Disney CEO Bob Iger and USC Dean Willow Bay to purchase Angel City FC at a record-high valuation

The GIST: After putting its controlling stake up for sale in March, Angel City FC is seeing even more big-name buy-in. As mentioned on Wednesday, longtime Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, USC journalism school dean Willow Bay, are reportedly purchasing that controlling stake in the NWSL club, which now has a reported valuation between $250M and $300M.

• This sets ACFC at 5.5x the average valuation of at least 11 other NWSL teams, making it the most valuable women’s sports franchise in the world. Not like us.

The details: According to early reports from Puck and Semafor, Iger and Bay would be investing at least $50M, a figure that would replace Alexis Ohanian as the team’s controlling shareholder. Of note, Ohanian wasn’t open to selling his equity when the sale was first announced in March. It’s unclear if either Bay or Iger would replace Ohanian as ACFC’s representative on the NWSL board of governors.

The buyers: Both Iger and Bay have media roots. Iger worked his way up ABC’s corporate ladder before it was acquired by Disney, where he became CEO in 2005. Bay began as a model in the 1980s before working as a TV anchor on NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. In 2017, she was named dean of USC’s renowned journalism school, Annenberg.

The backstory: According to Front Office Sports, Ohanian has been looking to sell a controlling stake in the club since last fall, partially due to the franchise’s spending habits. Last year, ACFC generated a league-high $31M in revenue but wasn’t profitable. The club has hired New York investment bank Moelis & Co. to handle the “control sale.”

• Although Semafor reported that the deal is based on a $250M pre-money valuation, Sportico’s October valuation of NWSL teams placed ACFC at a league-leading $180M valuation, far beyond the $120M price tag the San Diego Wave FC fetched in March.

Zooming out: Both Iger and Bay have demonstrated a passion for sports in their careers, and it makes sense to invest in the NWSL team with the speediest ascent and largest ROI to date — ACFC has $55M in commercial revenue booked through 2025 already.

• Private equity (PE) firms recently backed sales of the Seattle Reign FC and San Diego Wave FC — and if PE firms are pitching in, many business leaders will be taking note.