Alexis Ohanian sat on the patio behind the farmhouse in Northern Palm Beach County belonging to him and his wife, tennis legend Serena Williams, talking about his support and belief in women's sports.
In the yard, between the garden and chicken coop, sat a "U.S. Open" tennis court he had built for his daughters to play "with their mom and aunt" Venus Williams — the Williams sisters have combined for 44 Grand Slam titles in singles and women's doubles — and a small putting green with Los Angeles Golf Club flags, the teams Ohanian owns in TGL and WTGL, for his "daddy-daughter" time.
A set of custom cut golf clubs gifted from "Uncle Tiger" were nearby. And Ohanian was sporting a manicure, his nails painted pink, orange, black and purple, courtesy
of 9-year-old Olympia and 3-year-old Adira.
Oh, and his daughters' birthdays are tattooed on his left arm.
To call Ohanian a "Girl Dad" only begins to tell the story about his connection to his daughters - and women who fight for access and equality when it comes to sports.
Ohanian, 43, has sunk a good portion of the money he has made as a businessman and entrepreneur into women's sports. That journey includes co-founding Reddit, which he and his partner sold in 2006, about 16 months after launching the social-media platform.
And as owner of five women's franchises or leagues, including the Los Angeles Golf Club of the fledgling WTGL, Ohanian has done as much, if not more than, any men helping women advance in a male-dominated industry.
Alexis Ohanian's support of women's sports all started with a tweet
Ohanian says his deep dive into women's sports "has little to do" with him being married to the greatest women's tennis player of all time. Serena and Alexis met in 2015 in Rome, Italy. They were married 2 1/2 years later.
Instead, it was a 2019 tweet about the Seattle Reign of the National Women's Soccer League being sold for $3.5 million that led to him championing women's sports.
Ohanian admitted he was not a big follower of soccer but he knew of the league, he knew Alex Morgan was a star in the league and he knew Morgan's brand alone was worth more than $3.5 million.
So a franchise, he thought, has to be worth more than that.
"I knew the American women were bad asses at soccer, and I was going to watch them, because I like watching Americans be bad asses at things," Ohanian said. "And so, I saw that number of $3.5 million, and I was like, 'Wait a minute, I know who Alex Morgan is, I know she has millions and millions of followers on social media. She's worth at least that much money on her own in brand deals.'
"And having spent 15 years building Reddit, I just looked at it from a business standpoint."
He did what any millennial would do, never mind one savvy enough to already have made tens of millions on business deals.
He laid it all out in a tweet.
Ohanian said he was going to start a team in the NWSL and one day it will do hundreds of millions in revenue. "This is going to be one of the easiest businesses I'll ever start because it's so obviously right," he wrote.
How'd that go?
"I got dragged," he said. "Everyone was like, 'No one watches women's sports, you're an idiot.' But there were a lot of women's soccer fans who were like, 'Hell yes, you should do this, trust us, there's real passion here.' "
Ohanian channeled his 15 years of building Reddit that taught him you want to lean into something edgy, something both sides are passionate about. You want supports and detractors.
"You don't want to be just sort of milquetoast," he said. "You want to be things that provoke. And especially if there's deep fandom, it automatically means there's going to be deep, irrational hate just because there's something about this thing that's triggering to the haters.
"And I'm like a moth to a flame."
Ohanian paid the $1 million NWSL expansion fee and another $5 million to start Angel City FC.
The team was formed in July 2020. According to Forbes' 2026 valuations, Angel City is worth $340 million.
"That set me off on this trajectory," Ohanian said. "It motivated me to want to start another team in another league."
Not just one. But two and three and ... Ohanian went all in. He started LA Orbit of League One Volleyball, a professional women's indoor league. He founded ATHLOS, the world’s leading all-women's professional track and field league. He invested in WTGL.
Ohanian also has a 10% stake in Chelsea F.C. Women.
And he has the perfect partner to join him in his support for the women.
"Alexis and I share a deep belief in the power of women’s sports and the importance of investing in their future," Serena Williams said. "Advocating for women in sports isn’t just about equality, it’s about changing what’s possible for the next generation. We want young girls everywhere to grow up knowing there are no limits to what they can achieve."
A belief that certainly will be passed on from Serena and Alexis to Olympia and Adira, especially since both technically also are part owners of all those teams and the league.
"I want to involve the girls, a lot," Alexis said.
Call from Tiger Woods set Alexis Ohanian on WTGL path
Ohanian's interest in golf, and the WTGL, started with a phone call from the man his daughters now call, "Uncle Tiger."
Tiger Woods told Ohanian he was working on a "competitor to LIV," the rogue golf league that was being backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund that was poaching players from the PGA Tour and emphasized team golf. The league now is planning to sell off its assets and shut down.
The new league, TGL, would include a unique team-golf format played in a stadium setting with a hybrid format that includes the world's largest simulator while relying on innovative technology.
And feature many of the greatest golfers in the world, including Woods and his co-founder, Rory McIlroy.
Ohanian was a little skeptical but mostly because he was not a fan of golf and never had played the sport. But, like all successful businessmen, he listened.
"For a middle class white dude, from the suburbs, the fact that golf didn't speak to me means there's a whole lot of people the sport did not speak to," Ohanian said. "And yet this is a format that now makes it accessible, that now gives it life, that respects the tradition … but actually lets these guys be full humans."
What was it that allowed TGL to speak to him? It would be in primetime, the players would be mic'd up and just having fun. "It feels like athletes playing a sport and not some sort of stuck-up country club pastime (but) a lot more inclusive, a lot more fun."
Now that he was all-in on TGL, Ohanian asked: "How soon can we have the women?"
Ohanian's first vision was to integrate women into TGL. He is not alone in preferring that format. World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who is not on the first year WTGL roster, called it a "huge and unbelievable miss" the women are not playing alongside the men.
Instead,the inaugural WTGL season consists of five teams, each consisting of five LPGA stars, playing four matches each. Those players have combined for 15 major championships and more than 100 LPGA titles.
Still, Ohanian saw an opportunity to add to his portfolio.
"I've been so fired up for this," he said.
Theleague debuts Nov. 8 at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens with Ohanian's LA team facing New York Golf Club, a match featuring LA's Michelle Wie West's return to competitive golf against New York's LPGA Hall of Fame member Lydia Ko.
"Alexis has been a vocal advocate for women’s sports and a champion for WTGL from day one," said Mike McCarley, who along with Woods and McIlroy co-founded TMRW Sports, which owns WTGL and TGL.
"He understands the opportunity that comes from investing in great athletes, shining a spotlight on them and sharing their stories."
Alexis Ohanian on WTGL: 'We have to tell the stories of our athletes'
Ohanian owns or has started about 10 businesses. He calls it, "his hobby." And he admits golf is not a hobby, which he then proves by calling up a video of his swing at a venue similar to the SoFi Center.
Growing up in a Baltimore suburb, he says someday he would like to have a stake in the Washington Commanders NFL team. "It might still be in the cards," he says.
At one time, he thought he'd be a lawyer … until he walked out in the middle of his LSAT in Charlottesville, Va. — he double-majored in history and business commerce and minored in German at the University of Virginia — and headed straight for a Waffle House. It was there when he made the decision to start his own company over a plate of waffles.
"Thirty minutes into that test, I was like, 'this isn't for me,' " he said. "I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur."
As a reminder of that life-altering decision, Waffle House umbrellas and mugs can be found in the farm house, gifts from Walt Ehmer, the Waffle House CEO who died in 2024.
"This was definitely not some grand plan," Ohanian said about investing in sports. "I'm like a heat-seeking missile to long-term opportunity. I only think 10 years out.
"It's like the sort of entrepreneur brain where I don't day trade stocks, I want to be in at inception. And I want to either be the founder of the company or be the first check."
Ohanian's investment in TGL hasbrought him one championship when LA defeated Woods' Jupiter Linksin the final series of the league's second season. Ohanian was wearing a championship T-shirt depicting LA's four stars — Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose and Sahith Theegala — for this interview.
Now he wants to become the first owner to boast a TGL and WTGL crown. Ohanian's WTLG team includes Wie West, Aki Iwai, Kiara Romero, Alison Lee and Gaby López.
And as a businessman, he knows the success of WTGL will not be so much about who raises the first championship banner but have a lot to do with promoting and marketing its players.
As it is for all his franchises and leagues.
"We have to tell the stories of our athletes every minute they're not on the track or the pitch or the court or the green, so that when they are playing, people are even more excited to cheer for them," Ohanian said.
"And that's the exciting thing with women athletes, who, by and large, are much more sort of fluent in content, much more comfortable producing content. Much better at producing content, frankly, than their male counterparts. And it's our job to amplify those stories every single day so that when it is match day, you're like, 'oh, cool, I want to see how Allison does because I follow her on social and I see the social channels and I'm bought into her story.' "
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Alexis Ohanian reveals how Tiger Woods call led him to WTGL, investing in women’s golf
