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Watkins deploys Nike NIL dollars into NWSL equity at 19, treating team stakes as portfolio allocation before her WNBA eligibility.
27.3 points
per game this season
$100 million
up from
$53 million
paid by Bay FC in 2023
1.2 million
Instagram followers
JuJu Watkins, the USC sophomore averaging 27.3 points per game this season, acquired an undisclosed ownership stake in Boston Legacy FC ahead of the NWSL expansion club's 2026 inaugural season. The investment makes Watkins the youngest athlete known to hold equity in a U.S. professional team—she turns 20 in July—and continues a pattern of women's basketball talent building portfolios outside endorsement income.
Boston Legacy did not disclose Watkins's percentage or dollar commitment. The franchise, awarded in September 2023, is majority-owned by a group led by Jennifer Epstein and Elizabeth Hoover. The NWSL's expansion fee for Boston was reported at $100 million, up from $53 million paid by Bay FC in 2023. Watkins joins a cap table that already includes Aly Raisman and a cluster of New England-based family offices. The club begins play in 14 months.
The move signals two things worth watching. First, athletes with significant NIL flows are treating equity stakes as asset allocation, not celebrity branding. Watkins signed a Nike deal in October reportedly worth $3 million annually, among the richest in women's college sports. She is reinvesting a portion into illiquid positions before she reaches the WNBA, where rookie-scale deals cap first-year salaries near $76,000. Second, NWSL franchises are courting athlete-investors as both capital and marketing infrastructure. Watkins has 1.2 million Instagram followers; Boston Legacy has 18,000. The club gains a Southern California ambassador while Watkins builds a network in a league she may never play in but whose sponsorship ecosystem overlaps with hers.
This is not the first athlete-into-team-ownership deal this quarter. Caitlin Clark bought into the NWSL's Cincinnati franchise in December. Candace Parker and Megan Rapinoe hold stakes in the expansion KC Current ownership group. But Watkins is younger—still two seasons from the WNBA draft—and her NIL scale lets her bypass the need for playing income before deploying risk capital. Her USC teammate Kiki Iriafen, who transferred from Stanford, is also rumored to be in late-stage talks with an unnamed NWSL club, per two people familiar. If those close, the athlete-investor cohort will span active college players, not just retired pros or draft-eligible seniors.
The NWSL is pricing its next wave of expansion at a reported $125 million to $150 million for markets like Philadelphia and Nashville. Boston Legacy is already selling founding-member season tickets at $500 deposits. The club has not yet named a head coach or announced a kit sponsor, though two people said Adidas and New Balance are in active discussions. Watkins's investment predates those announcements, suggesting her stake came during a friends-and-family window before institutional LPs finalize terms.
Boston Legacy opens at a temporary venue in 2026 while a permanent stadium site is negotiated. The franchise will compete with the Boston Breakers trademark, which remains owned by a separate entity after the original club folded in 2018. Watkins is expected to attend the kit unveiling in Boston this spring.
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