Bet on women

The GIST: Following the first-ever public NWSL valuations released last October, Sportico crunched the numbers again to determine updated 2024 values for the league’s 14 teams. The latest data not only show that the entire league is skyrocketing in value, but also that certain clubs have climbed the rankings thanks to dedicated owner investment.

• Overall, NWSL clubs are worth a grand total of $1.46B, and the average team valuation is up 57% YoY. Read on about the top five highest-valued clubs and why they earned a top spot.

💰 Angel City FC (ACFC): The LA team remained not only the NWSL’s highest-valued team, but also the most valuable women’s sports franchise globally. ACFC went from a $180M valuation in 2023 to $250M, publicized during its controlling stake sale to Disney CEO Bob Iger and USC dean Willow Bay. However, its revenue only increased marginally from $31M to $35.4M.

🌊 San Diego Wave: The other SoCal side, ranked second last year with $90M, now ranks third at $132M after being sold to the Levine Leichtman family for a then-record $120M this March. Notably, the Wave was better than ACFC at multiplying its revenue, upping it to $23.9M from $16.3M last year.

🏟️ KC Current: The Missouri squad saw the highest valuation increase of any NWSL team, leapfrogging San Diego with a $182M valuation compared to $75M in 2023. What changed? The club opened CPKC Stadium, the first arena built specifically for a women’s pro sports team.

• The Current started printing money ahead of stadium opening by snagging CPKC as a naming rights sponsor, along with other stadium partners and local vendors. KC sold out its first seven home matches and all 2024 season tickets for the 11.5K-seater venue. There’s no place like home.

🚀 Bay FC: After one season on the books, the Bay Area club already has the NWSL’s fourth-highest valuation at $121M. It generated $22M in revenue, signaling positive ROI for financial backer Sixth Street. Bay FC relies on prudent guidance from its Founding Four, a group of USWNT legends including Brandi Chastain, and boasts former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg on its board.

• Bay FC’s eye-popping numbers align with the demand for its matches. The club sold out all 18K seats for its inaugural home opener at PayPal Park, and when the Chicago Red Stars broke the NWSL single-match attendance record with 35K fans at Wrigley Field, it was against Bay FC.

💼 Washington Spirit: Last but certainly not least is D.C.’s team and its $95M valuation. One reason the Spirit may have risen from its previous $54M figure is owner Y. Michele Kang’s pursuit of a bonafide global women’s soccer empire. Kang’s interest in Washington was seen as a “turning point” in NWSL valuations after she worked hard to join the league’s ownership club. That’s the Spirit.

The GIST: Shortly after Sportico confirmed ACFC as the hottest NWSL club on the market, the publication exclusively revealed that a top MLS team also wants in. Los Angeles FC (LAFC) — the league’s highest-valued franchise at $1.15B — activated a tenet of its stadium-sharing agreement with ACFC to acquire a small stake in the women’s side. LA all day.

The details: The stake acquisition comes from priced warrants, which gave LAFC the rights to ACFC stock back in 2022 as part of the lease agreement ACFC signed to play games at LAFC’s home turf, BMO Stadium. Per Sportico, LAFC exercised these time-limited warrants — which were set to expire when ACFC’s lease at BMO ran out — at some point within the past two months.

The context: After previously being governed by the US Soccer Federation, the NWSL became an independently governed body in 2020. The league is set up as a single-entity structure in which the NWSL owns teams and allows investors to purchase stakes in the league.

• And while the league isn’t structured underneath MLS (the way the WNBA and NBA operate), owners and investors from the men’s side have been involved in several NWSL franchises. Earlier this year, Seattle Sounders ownership reclaimed Seattle Reign under its brand after previously operating a women’s soccer franchise over a decade ago.

• This used to be true for the Portland Timbers and Thorns, who still play at the same stadium, while the NWSL and MLS teams in Houston and Orlando share owners. And even when ownership doesn’t overlap, fandom does: There’s an MLS club in every NWSL region aside from Louisville and San Diego (until next year).

Zooming out: With soccer casting a wider (and more diverse) net, it only makes sense for MLS and NWSL teams to join forces and co-market their sport across overlapping fandoms. In 2015, MLS commissioner Don Garber even suggested every MLS side invest in an NWSL team (although offered no league-wide incentives for doing so).

• However, a lot has changed in nine years. Instead of relying on men’s sports to subsidize women’s teams, we’ve increasingly seen men’s sports go beyond funding women’s teams and instead recognize their earning potential and seek stakes in them. No wonder we’re fans.

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