The National Women’s Soccer League, founded in 2012, is one of the youngest top-tier sports leagues in North America. But the NWSL is also one of the fastest-growing leagues in terms of how quickly its teams are increasing in value.
Here’s just how fast values are growing: In 2021, the San Diego Wave were formed for a $2 million expansion fee. In 2024 – less than three years later – the club sold for $113 million. The average NWSL franchise is worth $66 million according to the latest Sportico valuations.
With fast-rising values like that, deep-pocketed investors, such as private equity, want in and, arguably, the league needs these deep-pocketed investors to sustain rising values.
Is private equity allowed to own NWSL teams?
Yes. PE has been allowed in the league for some time, but in early 2024 the NWSL took steps to clarify how much PE investment is allowed. Here are the rules as we understand them:
- No single fund will be allowed to own passive minority stakes in more than three NWSL teams. Passive generally means they don’t have decision-making power inside the franchise. In some pro sports leagues, passive stakes also mean the limited partners can’t vote on team decisions; it’s unclear if that’s the case with the NWSL.
- A single fund can own a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 20% of a club’s equity. No team can have more than 30% of its equity owned by PE funds, which means a maximum of six private equity firms may invest in each franchise at minimum levels. Funds with multiple team investments also need to have minimum capital commitments of $100 million, ensuring funds are large enough and that the league can be confident they will likely be in operation for years.
- There is an exception to the above rule: One private equity firm can own as much as 100% of a franchise as long as it’s the only NWSL team in which it is invested. Because a fund can own most of a team’s equity, that also means there is an exception to the passive ownership rule. This exception was to acknowledge the reality that one team, Bay FC, is mostly owned by Sixth Street.
What teams have PE investors?
Bay FC, of course, which is mostly owned by Sixth Street. Sixth Street is a private equity fund with a strong sports bent—it owns most of Legends, a hospitality and experience group formed by the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, and it also has investments in European soccer stadiums. As part of its ownership of Bay FC, the league was assured Sixth Street co-founder and CEO Alan Waxman has the authority to allocate capital from the fund, and the league received a commitment from him to represent the team on the NWSL board. Sixth Street’s ownership is also housed in a fund which doesn’t have a time frame for liquidation, a rarity among PE funds.
The Portland Thorns and Utah Royals both have minority stakes owned by Arctos Partners, which has a multi-billion-dollar fund focused primarily on owning limited partner stakes in sports franchises.
The Seattle Reign recently changed ownership, with private equity giant Carlyle Group becoming part of its ownership structure. It’s unclear as yet if Carlyle is the controlling owner, even though they have provided the majority of financing for the buyers.
Similarly, Monarch Collective, a women’s sports-focused PE firm, is part of the group bringing an NWSL expansion team to Boston with Boston Unity Partners, a four-woman group that includes a former co-owner of the Boston Celtics. It’s unclear if the Monarch PE fund will be the majority owner of the Boston team or not. Angel City FC co-founder Kara Nortman is the managing partner of Monarch, which was launched in 2023 with the goal of raising $100 million. It’s unclear if the fund has that level of capital to meet the recently introduced minimum capital level the league requires.
Other teams could have private equity ownership that hasn’t been publicly disclosed.
What other types of funds can and can’t own NWSL teams?
With 2024’s clarification of PE fund rules, the NWSL specifically ruled out sovereign wealth funds, which are investment funds run by countries. The league also ruled out pension funds, which are large sources of capital in both the U.S. and Canada and often like to take an active role with their investments. In both cases, the league board can vote to permit them in the future.
It’s believed the league also has legacy venture capital funds in ownership. Angel City FC majority equity owner Alexis Ohanian owns part of the club personally as well as in two of his VC funds, Seven Seven Six and Initialized. The club—which is worth $180 million, the most valuable in the NWSL—is now up for sale.
