The Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million for the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise in Columbus, the league announced Tuesday. The team will begin play in 2028. The fee is 41% higher than the $145 million Denver Summit FC paid in September and 86% above the $110 million Atlanta committed five months ago.
The ownership group is led by the Haslams, who control the NFL's Cleveland Browns and Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew. The Columbus NWSL franchise will play at a yet-to-be-determined venue, though the Crew's 20,371-seat Lower.com Field is the obvious candidate. The league said the group includes local investors but declined to name them before a formal announcement expected within ten days.
The fee structure matters because it resets the floor for NWSL valuations at a moment when private equity is actively sizing the league. Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC entered this season at a combined $290 million in expansion fees. Columbus alone now exceeds that figure. The previous record was Denver's $145 million, paid seven months ago. Atlanta's $110 million commitment in August now looks like the last discounted entry point. League sources said two additional expansion markets are under review for 2029 or 2030, with Miami and Philadelphia mentioned in ownership circles. If Columbus holds as the comp, those fees could approach $225 million to $250 million each.
The Haslams' timing is deliberate. The NWSL's current media rights deal with CBS, ESPN, and Prime Video runs through 2027 and pays the league roughly $60 million annually. The next negotiation begins in early 2026. Ownership groups entering now are betting that package doubles or triples, lifting franchise valuations into the $400 million to $500 million range by 2028. Angel City FC, founded in 2020 for $2 million, was valued at $250 million in a 2023 fundraise led by Willow Bay and Bob Iger. That multiple—125x in three years—has private equity modeling NWSL as the last underpriced North American team-sports asset.
The Haslams already understand this playbook. They bought the Crew in 2018 for $150 million when MLS was still a secondary property. The team is now worth an estimated $680 million, per Sportico's latest MLS valuations. The NWSL offers similar leverage: low entry cost relative to potential media upside, local monopoly in a top-20 metro, sponsorship inventory that activates Fortune 500 diversity mandates. The Browns, by contrast, are a $5.2 billion asset with limited upside and a quarterback controversy. The NWSL franchise is a clean bet on format expansion and rights inflation.
Columbus also benefits from geographic clustering. The NWSL now has four Midwest franchises within 300 miles: Columbus, Chicago, Cincinnati (launching 2026), and Kansas City. That's a travel pod for scheduling and a sponsorship footprint for regional brands. The Crew's existing corporate partners—Acura, Nationwide, OhioHealth—become natural kit and pitch sponsors. The Haslams can cross-sell inventory between the Crew and the NWSL team, a margin advantage that standalone operators in Denver and Boston don't have.
The league's growth pace is notable. The NWSL added its 15th and 16th teams—Boston and Denver—this season. Atlanta enters in 2026, Cincinnati in 2026, and now Columbus in 2028. That's six teams in four years, a 50% expansion from the 12-team league that played in 2023. Commissioner Jessica Berman has said publicly that the league will pause at 18 to 20 teams to allow infrastructure and talent pipelines to catch up. The two additional slots, if filled by 2029, would bring total expansion fees since 2024 to roughly $1 billion.
Watch for three follow-on moves. First, the Haslams will announce a local ownership roster within ten days, likely including at least one former U.S. Women's National Team player and one central Ohio business figure. Second, the league will confirm stadium plans by mid-2025; if Lower.com Field is the venue, expect capacity reduction to 18,000 to 19,000 seats for sight-line optimization. Third, Miami and Philadelphia ownership groups are expected to submit formal bids by late 2025 for 2029 entry, setting the next valuation comp.
The $205 million fee is the headline. The real number is the implied 2028 enterprise value of $450 million to $500 million that ownership groups are modeling when they write the check.
The takeaway
Columbus's **$205M** NWSL fee is **41%** above Denver's September price and signals ownership groups are underwriting **$450M+** valuations by **2028**.
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