If you know nothing else about women’s hockey, you probably know Hilary Knight. The 5-time Olympic medalist has played the most games in U.S. Women’s Hockey history. She has also served as the captain of two PWHL teams and is one of the reasons the league exists in the first place. In 2019, Hilary was among several players who vowed to boycott any North American league that was not financially sustainable. In 2022, the players entered into a partnership with Mark Walter and Billie Jean King to launch the PWHL. Four years later, the league is selling out games at MSG and accepting a $100 million investment.

In this episode of The Deal, Hilary details for Jason and Alex the process of starting a league where players were partners from the jump and why Mark Walter and Billie Jean King were the right people to work with. She also explains how the momentum from this year’s Olympics bled into the PWHL season and why Heated Rivalry is one of the best things to ever happen to hockey. Finally, she shares her hopes for her post-playing career (spoiler alert! she wants to own a team) and the responsibility of being the face of her sport. Plus, Alex shares a business idea and tells Hilary why she reminds him of NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill.

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Lisa Bhathal Merage is very busy cementing Portland’s reputation as the global epicenter of women’s sports. In partnership with her brother Alex and their RAJ Sports venture, Lisa is the owner and governor of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and the WNBA’s Portland Fire. They came to own both teams under pretty unusual circumstances. The Thorns were in turmoil after their previous owner was ousted and RAJ Sports acquired the W’s latest expansion team after the initial deal fell through- giving them only 15 months to build a franchise from scratch. During Lisa’s tenure, the Thorns and the Fire have maintained some of the highest attendance numbers and most lucrative sponsorship deals in their respective leagues.

In this episode of The Deal, Lisa tells Alex and Jason how running the Thorns and the Fire led her to her purpose. She details the unique challenges of starting an expansion franchise in one league while also running a turnaround effort in another. She also shares how she splits her time as a governor in both the NWSL and the WNBA and how her background in fashion shapes her perspective on women’s sports.

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LIV Golf is known for doing it big: big player contracts, big worldwide events and big prize purses (an average of $460 million annually). It has also received big funding from one particular source. As of February 2026, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has pumped $5.3 billion into LIV. But this past April, the PIF announced that it would halt its funding of the league at the end of this year. The PIF’s exit leaves one big question mark hanging over the league: Can LIV Golf survive?

In this episode of The Deal, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil joins Alex and Jason to address the skeptics. He tells us where LIV is cutting costs and how it is maintaining relationships with its big name golfers. O’Neil also explains why he is confident LIV will survive and how it will look different post-PIF. He also shares his pitch to investors and spells out the types of investors who are already interested in LIV 2.0.

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