true – women still represent under monetized fan base for men’s sports given the size of their fandom. Sequel’s partnership with the New York Yankees is a clear demonstration of opportunities for men’s teams to organically reach female fans.
Sequel is a female hygiene product company founded by Stanford graduates Amanda Calabrese and Greta Meyer, both engineers and ex-athletes. The company’s product “is the first FDA-cleared redesign of the tampon in more than 80 years.”
In addition to Sequel becoming the title partner of the Yankee Pinstripe 5K run, the partnership enables the company to product sampling to the estimated 1.5 million women that attend Yankee Stadium through the baseball season.
ROAR’s partnership modeling consistently finds that product sampling is one of the most effective levers to drive increase brand consideration and revenue generation. Product in venue sampling on this scale should have immediate and tangible impacts on Sequel’s revenue.
Product sampling is particularly effective when it occurs an organic context. Having access to free tampons during games is something that has been advocated by female fans for years. Sequel’s partnership solves a real problem for female fans attending sporting events.
However, this partnership “is bigger than just tampons in the bathroom” as Calabrese said because of the potential impact it can have on Sequel’s business from revenue, brand, and audience perspective.
ROAR’s SmartDaaS platform and data partners enables us to examine behavioral based datasets across multiple channels, including clickstream (mobile and web traffic data) and foot traffic data across tens of thousands of audience profiles.
While survey data has its place, ROAR often emphasizes behavioral based datasets because it highlights people’s observed actions over prompted responses. Survey data can enhance the analysis but examining behaviors often translates to better business outcomes.
ROAR’s analysis found that women make up 36.0%-52.4% of Yankees fans are women. The Yankee’s partnership enables Sequel to reach outside of Yanke Stadium to the team’s tens of millions of global fans, many of whom are women.
This partnership highlights why sports partnerships can be particularly attractive to companies at Sequel’s scale. Growth companies can leverage partnership assets to raise awareness, expand their customer base, and increase revenues in ways that are unique to sports.
In Sequel’s case, the company has ability to provide product sampling in an environment that drives substantial positive brand associations (Yankee Stadium). In addition, Sequel also has a platform drive awareness on a global scale via the same partnership. It is difficult to find another marketing channel that contains all these elements.
It is important to note that Sequel is not leveraging men’s sports to engage with female fans. The company has an ongoing partnership with the Indiana Fever in addition to D.C. United prior to making its Yankees announcement.
Sequle’s partnership portfolio demonstrates that women are fans women’s and men’s sports. It also shows that companies can and should increasingly engage with female fans where they consume sports. Creating organic fit and providing the right platform to reach a company’s target audience is a key with engaging with this demographic.
We covered this in our female fans report a few months back – really interesting move here and opportunity moving forward. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinefitzgerald/2025/09/23/new-data-from-crowdiq-quantifies-behaviors-of-female-sports-fans/