How NWSL CMO Julie Haddon Came Back to Sports From Tech

On a slow night at The Sports Bra, a pub in Portland, Ore., dedicated to women’s sports, Julie Haddon is working off the clock. The CMO of the National Women’s Soccer League is peppering pub owner Jenny Nguyen with suggestions about potential future partnerships between the fledgling bar and the NWSL: playoff events, a pop-up at the NWSL Championship in Washington, D.C., an outpost at a new stadium in Kansas City, Mo. Impressed but overwhelmed, Nguyen responds, “It’s just so much in so little time.” New Women’s Soccer CMO Sees ‘Hypergrowth’ Potential But that’s been Haddon’s career: seeing myriad options at once and implementing them quickly. After moving from sports to tech and back again, she views each step as a point connected along a single arc. “I believe in creating your own opportunities and creating a path and leaving a trail instead of following something traditional,” Haddon said. Haddon came from a Chicago-area sports family. Her father played 16-inch softball (named for its larger ball), while her mother has held Cubs season tickets for the last 55 years. During her time as a student athlete at Indiana University, Haddon talked her way into the school’s sports information department. While covering Hoosier sports during Hall of Fame basketball coach Bobby Knight’s reign, she handwrote a letter to the Los Angeles Dodgers expressing her interest in working for the organization, resulting in her first internship. Another impassioned letter to the CEO of Connecticut-based trading card company Score, in which Haddon expressed her love of sports and marketing, led to her first full-time job. When the company moved to Texas, she joined video game firm Acclaim, which produced NFL Quarterback Club, NBA Jam and the WWE (then WWF) series. “I believe a career is something you optimize along the way, much like running a marketing campaign,” she said. “You go do testing and you see what works and you keep that, and you see what doesn't and you don't.” Enjoying the tech side of gaming, she left sports for DreamWorks Animation in 1998—just in time for CGI-animated films like Shrek to premiere. In 2003, she joined eBay for its stories of early ecommerce, such as a bridal dress listing from a jilted bride, or a grilled cheese with the Virgin Mary's image on it. That led to stints at early incarnations of PayPal, Twitter and Zynga. While working as a consultant in 2008, Haddon was introduced to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. She joined the site back when it had fewer than 890,000 users and companies had concerns about the authenticity of their accounts. At Twitter in 2008, Haddon used her brand safety work at eBay to inspire the creation of the blue check mark. At a women’s summit at Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif., then-NFL CMO Dawn Hudson asked Haddon to join the league’s media group. Haddon would eventually oversee marketing for the NFL’s biggest properties and sponsor its NFL Pride LGBTQ+ resource group. Haddon entered the NWSL as part-owner of the Chicago Red Stars but wanted to make a broader impact. When new NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman approached her this spring, Haddon saw a chance to show sponsors and fans an evolving, changing league through storytelling. “There's a theme here that I believe in,” Haddon said. “You create your own opportunities and seize life instead of letting it come to you.” Big mistake Worrying too much about "pure ego-driven things" like title and team size. "When you find your career bliss—that intersection of passion, purpose and experience—then none of that matters," she said. The only thing that matters is if you love what you do and who you're doing it with. Lesson learned Former eBay North America CMO Gary Briggs had a unique way of complimenting Haddon on "bringing together data-driven insights with compelling storytelling." In her annual review, he basically told her: "Don’t try to be something you’re not, and own your strengths." How she got the gig While working for the NFL in 2019, Haddon was on a flight to Seattle. "This thought came to me that was so powerful I had to write it down: 'I need to make the world a better place for women through sport,'" she recalled. Soon after, she became an owner of a women’s pro soccer team and joined a few boards in sports betting, data and streaming communities, through which she met Berman, "and the rest is history." Pro tip "A career in sports requires 'always on' work because each season comes with different challenges, opportunities, headaches and victories—both literally and figuratively," she said. "By remaining nimble and being OK with failure, you learn resilience and how to adapt and pivot."

Sports Marketing News

A Women's Soccer CMO's Path From Starting Lineups to Startups, and Back Again

Working in Big Tech was fun, but NWSL's Julie Haddon says her heart is in sports

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte