The National Women's Soccer League awarded expansion franchises to Columbus and Atlanta on Monday, with Jimmy Haslam's ownership group paying $205 million for the Columbus club—the highest entry price in women's professional sports history. Atlanta's franchise fee was not disclosed, but league sources familiar with the structure say it likely fell between $85 million and $95 million, bringing the combined haul north of $290 million. Both clubs begin play in 2026.
Columbus becomes the league's fifteenth franchise and Atlanta the sixteenth. Haslam, who owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a stake in the Columbus Crew, will control the Columbus team through Haslam Sports Group. Atlanta's bid is led by Annika Sorenstam, the ten-time LPGA major winner, and a consortium that includes Arthur Blank's family office—though Blank himself is not a direct investor. The Atlanta franchise will share Mercedes-Benz Stadium with Blank's MLS side, Atlanta United, which has averaged over 42,000 tickets per match since 2017.
The $205 million Columbus fee is a 102 percent increase over the $101 million Bay FC paid in May 2023 for entry into the 2024 season. That jump reflects what happens when a league stops selling hope and starts selling comps. The NWSL drew an average of 11,250 fans per match in 2024, up 21 percent year-over-year, and its last media rights deal with CBS, ESPN, and Prime Video pays roughly $25 million annually through 2027. Sponsors are treating the league like infrastructure now—Visa signed a multi-year kit deal in 2024, Google became a founding partner, and Nike extended through 2033. The math works: if you assume $25 million in central media revenue, $15 million in sponsorship allocation per club, and stadium economics on par with second-tier MLS clubs, a $200 million entry price implies a mid-teens unlevered IRR for an owner who believes the next media deal doubles.
Columbus and Atlanta also clarify the league's geographic strategy. The NWSL now has two teams in the Midwest (Columbus, Kansas City), three in Texas (Dallas, Houston, Austin), two in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland), and two in the Southeast (Atlanta, North Carolina). The league passed on a second New York bid and a Miami group that included a former MLS executive, opting instead for cities with MLS infrastructure and ownership groups that already understand soccer economics. That's a tell. Commissioner Jessica Berman has said publicly the league will expand to 18 or 20 teams by 2028; Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Miami remain in the mix, but the price floor is now set. Any bid under $150 million will be treated as unserious.
The Haslam involvement is worth parsing. Jimmy Haslam paid $1 billion for the Browns in 2012 and has been a magnet for operational controversy—four head coaches in five years, a stadium lease fight with the city, a quarterback trade that resulted in the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history and immediate buyer's remorse. His soccer track record is narrower but cleaner: the Crew won MLS Cup in 2023, their first title since Haslam Sports Group took control in 2021. The Columbus NWSL club will share Lower.com Field with the Crew, a 20,000-seat soccer-specific stadium that opened in 2021 and has sold out 18 of 20 matches this season. The shared venue means lower facility costs, split stadium staff, and the ability to bundle sponsorships across properties—standard playbook moves that pencil better in Columbus than in most expansion markets.
Atlanta's franchise leans on similar infrastructure. Mercedes-Benz Stadium seats 42,500 for soccer and has hosted NWSL playoff matches before, but the real comp is Atlanta United's sponsorship base. Blank's MLS team generates over $30 million annually in sponsorship revenue, and while the NWSL club will operate separately, sponsors looking for women's audience crossover will find the easiest entry in a shared venue. Sorenstam's involvement adds marquee credibility—her last competitive LPGA event drew 4.2 million viewers on NBC in 2021—but the business model is Mercedes-Benz access, not celebrity.
What to watch: franchise names and jersey sponsors by June 2025, technical staff hires by August, and whether either team pre-sells 5,000 season tickets before the 2025 NWSL season ends. The league will announce its seventeenth and eighteenth franchises by mid-2026, and the bid price will clarify whether $205 million was ceiling or floor.
The Columbus price tells you what a women's sports franchise costs when the buyer has no choice but to pay market. The Atlanta price tells you what it costs when the buyer has leverage and a stadium already built.
The takeaway
NWSL expansion fees doubled in eighteen months; the next bid cycle will test whether **$200M+** holds when Cleveland and Philadelphia arrive.
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