The National Women's Soccer League awarded its 18th franchise to Columbus on Thursday, handing Dee and Jimmy Haslam a second professional women's team and extending NWSL's run into shared-stadium MLS markets. The Columbus club will begin play in 2026 at Lower.com Field, home of the Haslams' MLS Cup–winning Columbus Crew, joining Bay FC and Boston as expansion franchises announced since June.

The Haslams paid an undisclosed fee north of $100M, according to two people familiar with the terms, roughly double the $53M Bay FC paid in January 2023. The bid cleared the league's franchise committee in November and was ratified by the full board last week. The ownership group includes Dee Haslam as majority operator—she already owns the Cleveland NWSL franchise launched in 2024—and Jimmy Haslam, who also controls the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a significant minority stake in the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. The franchise marks the Haslams' third professional team in Ohio, a concentration rarely seen outside single-city billionaire portfolios.

Columbus becomes NWSL's ninth club sharing an MLS facility, a model the league has leaned into as expansion fees climb and stadium economics tighten. Shared venues offer immediate infrastructure—Lower.com Field seats 20,371, opened in 2021 at a cost of $314M—and operational leverage on ticketing, sponsorship inventory, and broadcast production. The Crew drew 20,844 fans per match in 2024, fourth in MLS, giving the NWSL side a built-in audience and a credible path to five-figure average attendance from launch. Portland, Seattle, and Orlando have demonstrated the model works when the MLS operator commits to full-spectrum marketing; Kansas City and Houston show what happens when they don't.

The franchise fee sets a new floor for NWSL valuations, a figure that matters immediately to Boston's majority owner, Jennifer Epstein, and to any group eyeing the league's 19th and 20th slots. Commissioner Jessica Berman has said publicly the league will pause expansion after 20 clubs, likely in 2027, which compresses the bidding window for remaining markets. Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, and a second Bay Area bid are believed to be in various stages of diligence. The Haslams' willingness to pay a $100M-plus fee for a team that shares a city with their MLS asset suggests they see NWSL media rights—currently bundled through 2027 with CBS, ESPN, and Amazon Prime at $60M annually—repricing sharply upward in the next negotiation cycle. Media consultants tracking the women's sports window expect rights to triple by 2028 if attendance and sponsorship trends hold, a bet that justifies today's entry cost.

The Columbus front office will be staffed separately from the Crew but will share back-office functions, a structure the Haslams deployed in Cleveland. The club is expected to hire a president by March and a head coach by May, with the roster-building window opening after the 2025 NWSL season concludes. Lower.com Field will require no structural modifications, though the club will likely install dedicated locker rooms and adjust field dimensions to FIFA's updated women's standards. Kit sponsor and jersey manufacturer deals will be negotiated separately from the Crew's existing agreements with Nationwide and Adidas, offering the Haslams a second swing at Ohio corporate inventory.

Watch for a naming announcement by February, likely incorporating Columbus or Ohio but avoiding direct Crew branding to maintain distinct identity. Commissioner Berman will attend the formal launch event, expected in March, alongside Mayor Andrew Ginther, who lobbied the Haslams privately after Cleveland's franchise was announced. The Crew's playoff run to the MLS Cup final in December gave the bid late momentum, demonstrating to NWSL's board that the Haslams understand how to operate a winning team in a two-sport market.

The franchise plants NWSL firmly in the Midwest corridor, where Chicago, Cleveland, and now Columbus form a travel pod that reduces charter costs and builds regional rivalries. The league has been careful to cluster franchises after the travel-heavy 2023 season strained team budgets and player welfare. Columbus's entry also gives NWSL two clubs in Ohio, a state with 11.8M residents and no direct WNBA competition, positioning the league as the marquee women's professional option in the region. The Haslams now control that entire market, a vertical integration play that echoes the Wilf family's approach in Minnesota, where they operate both MLS and NWSL clubs alongside the NFL's Vikings.

The fee, the market, and the timing point to a league that believes it has pricing power and doesn't need to chase speculative bids. NWSL turned down at least two groups willing to pay less, according to one person close to the process, a signal that the league sees the Haslams' infrastructure and balance sheet as worth the wait. The decision also rewards existing MLS operators who have invested in women's soccer, a dynamic that could accelerate similar bids from Atlanta, LAFC, and Miami, all of which have been rumored to be exploring NWSL entry.

The Columbus franchise begins play in spring 2026, giving the front office eighteen months to build a roster, season-ticket base, and local sponsorship book. The Crew's corporate partners—Nationwide, OhioHealth, Acura—are expected to extend deals to cover both clubs, though the NWSL side will carry separate inventory for jersey, training kit, and stadium naming rights. The Haslams have committed to fielding competitive rosters in Cleveland and Columbus simultaneously, which means paying for two coaching staffs, two academies, and two scouting operations in markets 140 miles apart. The structure mirrors Red Bull's multi-club model, though without the single-entity branding. Whether it works depends on whether Ohio's corporate base can support two women's professional teams at once, a question that will be answered by June 2026, when both clubs are three months into their seasons.