Atlanta Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery has adopted a vision for the revamped Dream that transcends the WNBA and even the gym.

While mingling with hundreds of Atlanta-based youth athletes for a day of drills, games and giveaways at Gateway Arena on Saturday, Montgomery had a moment of clarity for her long-term approach to the Dream’s rebuild inside and outside of competition.

“We don’t want to just only excel on the court — we want to excel in the community, we want to excel as an organization,” Montgomery told Just Women’s Sports during The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation’s Sports Matter Giving Truck #SportsMatterDay. “I love what DICK’s is doing getting in at the ground level, ages six through 18 are here, so that’s a large range of teenagers, kids, people that are trying to stay in sports, people that are trying to figure out if they want to be in sports.”

That ground-up approach has become familiar within the Dream organization.

A year after real estate developer Larry Gottesdiener bought the Dream from former owners Kelly Loeffler and Mary Brock, forming an ownership group with Montgomery and Suzanne Abair, the team overhauled its front office and roster this offseason.

“Everything’s new, literally everything is new, but that’s how you start over and that’s how you build,” said Montgomery, the first former WNBA player to become part owner of a franchise. “We wanted to build from the ground up and build a foundation, and so that was our whole intention this offseason.”

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Atlanta finished second-to-last in the WNBA last season with an 8-24 record and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season. It didn’t take long for Montgomery and the ownership group to start making their mark on the team’s direction.

In September, the Dream hired former NFL executive Morgan Shaw Parker as their President and COO. The next month, they named former WNBA player and Las Vegas Aces assistant coach Tanisha Wright as head coach. A couple of weeks later, they made arguably the biggest coup of all, hiring two-time WNBA Executive of the Year Dan Padover away from the Las Vegas Aces to serve as the team’s general manager.

“When we got the team last year, it was about 45 days before the season started, and we couldn’t really put our imprint on the team how we wanted to,” Montgomery said. “But now, a year later, we are really starting to see the Atlanta Dream we wanted to be.”

A critical element in the Dream’s rebuild this season is rookie Rhyne Howard, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2022 draft. Long considered to be one of the most pro-ready players in this year’s draft class, Howard led Kentucky to new heights and is already showing what she can bring to Atlanta, scoring 15 points on 50 percent shooting in her preseason debut.

The Dream also nabbed Michigan star forward Naz Hillmon with the 15th pick on draft night after she unexpectedly fell to the second round.

“We started out with the No. 1 pick with Rhyne Howard, and then we got the steal of the draft with Naz Hillmon, who has a motor, is a workhorse,” Montgomery said. “We were ecstatic. As it was getting closer and closer to our pick, we were holding our breath, and so really excited to get who we wanted to get.”

Montgomery believes Howard and Hillmon will be good fits on the court and in the locker room, where the Dream also have some rebuilding to do after a tumultuous 2021.

Last July, the Dream indefinitely suspended former No. 4 draft pick Chennedy Carter after an incident during a game against the Aces, which was later reported to be a verbal argument between Carter and Courtney Williams. As the episode hung over the team, Williams was at the center of a video that surfaced in October showing her and teammate Crystal Bradford throwing punches outside of an Atlanta club. The WNBA later suspended Williams and Bradford for their role in the fight, and all three players have since left the Dream.

With many new faces and more time to build, Montgomery is eager for Wright to make her mark on the team’s culture.

“Our goal was just to build a culture here with the Atlanta Dream, so we want great players, but we want great players that are also going to be aligning with our same views and values,” she said.

Atlanta hopes a fresh philosophy will lead to a better finish this season. Montgomery, however, isn’t letting the immediate results cause her to lose sight of the long-term mission.

“Of course we want to win, but for me, it’s how we are playing, how we are building this thing. Is there growth every week? Are we staying in the same spot? Those are the kind of things that I am looking to see from our team,” she said. “The wins and losses are going to take care of themselves at a certain point, but right now, we have to build this thing the right way.”

The Dream will play their final preseason game on Sunday against the Connecticut Sun before kicking off their regular season against the Wings in Dallas on May 7.

“I want people to understand that this is going to be a completely different experience than people have experienced before with the Atlanta Dream,” Montgomery said. “We really just expect people to visibly see the difference in what we are trying to build here with the Atlanta Dream.”

Clare Brennan is an Associate Editor at Just Women’s Sports.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

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According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.