The Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million to bring the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise to Columbus, a 24% premium over the $165 million Atlanta paid in November. The fee, announced Tuesday at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, is the highest expansion price in women's professional sports history and marks the second time the NWSL has broken its own record in six months.
Columbus will begin play in 2027 or 2028, depending on stadium availability. The Haslams—Jimmy and Dee—control the NFL's Cleveland Browns and MLS's Columbus Crew through separate investment vehicles, and this marks their third franchise acquisition in four years. The group paid $150 million for the Crew in 2018 after keeping the team in Columbus when previous ownership threatened relocation. The Browns, inherited from Jimmy's father in 2012, are valued at $5.2 billion in Forbes's latest NFL rankings.
The $40 million jump from Atlanta to Columbus compresses five months of demand signal into a single data point for family offices sizing women's sports exposure. Atlanta's $165 million fee had already tripled the $53 million Boston paid in 2023. The Haslams' willingness to pay 1.24x the last comp suggests the NWSL is pricing scarcity, not just growth—18 teams in a league that launched with eight in 2013, now expanding past the logical geographic footprint into second-tier metros with existing sports infrastructure.
Columbus offers the Haslams stadium optionality the league values. The Crew's 20,000-seat Lower.com Field, opened in 2021, can host the women's team immediately if fixture calendars align. MLS and NWSL seasons overlap April through October, but the Crew averaged 20,844 fans per match in 2025, leaving midweek inventory and split-season windows. The alternative is retrofitting historic Crew Stadium, the league's first soccer-specific venue, which seats 19,968 and sits vacant except for concerts and reserve matches. Either way, Columbus avoids the temporary-venue limbo that plagued Angel City FC and Bay FC in their debut seasons.
The fee also reflects the NWSL's negotiating position entering its next broadcast cycle. The league's current media deal—$240 million over four years split between CBS, ESPN, and Amazon—expires after the 2027 season. Commissioner Jessica Berman has said publicly the league expects rights to triple, and expansion math supports that: 18 teams at an average $185 million valuation implies $3.33 billion in aggregate franchise value, up from $1.59 billion when the league had 12 teams in 2022. Rights buyers price inventory per match and per household, and Columbus adds both—23 home dates and the 34th-largest U.S. television market, ahead of fellow NWSL cities like Portland, Kansas City, and Orlando.
The Haslams' move also preempts Cleveland as an expansion candidate. The Browns play 35 miles north of Columbus, and while the NWSL has placed teams closer—Angel City and San Diego are 120 miles apart—the Columbus slot effectively locks the Haslams into any future Cleveland bid if the league expands to 20 or 22 teams by 2030. The $205 million outlay secures territorial exclusivity in Ohio, a state with 11.8 million residents and no other women's professional franchises outside minor-league basketball.
What the fee does not include: stadium construction. The Haslams benefit from the Crew's infrastructure, but the NWSL's last three expansion teams—Boston, Atlanta, and Cleveland (announced earlier this year for $180 million)—all committed to either new builds or major renovations as part of their bids. Columbus's stadium readiness likely added $15-20 million to the sticker price, a premium the league accepts in exchange for eliminating venue risk.
The timing puts pressure on remaining expansion candidates. The NWSL has named Philadelphia, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Miami as markets under consideration for slots 19 and 20, with bids expected by Q3 2026. The Columbus benchmark means any group without a stadium solution is pricing in $220-240 million all-in, which narrows the bidder pool to ownership groups that already control venues or have public financing lined up. Philadelphia, with Subaru Park and the Union's MLS infrastructure, fits. Nashville, still negotiating a downtown soccer stadium, does not.
The NWSL's expansion committee meets again in June to review formal Philadelphia and Nashville applications. The Columbus announcement puts the league at 18 confirmed teams by 2028, two short of the 20-team target Berman set in 2023.