The National Women's Soccer League awarded its eighteenth franchise to Columbus on Wednesday for an expansion fee of $205 million, paid by Haslam Sports Group. The team, operating as Columbus Crew Women under the HSG umbrella that includes the MLS Crew and the NFL's Cleveland Browns, will begin play in 2026. The fee is 24% higher than the $165 million committed by Atlanta in December 2024 and marks the third time in fourteen months the league has reset its own expansion-price record.
The Columbus deal does two things simultaneously. First, it crystallizes a franchise valuation floor of roughly $200 million for any ownership group negotiating with NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman through 2025. Second, and less obvious, it structurally guarantees Atlanta honors its $165 million commitment. Atlanta's payment schedule includes a final installment due in early 2026; Columbus's higher headline number removes any negotiating leverage Atlanta might have had to renegotiate downward if franchise sentiment softened. The league now has $370 million in committed expansion capital from two teams that have yet to play a match.
Haslam Sports Group's entry is textbook MLS playbook imported to NWSL: same naming convention, shared facilities at Lower.com Field, integrated front office. The Crew pulled 12,473 average attendance in MLS last season; NWSL's current attendance leader, Washington Spirit, averaged 10,206 in 2024. Columbus sits in the 32nd-largest U.S. media market but benefits from what sponsors call a "clean demographic"—limited professional-team competition outside Ohio State football and a downtown venue opened in 2021. HSG is betting the Crew's existing season-ticket base converts at 20-25% to women's soccer, which would put Columbus near league-average gate revenue in year one.
The fee structure matters for the league's next negotiation cycle. NWSL's current media deal with CBS, ESPN, and Prime Video runs through 2027 and pays approximately $60 million annually. Expansion fees are one-time capital events, but they signal to media buyers that team owners are pricing future rights at a premium. If eighteen franchises are valued at $200 million each on average, the league's implied enterprise value approaches $3.6 billion, roughly 60x the current annual media payout. That multiple doesn't hold in practice, but it sets the psychological anchor when CBS and ESPN return to the table in 2026.
Two operational details to watch. First, Columbus begins play in 2026, the same year as Atlanta, which means the league will absorb two expansion drafts in one offseason. Player allocation becomes a political problem: the NWSL Players Association will push for roster expansion to protect existing squad depth, while team operators will want the flexibility to poach talent from weaker rosters. Second, the league has not announced franchise 19 or 20, but Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Nashville have all publicly expressed interest since December. If Columbus sets the floor at $205 million, the next bidder likely pays $220-230 million, assuming the award happens before the next CBA negotiation in 2027.
The Haslams bought the Cleveland Browns in 2012 for $1.05 billion; Forbes now values the franchise at $5.2 billion. Their thesis in Columbus is simpler: NWSL franchise fees have compounded at 68% annually since Bay FC paid $53 million in 2023. That rate won't hold, but the team doesn't need it to. Break-even requires Columbus to be worth $205 million in 2034, which implies 0% growth. Anything above that is gravy.
The league has eighteen teams, $1.1 billion in expansion fees collected since 2023, and a CBA that expires in thirty months. The next franchises will pay more.
The takeaway
Columbus's **$205M** fee locks Atlanta's **$165M** commitment and resets NWSL's franchise floor before 2026 media negotiations.
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