Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million to secure Columbus as the National Women's Soccer League's fifteenth franchise, beginning play in 2028. The fee is 24 percent above the $165 million Atlanta committed in late 2025 and establishes a new valuation benchmark eight months before Atlanta's inaugural match.
The Columbus award follows the league's February declaration that it would cap membership at sixteen teams by decade's end. Atlanta, scheduled to debut in March 2027, now carries a locked-in expansion cost basis $40 million below the immediate successor. That gap matters: Atlanta's ownership group, led by Liberty Media's Formula One arm and backed by Arthur Blank's family office, structured the deal with earnout provisions tied to attendance gates and media-rights growth through year three. Columbus pays cash upfront, no escalators.
Haslam Sports Group—Dee and Jimmy Haslam, who also control the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a minority stake in the Milwaukee Bucks—adds Columbus as its first women's professional team asset. The timing is deliberate. The NWSL's new four-year media deal with ESPN and CBS, finalized in November 2024, delivers an estimated $240 million in total rights fees, nearly triple the prior contract. Player salaries are capped at $3.3 million per roster through 2027; Columbus enters under the 2028 CBA, expected to lift that ceiling but still far below MLS thresholds. The Haslams are buying operating leverage: predictable cost structure, ascending revenue line, no promotion risk.
The $205 million figure also disciplines the bid process for the sixteenth and final slot. The league has confirmed interest from Cincinnati, Cleveland's geographic rival barely ninety miles north of Columbus, as well as Milwaukee, Nashville, and a second San Francisco Bay Area group. Cincinnati now knows the floor. Any bid below $205 million signals either distress or a belief the league overpriced Columbus. Milwaukee's bid, should it materialize, would test whether the Haslams' dual-market strategy—Columbus and Cleveland's NFL presence—creates negative spillover or a regional travel package that sponsors value.
Atlanta, meanwhile, benefits from appreciation by non-action. Liberty Media structured its $165 million entry with 15 percent of the fee deferred over three years, conditioned on league revenue milestones tied to the CBS primetime package. If Columbus sold at $205 million before Atlanta played a match, the deferred tranche becomes a bargain: Atlanta effectively bought $40 million of upside for the cost of a three-year revenue bet that now looks conservative. The arbitrage is clean.
The Haslams are expected to announce a stadium plan within sixty days. Columbus lacks a purpose-built women's soccer venue; Lower.com Field, the MLS Crew's home, seats 20,000 but is controlled by separate ownership. League sources expect a 10,000-seat downtown site with expandability to 15,000, modeled on Kansas City's approach. Construction cost estimates sit near $125 million for a bare build, pre-naming rights.
The sixteenth franchise decision is expected by October. Cincinnati remains the front-runner on market size and existing infrastructure—TQL Stadium, shared with FC Cincinnati, offers immediate capacity. Nashville's bid, however, carries the support of local private equity groups that previously circled Atlanta before Liberty moved. The final fee will likely settle near $220 million, a 7 percent premium to Columbus, reflecting scarcity value and the explicit end of expansion through 2030.
Atlanta plays its first match in fourteen weeks. Columbus begins roster construction in thirty months. The $40 million spread between them now defines what early arrival was worth.
The takeaway
**$205M** Columbus entry resets NWSL expansion math, giving Atlanta **$40M** instant appreciation while narrowing arbitrage for final sixteenth franchise bid by October.
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