Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million for the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise, a Columbus team launching in 2028, according to people familiar with the transaction. The fee is 24 percent higher than the $165 million Atlanta committed in 2024 and 483 percent above the $35 million Boston and Denver paid less than two years ago.
The Haslams—Jimmy and Dee, who own the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a stake in the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks—join a league that has added five teams since 2022 and doubled its enterprise value in three years. NWSL is now the largest women's professional sports league by franchise count in North America, ahead of the WNBA's 14 teams and the PWHL's 6. The Columbus franchise will play in a market 125 miles south of Cleveland, where the Browns draw 67,000 per game; Columbus Crew, the men's MLS side, averages 20,500 in a soccer-specific stadium the Haslams will share.
The structure matters as much as the number. The $205 million guarantees Atlanta's $165 million fee clears in full, according to two people with knowledge of league mechanics. NWSL expansion fees step down if subsequent sales fall below prior marks—a downside protection written into Atlanta's deal that would have cost the league $40 million had Columbus come in lower. The Haslams paid enough to avoid that clawback and reset the floor for franchise 19, expected to be awarded by year-end.
Women's sports transactions now follow the slope of venture scaling, not the curve of sports expansion. The WNBA's three newest franchises—Golden State, Toronto, Portland—each paid $50 million in 2023 and 2024; NWSL has quadrupled that in 18 months. The gap reflects different ownership layers. WNBA teams clear through the NBA's infrastructure; NWSL franchises stand alone, requiring owners to build ticketing, sponsorship, and stadium deals from scratch. That operational exposure is pricing as equity upside, not execution risk. Institutional allocators are modeling NWSL stakes like pre-IPO positions in a category winner, per three family-office sources who reviewed Columbus comps this spring.
The Haslams bring stadium optionality and Big Ten distribution proximity. Columbus Crew's Lower.com Field seats 20,371 and opened in 2021; the NWSL team will anchor there while the city considers a larger venue tied to FIFA World Cup hosting ambitions. Ohio State University draws 105,000 per football game 12 miles north; Nationwide Arena, home to the NHL's Blue Jackets, sits 2 miles from Lower.com. The Haslams already navigate shared facilities in Cleveland, where the Browns lease from the city and the Bucks share Fiserv Forum with Marquette basketball. Dee Haslam chaired the Browns' charitable foundation and led the Bucks' community strategy; she will run Columbus NWSL day-to-day, per one league source.
The fee also reflects sponsor momentum no longer tied to kit deals alone. NWSL signed $240 million in corporate partnerships in 2024, including Nationwide, Ally Financial, and Google Cloud—each seeking women's audience adjacency as brand safety tightens on men's rights. Nielsen panels showed NWSL's median viewer is 37 years old with household income above $95,000, compared to MLS's 42 and $88,000. The league's CBS and ESPN deals run through 2027; renegotiations start this fall, with streaming bidders expected to push rights above the current $60 million annually. The Haslams' timing locks in pre-media-renewal pricing; Atlanta and Columbus will enter after the next cycle resets values upward.
The Columbus GM hire will signal whether Haslam Sports Group leans analytics or relationships. Former USWNT players are running front offices in Boston, Denver, and Seattle; analytics-first executives helm Portland and San Diego. The Haslams have hired both profiles in Cleveland—Andrew Berry, the Browns GM, came from Philadelphia's quant-heavy front office; Kevin Stefanski, head coach, was a Vikings assistant steeped in film study and trust trees. The NWSL market is splitting similarly: Bay FC imported a technical director from Barcelona's academy system; Angel City hired from Hollywood agencies.
Franchise 19 will test whether $205 million was a ceiling or a step. League sources expect bids from Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tampa, with ownership groups including retired athletes, private equity platforms, and at least one sovereign wealth-linked vehicle. The NWSL has not yet set a franchise cap, but commissioner Jessica Berman told sponsors last month the league would stop expanding at 24 teams by 2030. That leaves six slots and 30 months, implying two franchises per year at rising fees.
Columbus kicks off in 2028, the same year Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics and FIFA finalizes its 2031 Women's World Cup host. The Haslams will field a team in a market with no incumbent women's professional franchise, stadium infrastructure already built, and a metro population of 2.1 million growing faster than Cleveland or Cincinnati. The $205 million fee pays for the chairs; the next three years determine who sits in them.