The National Women's Soccer League awarded its 18th franchise to Haslam Sports Group for $205 million, the highest expansion fee in women's professional sports history. The Columbus team will begin play in 2028, five years after the league's most recent team, Bay FC, paid $53 million to enter in 2024.
Dee Haslam, who with husband Jimmy owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns and MLS's Columbus Crew, will control the NWSL expansion. The fee is 287% higher than the $53 million Bay FC paid seventeen months ago and 51% above Angel City FC's previous record of $135 million in 2020. The Haslams already operate Lower.com Field, a 20,000-seat soccer-specific venue opened in 2021, eliminating the stadium build risk that delayed Atlanta's launch until 2026 despite its $165 million commitment last August.
The Columbus fee structure carries a second commercial function: It guaranteed Atlanta's $165 million payment would clear in full. Atlanta owner Adrian Griffin's installment schedule ran through 2028, contingent on the league maintaining comparable franchise valuations through that window. The $205 million Columbus deal removed the valuation floor risk, allowing NWSL to book Atlanta's entire fee without reserve. Together, the two expansions deliver $370 million in new capital before the league enters its 2026 media rights renewal.
NWSL is now running 18 teams against a 12-team footprint four years ago. The league added Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC in January 2025 at undisclosed fees believed to be near $110 million each. Commissioner Jessica Berman told sponsors in December the league would cap at 20 teams by 2030, leaving two slots open. Cincinnati and Philadelphia bid groups are circulating decks; both markets have MLS infrastructure and ownership groups that already hold NWSL stakes elsewhere.
The valuation velocity matters for three constituencies. First, the 12 legacy teams that paid zero or de minimis fees before 2020 now carry implied enterprise values above $200 million, which supports sale processes and credit lines tied to franchise equity. Second, Apple's four-year, $240 million streaming deal expires after the 2027 season, and the expansion wave lets NWSL argue it has NFL-style scarcity: Owners paid $205 million for access, so media buyers should expect mid-nine-figure annual rights. Third, sponsors structuring 2026-2029 partnerships now budget against an 18-team, 204-game regular season with two additional markets and the attention that comes with $370 million in recent transaction headlines.
The Haslams bring NFL-scale infrastructure but modest women's soccer operating history. Dee Haslam sits on the U.S. Soccer Foundation board and has funded youth programs in Cleveland, but Haslam Sports Group has no prior NWSL investment. The Columbus Crew plays in the same venue the NWSL team will use, which creates shared services leverage but also calendar and attention competition. MLS runs March through October; NWSL runs March through November. The Crew averaged 20,674 fans in 2024, selling out 12 of 17 home matches. The NWSL team will need to fill 8,000 to 12,000 seats on non-conflicting dates to hit break-even, assuming cost structures similar to Bay FC, which lost $8 million in its first season on 15,000 average attendance.
What to watch: NWSL will name the Columbus team president and head coach by September 2025, according to people familiar with the timeline. The league's 2026 expansion draft for Atlanta comes first, in November 2025, and will set the roster construction template Columbus uses in 2027. Apple's media renewal window opens January 2026, and the league has told bidders to expect a formal RFP by March. The Haslams will attend the league's owners meeting in June in Los Angeles, where the agenda includes international club partnerships and a vote on whether to allow third-party minority stakes in teams.
The $205 million fee is real money to a league that lost $35 million across all teams in 2023. The Haslams wrote the check anyway, betting the franchise will be worth $300 million by the time the stadium lights turn on in 2028.
The takeaway
Columbus's $205M fee sets new NWSL valuation floor, locks in Atlanta's $165M, and arms the league with $370M before 2026 media rights talks.
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