Since graduating in 2002 from the University of Minnesota, Alana Glass has diligently mapped out a path that she hopes someday leads her to her ultimate goal. “My big dream is to be a WNBA owner,” admits Glass, now a lawyer in Detroit. She always has been involved in some level of sports, either as a basketball player in high school and college, through internships with the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA, coaching girls’ basketball, or as an agent.
However, as her website bio (www.alanaglass.com) clearly notes, Glass is driven and determined to be a pro sports franchise owner. After meeting WNBA officials, including league President Laurel Richie, at this year’s All-Star Game in San Antonio this past July, she believes her determination is starting to pay off. “I was given reassurance that the direction I want to go in, that the WNBA is the right call,” Glass told the MSR after her first time attending the league’s annual mid-season showcase. “I feel like I am that much closer to my dream.” After earning her bachelor’s degree in animal science from Minnesota, Glass went on to law school to earn two law degrees in intellectual property and corporate law and finance. Following law school, she passed the Michigan State Bar exam, opened up her own law office and worked as a patent analyst with an Illinois-based intellectual property firm.
Glass also started Kennedy Clay Sports & Entertainment LLC and IWantTo BeAnOwner.com, a sports blog she launched in June 2010, and this past February, it was picked up by Forbes magazine. “I approached them and told them I wanted to be a contributor,” says Glass on her sports blog, which is now regularly posted on the business magazine’s website. It is mainly designed to offer sports business news from a Black female perspective, she adds. Glass points out that she avoids writing on entertainment news. “Anybody who comes to my site is going to read something empowering and informative.” When she’s not writing, which Glass says she tries to do twice a month, “My day job is the law,” as she advises law students in her position as career and professional development coordinator at Detroit’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
“I work with law students, figuring out their careers and where they are going to go after law school. After that, I blog in my free time.” How close does she sees herself to reaching her goal, she was asked. “I just got to figure out how to come up with somewhere between a million and 10 million dollars,” Glass says smiling yet serious. Taylor still connected to the W After either working in the WNBA player personnel office or at the team level for much of the last two decades, former Minnesota Lynx vice-president and Washington Mystics general manager Angela Taylor is now running her own company, Networks Sports Consulting in Arlington, Virginia. When asked does she miss being involved with a team or the league, “There are certain aspects of it that’s in your blood,” admits Taylor.
“The thing that was special to me being the WNBA was the people — I miss being around the people: the fans, players, and the staff who work extremely hard more than anything else. But the games have been on TV and I have been able to watch a lot on [WNBA] Live Access as I move around, and follow everything.” Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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