The National Women's Soccer League awarded its 18th franchise to Columbus on Tuesday, with Haslam Sports Group paying an expansion fee of $205 million for a team beginning play in 2028. The fee is the highest in NWSL history and arrives eight months after Atlanta's ownership group committed $165 million for the league's 17th slot. Both deals close within weeks of each other, and both amounts now flow to the league's existing owners as distribution.
The Columbus franchise has no stadium plan beyond discussions with the city and no coach, sporting director, or training facility. Haslam Sports Group—owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks—brings deep pockets and a familiar Midwest market, but the $205 million check clears before any of that infrastructure exists. The fee itself represents the asset bet: that NWSL franchises will command private-equity multiples within five years, and that Columbus can generate the sponsorship and ticket revenue to justify the basis.
The Atlanta and Columbus fees together represent $370 million in new capital for the league's 16 existing owners, distributed pro rata. For context, the Boston franchise entered in 2026 at $108 million, and the Bay FC deal in 2023 carried a $53 million tag. The NWSL has now doubled its expansion pricing in 24 months, and the league's ownership ranks include private-equity funds, billionaire family offices, and athlete-led consortiums all willing to pay the freight. The valuation acceleration mirrors MLS a decade ago, when that league's expansion fees climbed from $100 million to $200 million between 2013 and 2017.
The Columbus award also solidifies the NWSL's Ohio footprint alongside Racing Louisville, though the two markets operate in different orbits. Columbus sits 30 miles from the Ohio State campus, and Haslam's ties to the Browns and the state's political donor class give the franchise immediate corporate access. The NWSL's media-rights renewal comes up in late 2027, and the league's commissioner has repeatedly cited the need to land a national broadcast partner before the next cycle. Two expansion fees above $150 million provide a valuation backstop for those negotiations and signal to potential partners that team operators are underwriting long-term growth.
Haslam Sports Group declined to name a team president or sporting executive on Tuesday, and the ownership group has not yet filed stadium lease terms with the city. The franchise will play its first season in 2028, which leaves 24 months for facility decisions, coaching hires, and kit partnerships. The Atlanta franchise, meanwhile, begins play in 2027 and has already announced a temporary stadium arrangement while permanent construction proceeds. The NWSL's schedule template assumes 18 teams by 2029, meaning no further expansion slots are likely before the media deal closes.
The Columbus fee exceeds the San Diego Wave's $50 million valuation at entry in 2022 by a factor of four. Haslam paid that delta for market protection, corporate access, and the presumption that scarcity drives the next round of bids even higher. The league has informally discussed a 20-team cap, which would leave two slots. The next ownership group willing to write a nine-figure check now knows the floor is $205 million, and the NWSL's existing investors know they own appreciating equity in a league that just banked $370 million in two transactions.
The takeaway
NWSL expansion fees doubled in 24 months, and two nine-figure deals before stadium plans prove institutional capital treats franchises as liquid assets.
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