Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million for the NWSL's Columbus franchise, a record expansion fee that formally ends the league's mid-market era. The team begins play in 2028. The previous high was $113 million for the Bay Area franchise in 2023. The Columbus number is not an outlier bid; it is now the standard.
The Haslams—Jimmy and Dee, who own the Cleveland Browns and have a minority stake in the Milwaukee Bucks—are writing the check from a diversified sports portfolio, not a standalone soccer thesis. That matters. The NWSL now competes for allocation from family offices and institutional sports platforms that measure IRR against NBA expansions ($300 million in Charlotte, 2004) and English Championship stakes. The league received multiple bids above $150 million for Columbus, per people familiar with the process. Commissioner Jessica Berman did not take the highest; she took the group with stadium optionality and a track record of hiring operators, not consultants.
The $205 million creates two immediate effects. First, it forces the league to justify that valuation in its next media negotiation, expected to close by Q1 2027. Current rights deals with CBS, ESPN, Amazon, and Scripps expire after the 2027 season and are estimated at $60-70 million annually combined. To support a $205 million entry price, teams need central distributions closer to $10-12 million per year, implying a domestic media package near $180-200 million annually across 16 clubs by 2028. That is a 3x step-up from today's terms. The league has the audience trajectory—2024 attendance averaged 11,250 per match, up 23% year-over-year—but lacks the playoff inventory and shoulder programming that drive ESPN to pay NBA money.
Second, it eliminates the entrepreneur class from future expansion. The next wave of cities—Philadelphia, Denver, Nashville, Charlotte—will now see bids from multi-club operators, regional sports networks looking for content assets, and private equity platforms that model sponsorship yield and jersey patches before talking about grass types. The NWSL awarded four franchises between 2021 and 2024 at fees ranging from $2 million (Racing Louisville, 2021) to $113 million (Bay Area, 2023). That spread has closed. Cincinnati, Tampa, and Milwaukee are known active bidders. All three groups carry institutional backing or are already operating MLS, NBA, or MLB franchises in-market. None will bid below $180 million after Columbus.
Columbus was chosen over Cincinnati in part because Haslam Sports Group offered a path to a soccer-specific stadium in the Arena District or Franklinton neighborhood, both within two miles of Nationwide Arena. The NWSL's newest franchises—Bay Area plays at PayPal Park, Boston at White Stadium, Utah at America First Field—average 10,200 seats and were built or refurbished specifically for women's soccer. Shared NFL or MLS venues are no longer preferred. The league wants ownership that can deliver 8,000-12,000 seat facilities with naming rights and in-stadium sponsorship inventory that does not require revenue-sharing with a landlord. Haslam Sports Group has not announced a venue partner, but the timeline suggests a groundbreaking in late 2026 to meet a March 2028 kickoff.
The Haslams bring complexity. Jimmy Haslam's Pilot Flying J paid $92 million in criminal penalties in 2014 for a fuel rebate fraud scheme, though he was not personally charged. The Browns have cycled through five head coaches since 2019 and rank 28th in NFL win percentage over that span. The NWSL's vetting process included background checks and interviews with current Browns executives. The league approved the bid unanimously, per a source with knowledge of the Board of Governors vote. That suggests the NWSL prioritized capital and infrastructure over founder aesthetics.
Watch for the league to announce its 16th franchise before the end of 2025, likely from the Cincinnati, Tampa, or Milwaukee bid groups. The Columbus deal gives those cities a number to beat or match. Also watch stadium lease negotiations in Columbus through Q3 2026; if the Haslams cannot secure a soccer-specific venue, the franchise may open at Historic Crew Stadium (19,968 capacity), which hosted the men's Crew until 2021 and is now used for high school championships and concerts. That would undermine the NWSL's infrastructure narrative.
The next media deal begins in 2028, the same year Columbus kicks off. The league now has two years to prove that $205 million franchises generate returns that justify the fee, or risk a valuation reset when institutional buyers model the next entry price against actual distributions, not projected ones.