SEAL BEACH — Standing at 6’6”, Kathryn Plummer Boden always knew she wanted to play professional volleyball, but her options were limited in the U.S.
Boden, who is from Aliso Viejo, played in Southern California’s competitive indoor club volleyball leagues before becoming a standout at Stanford and joining the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team.
To play professionally, she either had to move overseas or switch to beach volleyball.
“In America, nobody played indoor professional volleyball here,” she said.
That changes this year.
Now 27, Boden is coming back to Southern California to play for the Los Angeles Orbit, a new League One Volleyball (LOVB) expansion team owned by Reddit co-founder and women sports investor Alexis Ohanian.
The Orbit announced their name, roster and investors on Sept. 25 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, where they’ll be playing their inaugural season.
For Boden, this moment is not only historic but also very personal.
“I’ve never really been able to play in front of my family and friends professionally,” she said.
A $160M Volleyball Investment
The team’s launch comes as women’s professional sports gain momentum.
Viewership in the WNBA has jumped 17% year over year, according to ESPN. ESPN also reported that viewership for National Women’s Soccer League club Angel City FC jumped 22%.
According to Deloitte, global revenue from elite women’s sports is projected to top $3 billion this year, up 340% since 2022.
However, women’s sports still have a fairly small market share.
While women’s sports worldwide will bring in an estimated $1.4 billion in commercial revenue and $765 million from broadcasts this year, according to Deloitte, it still trails men’s sports, which dominates the landscape.
For comparative purposes, the NFL alone brings in about $8.5 billion annually, more than half from media rights.
The huge discrepancy and lack of casual viewers show how far women’s professional leagues must go to turn growing interest into steady sponsorships, media deals and ticket sales.
Women’s professional salaries also pale in comparison to men’s. Orbit players will have a 20-match season with home and away games.
Starting salaries are $60,000, and players get year-round insurance, paid housing and travel, parental leave and mental health support, LOVB officials told the Business Journal.
Grassroots Campaign
Still, Ohanian told the Business Journal that the Orbit are part of a larger effort to turn the fastest-growing youth girls sport into a successful professional business.
Ohanian, who founded Reddit in 2005 and sold it a year later for $10 million, is also a part owner of Chelsea Women’s FC, all-women track and field Athlos, and the Los Angeles Golf Club, among others. Other Orbit investors include LeBron James’ wife, Savannah, and entertainer Issa Rae.
Since its founding in 2020, LOVB, the parent company that oversees the 10-team women’s professional volleyball league, has raised $160 million, including a $100 million round announced in 2024 before its first pro season.
The Orbit have signed Yaamava Resort and Casino as their first corporate sponsor, and Ohanian says about six more sponsorship deals are in progress.
Ohanian said he is using strategies he helped create at Angel City FC to grow the Orbit.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Angel City FC, the National Women Soccer League’s team in Los Angeles, brought in $11 million in corporate partnerships during its first season in 2022 and about $30 million in revenue the next year.
The New York Times reported in 2024 that the team was valued at $250 million when control shifted to Willow Bay and Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Ohanian told the Business Journal that the Orbit are already ahead of Angel City’s early ticket sales, but he didn’t share exact numbers. Ohanian said the club looked at several venues in Southern California, including the Honda Center in Anaheim, before choosing Intuit Dome.
“When folks around the league, and frankly around sports, see this arena packed with screaming fans,” Ohanian said, “it shifts their mindset of just what is possible.”
Orange County Talent Pipeline
Boden is one of a few Orange County players on the first women’s indoor pro volleyball team in Los Angeles. Tustin native Rachel Fairbanks is also on the roster, and Annie Drew lives in Orange.
Three-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist and Newport Harbor High alum Misty May-Treanor is also on the team’s advisory board.
“You have such a large fan base in the youth volleyball community,” May-Treanor told the Business Journal. “You’re going to get those fans here.”
But for the team’s executives, Orange County is more than just a place to find players.
Orbit leaders told the Business Journal that the area’s large youth volleyball community is also a key source of fans and corporate interest.
The challenge is to turn young players and their families into paying fans who will travel an hour or so away to Inglewood for games.
Orbit President Ana Mendy said the team is working with youth clubs to arrange buses, team outings and other ways to help players and families get to games.
She added that the club planned for the upcoming 11-game home schedule with Southern California traffic in mind.
“We’re here for a multi-year build,” Mendy said. “I’m not under the impression that you build a franchise team in a couple months.”
For Boden, though, what matters most starts at home. Playing overseas isn’t as exciting as some people think.
“I think just the isolation,” she said. “Obviously, you have your teammates and you build relationships with those people but being far from your family and being in a different environment, a foreign environment, is difficult. When you’re put in it, kind of literally dropped off at the airport and told to figure it out, that’s a huge life shift.”
Unlike in college, when at least one parent would make the trip up north to Stanford for her games, she said her parents hardly ever got to see her play professionally in Japan, Turkey or Italy.
Now, they’ll be able to watch her live at the Orbit home games.
“It’s hard to say no to staying home in California,” she said.