Angel City gets new majority owner as club valuation reaches $300 million

July 5 – Los Angeles-based women’s club Angel City, which plays in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), is set to get a new majority owner that would value the club at about $300 million.

Angel City made waves in 2020 when the NWSL announced that Los Angeles would receive an expansion franchise for the 2022 season and that it would be the first club under a majority-female ownership group led by actress Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman, entrepreneur Julie Uhrman and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian.

Now Disney CEO Bob Iger and Willow Bay, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, are about to buy Reddit co-founder Ohanian’s stake for a reported $50 million.

The $300 million valuation is a significant multiple of the $31 million LAFC reported in revenue last year, but also reflects an influx of investors in U.S. women’s professional clubs who are paying large sums to buy positions.

The San Diego Wave were sold for a league-record $113 million in March, after the Portland Thorns were sold for $63 million in January. Bay FC, which launched this year, paid a franchise fee of $53 million, the same as that paid for a new franchise in Boston.

The Chicago Red Stars were sold for £35.5 million in 2023, while the Seattle Reign completed a sale for $58 million in June.

Clubs’ valuations seem to be rising rapidly. Is it enough to support them with their revenue or, more importantly, their revenue growth potential?

Angels FC leads the NWSL in commercial revenue, nearly double that of its nearest rival, the San Diego Wave. Angels FC has booked $55 million in revenue through 2025, but its stadium revenue is limited by its contract with the MLS side to use BMO Stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

A new, own stadium could open up this source of income, but so far the development of the infrastructure has been limited to discussions about building a training facility of its own.

However, the new centralized broadcast contract for the NWSL could prove to be a game-changer for the other revenue streams.

The NWSL has signed a four-year, $240 million national broadcast deal with ESPN, CBS, Amazon and Scripps Sports, ending with the 2027 season. This deal is 40 times larger than the previous broadcast deal.

The NWSL has become a league in which breathtaking financial multipliers are not uncommon.

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