The National Women's Soccer League granted Columbus, Ohio, an expansion franchise for a $205 million entry fee, the highest in league history and $35 million above what Boston and Denver paid five months earlier. The team begins play in 2028. The ownership group is led by the Haslam family, who already control the Cleveland Browns and recently took a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks.
This marks the second NWSL expansion awarded since September, when Boston and Atlanta entered at $170 million and $110 million respectively. The Columbus fee is 21 percent higher than Boston's, which itself reset the floor. League president JJ Hexter confirmed the figure in a call with ownership stakeholders Thursday morning. The Haslams join a narrow cohort of multi-team NWSL investors: only Kansas City's ownership group (NWSL and MLS) and Utah's (NWSL and MLS via shared Real Salt Lake apparatus) currently operate more than one franchise. The Haslams do not own an MLS side, making this a pure two-franchise women's soccer play without the typical MLS bundling logic.
Columbus is the league's 18th market. The NWSL now has two Ohio teams—Racing Louisville sits 110 miles south—and three clubs across the Midwest corridor that includes Chicago. The Haslams' NFL franchise, the Browns, plays 140 miles north in Cleveland, creating a sponsor overlap opportunity the league has not yet articulated publicly. Worth noting: the Browns' stadium naming rights partner, Huntington Bank, operates 880 branches across Ohio and already sponsors a Columbus-based venue, Huntington Park, home to the minor-league baseball Clippers. The family's Milwaukee Bucks stake, announced in May 2023, adds a third regional anchor but in a market without NWSL presence.
The expansion fee structure is now clearer. Atlanta paid $110 million in April. Boston and Denver, announced in September, each paid $170 million. Columbus's $205 million suggests the league is pricing late-2020s entry based on two factors: market size and ownership group NFL/NBA credentials. The Haslams check both. Columbus is the 14th-largest metro in the U.S.; Boston is 10th, Denver 19th, Atlanta 8th. The premium for Columbus—$35 million more than Boston—appears linked to the Haslams' balance sheet and appetite for dual-franchise leverage, not metro population rank.
The NWSL's expansion velocity is now the fastest among U.S. major leagues. The league fielded 12 teams in 2022. It will field 18 teams by 2028, a 50 percent increase in six years. MLS, by comparison, added six teams between 2017 and 2023, reaching 29 clubs. The NWSL's average expansion fee has risen from $2 million (Utah, 2017) to $205 million (Columbus, 2025). That 10,150 percent increase in eight years reflects the league's media deal signed in 2023—$240 million over four years with CBS, ESPN, Prime Video, and Scripps—and the entrance of billionaire family offices that view women's sports franchises as early-stage venture bets with governance upside.
The Haslams' second NWSL entry creates a test case for cross-market synergy. Dee and Jimmy Haslam do not own adjacent franchises; their Browns, Bucks stake, and now Columbus NWSL team span three states. The question for other multi-team operators: does franchise replication unlock sponsor scale or dilute local leverage? The Haslams are betting on scale. Their Browns generate roughly $500 million in annual revenue; their Bucks stake is a minority position in a team valued at $4 billion by Forbes. The Columbus NWSL franchise enters a league where the average team is valued near $80 million, per Sportico's 2024 estimates, meaning the $205 million entry fee is 2.5 times the average existing team's market value.
Columbus becomes the third major-market NWSL expansion in under a year. Atlanta and Boston entered in 2024; Columbus follows in 2025 for 2028 play. The league has not announced further expansion plans, but investor calls now reference a 20-team target by 2030. If the league awards two more franchises at similar prices, it will have collected roughly $1.2 billion in expansion fees since 2022, when San Diego entered for $15 million. The bulk of that capital flows to existing owners, not league operations, creating a windfall for early stakeholders like the Wilkinson family (Portland Thorns, who paid $0 in 2012) and the Predmore group (Washington Spirit, acquired for $3 million in 2019).
The Haslams have not named a president or head coach. They have not announced a stadium partner, though Columbus Crew's Lower.com Field, opened in 2021, seats 20,000 and already hosts SheBelieves Cup matches. The SheBelieves Cup appeared in Columbus in February 2025; U.S. Soccer's willingness to stage marquee games in the market suggests federation comfort with the city's infrastructure.
The league's next visible decision: whether to assign Columbus a 2026 or 2027 preseason friendly schedule to begin market activation. Boston and Denver began local marketing 18 months before their first official matches. Columbus has 33 months. The Haslams' first hire—likely a team president—will arrive by late summer.