Danita Johnson made history as the first Black executive to lead a Major League Soccer (MLS) club when she was appointed president of D.C. United in December 2020.
Before her current role, Johnson had worked for years in basketball with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. During her time with both organizations, she learned what operational excellence in the business of sports looks like.
“Working in the WNBA and NBA family, you’re going to get some of the best of the best business practices,” Johnson said during a mainstage interview at the Fortune COO Summit in Middleburg, Va., on Monday.
Johnson said her most recent role as the president and chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Sparks was highly relevant to MLS because both leagues are amid a major rise in popularity.
“The business itself, nonetheless, sat in a very similar spot where it needed transformation, where it needed change and growth opportunities—specifically with the World Cup coming in 2026,” Johnson said, comparing the WNBA to MLS.
Both leagues were founded almost 30 years ago, but have lived in the shadow of more popular sports. For the WNBA, it was men’s basketball and the NBA. Meanwhile, the MLS struggled because soccer is not among the most followed sports in the U.S.—although that is starting to change.
MLS teams are drawing in record crowds that are often too large for their own stadiums to accommodate. On Monday, the league announced an all-time attendance record of more than 11 million fans over the course of the regular season. Fan attendance can serve as an important bellwether of the league’s popularity because it points to the fact that fans are willing to pay to engage with the MLS.
“Having surpassed our record attendance with 16 matches left to be played in the regular season is a testament to the incredible momentum behind MLS and how we continue to push the boundaries of where we can go as a league,” MLS executive vice president and chief club performance officer Chris McGowan told Fortune in a statement.
Success for MLS
Those attendance numbers are also translating to soaring valuations for franchises. As of May, D.C. United is valued at roughly $775 million, according to Forbes, an 11% increase from the year before.
For Johnson, the key to sustaining that growth is infusing the club with a healthy dose of technology. During her main-stage interview, Johnson mentioned her intentions were to use technology for data-driven marketing to segment and reach different fans and to use enterprise software like Asana and Tableau for project management.
“In our world, it’s very interesting, because we go B2B and B2C, back and forth, all the time, between dealing with fans and dealing with brands,” she said.
To grow the audience in the U.S. and in Washington, D.C., more specifically, Johnson is eyeing Black American consumers. While they may be sports fans in general, they aren’t as familiar with soccer. Most young kids in America experience soccer as something they played when they were very young, but they may not know how to progress beyond that to try and reach the pros, Johnson said.
How the player development system works in soccer is more complicated than other sports. “Right now, it’s very clear when it comes to the NFL or the NBA, how you get [to the pros], how you make money, how it grows your career,” Johnson said.
Simplifying the process can help get American kids excited about soccer. And when that happens, it will ultimately yield long-term benefits for all of the MLS.
“If we have more kids playing soccer at a high level, we’re going to develop our own stars in the U.S. When we develop our own stars in the U.S., the sport will continue to grow,” Johnson said.
