Women's Soccer Is Getting a Big Upgrade

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Journal – "Women's Soccer Is Getting a Big Upgrade"

Introduction

In the February 10, 2025 episode of The Journal, hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, the focus shifts to a transformative period in women's soccer. The episode delves into the significant investments and infrastructural advancements propelling the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) into a new era of growth and stability.

Denver Secures the 16th NWSL Team

The episode opens with Rachel Bachmann announcing a landmark moment for women's soccer: Denver has been granted the 16th team in the NWSL. This new franchise sets a record by paying $110 million to enter the league, the highest ever for both women's soccer and all women's sports.

Rachel Bachmann [00:09]: "Granting the 16th NWSL team to the city of Denver. Last month, a group from Denver won a competitive race to get a new team for the National Women's Soccer league. It paid $110 million to start a new team, a record amount for women's soccer and for all of women's sports."

A Pioneering Investment in Infrastructure

A standout feature of Denver's bid was the commitment to building a dedicated practice facility and stadium exclusively for the new team. This move marks a significant departure from previous models where women's teams often shared or rented facilities not tailored to their needs.

Rachel Bachmann [00:43]: "Perhaps most important, they pledged to build a practice facility and a stadium solely for this team."

Bachmann underscores the unprecedented nature of this commitment, highlighting that previously, women's professional stadiums were virtually nonexistent.

Rachel Bachmann [00:54]: "About a year ago, women's professional stadiums essentially didn't exist really in the world... There was not a stadium for women really anywhere. Professionally."

A New Era of Investor Confidence

Linebaugh and Bachmann discuss how Denver's investment signals a broader shift in the landscape of women's sports. Owners are now willing to make long-term, substantial financial commitments, anticipating growth and return on investment.

Rachel Bachmann [01:24]: "Owners are willing to spend sums of money in ways that they had never been willing before. That's a huge change... We are going to get our money back."

Kate Linebaugh emphasizes this evolution as the dawn of an "unprecedented era of investor confidence in women's professional team sports."

Overcoming Initial Challenges of the NWSL

The NWSL's journey began in 2013 amid skepticism, following two unsuccessful attempts to establish women's soccer leagues. Initially, the league operated on a tight budget with eight teams, minimal funding, and subpar facilities.

Rachel Bachmann [03:40]: "The Business model was a shoestring... The wages... were very low. And oftentimes players dressed in... borrowed locker rooms or even porta potties..."

Kansas City: A Blueprint for Success

In 2020, Chris and Angie Long purchased an NWSL team and relocated it to Kansas City, aiming to break away from the precarious past by investing in their own stadium. Despite initial resistance from 40 banks, only JP Morgan backed their vision, enabling the construction of an 11,500-seat stadium that opened in March 2024.

Rob Cohen [13:14]: "So spend a fair amount of time in Kansas City and see that stadium... that's part of our vision."

Bachmann lauds Kansas City as the first to establish a women's-only professional stadium, marking a historic milestone in the sport.

Surging Investments and Rising Valuations

The episode highlights a trend of escalating investments in the NWSL. In 2022, Michelle Kang acquired the Washington Spirit for $35 million, followed by Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife purchasing a controlling stake in the LA team for $50 million, valuing the franchise at $250 million.

Rachel Bachmann [09:14]: "Attendance has gone up significantly in the NWSL. Viewership is going up..."

This influx of capital signifies a shift from renting facilities to owning them, enhancing financial stability and autonomy for teams.

Competitive Bidding for Expansion Teams

When the NWSL opened bids for new teams, Denver, Cincinnati, and Cleveland emerged as finalists. Cincinnati's bid was bolstered by basketball star Caitlin Clark's involvement as a part-owner, bringing high-profile attention to the team.

Rob Cohen [14:08]: "Women's sports are just as entertaining, just as competitive... there's incredible opportunity as a business person, but also to do something unique and different."

Despite strong competition, Denver's proposal, emphasizing stadium ownership and financial commitment, ultimately prevailed.

Rob Cohen on Denver's Vision

Rob Cohen, Denver's chief investor, reflects on the strategic importance of owning a dedicated stadium. He emphasizes the enhanced control over scheduling, sponsorships, and revenue maximization, ensuring the team's sustainability and growth.

Rob Cohen [15:45]: "I think it's significant... where you can control... is important for men's sports and it's equally important for women's sports."

NWSL's Shift Towards Stadium Ownership

Rachel Bachmann notes that the NWSL is now encouraging teams to become primary tenants of their venues, a significant departure from previous arrangements where women's teams shared spaces with men's or collegiate teams.

Rachel Bachmann [16:32]: "It's a huge change. It's an absolute 180 because it basically never existed before."

Bay FC in the San Francisco Bay Area plans to follow suit, with intentions to build their own stadium and practice facilities within the next decade.

Rachel Bachmann [17:03]: "...within a decade, 60 to 70% of the teams in this league will own their own stadiums."

Conclusion: From Struggle to Sustainable Growth

The episode concludes by contrasting the NWSL's early struggles with its current trajectory of robust investment and infrastructural development. The establishment of dedicated stadiums and increased financial commitment from investors like Rob Cohen and the Longs signal a promising future for women's soccer, ensuring the league's longevity and elevating its status in the sports world.

Rachel Bachmann [17:41]: "We've gone from no stadiums and owners who weren't entirely sure that the league would even survive to owners who are now making decades long investments in their teams."

Notable Quotes

• Rachel Bachmann [01:24]: "Owners are willing to spend sums of money in ways that they had never been willing before..."
• Rob Cohen [13:14]: "So spend a fair amount of time in Kansas City and see that stadium..."
• Rachel Bachmann [09:14]: "Attendance has gone up significantly in the NWSL..."
• Rob Cohen [14:08]: "Women's sports are just as entertaining, just as competitive..."
• Rachel Bachmann [16:32]: "It's a huge change. It's an absolute 180 because it basically never existed before."

Final Thoughts

This episode of The Journal provides a comprehensive overview of the burgeoning investments and strategic shifts within women's soccer, particularly the NWSL. With dedicated stadiums and increased investor confidence, the league is poised for sustained growth and greater visibility, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of women's professional sports.

Transcript

[Rachel Bachmann]

I have the great honor of officially.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Granting the 16th NWSL team to the city of Denver. Last month, a group from Denver won a competitive race to get a new team for the National Women's Soccer league. It paid $110 million to start a new team, a record amount for women's soccer and for all of women's sports. But something else about Denver's bid stood out to our sports reporter Rachel Bachmann.

[Rachel Bachmann]

Perhaps most important, they pledged to build a practice facility and a stadium solely for this team.

[Kate Linebaugh]

What's notable about that?

[Rachel Bachmann]

About a year ago, women's professional stadiums essentially didn't exist really in the world. In the world, in the world. There might have been a playing field somewhere, but there was not a stadium for women really anywhere. Professionally.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Rachel says building a stadium signals a new level of investment coming for women's sports.

[Rachel Bachmann]

Owners are willing to spend sums of money in ways that they had never been willing before. That's a huge change. It's hard to overstate what a big change that is. In the past, when people invested in professional women's sports, it was typically very short term. So the fact that owners are now saying, we think these leagues are going to grow to the point that even though we're investing hundreds of millions of dollars, we are going to get our money back.

[Kate Linebaugh]

A new era.

[Rachel Bachmann]

It is a new era. I would say it is an unprecedented era of investor confidence in women's professional team sports.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and Katie. I'm Kate LINEBAUGH. It's Monday, February 10th. Coming up on the show, how big money is making its way into women's soccer?

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[Kate Linebaugh]

When the National Women's Soccer league launched in 2013, its success was uncertain. Two previous attempts to start women's soccer leagues had failed. This time, the NWSL was starting with eight teams and not a lot of money. What was the business model?

[Rachel Bachmann]

The Business model was a shoestring. It was, let's invest enough to keep this team going till the next year and then see if we can keep doing it again the following year. The wages, aside from maybe a couple of stars, were very low. And oftentimes players dressed in, you know, borrowed locker rooms or even porta Potties or trailers next to the field because the entire setup was just simply not for them. They were add ons to men's stadiums or college stadiums, whatever stadium they could find. They were renters.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Why couldn't they have their own?

[Rachel Bachmann]

They didn't have the money, not anywhere near enough money. And they didn't have owners who were willing to invest because, remember, these two previous leagues had each folded. So who in their right mind would build a stadium for a team that might be gone in three years?

[Kate Linebaugh]

What is the downside of being a renter, of playing at other people's stadiums?

[Rachel Bachmann]

Oh, there's so many. You don't get to sell sponsorships, which is usually a very big chunk of the money you make. A lot of stadiums sell their naming rights. Those are very lucrative. Selling advertising rights all around the stadium, picking the vendors you want stadiums want to pick foods and drinks and experiences and surroundings that they think will make their fans more likely to come and spend money and stay and want to re up their season tickets. All of that has been off the table for women's pro team sports.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Things began to change for women's soccer in 2019, after the U.S. won the women's World cup.

[Rachel Bachmann]

And they are the Golden Girls, the.

[Rob Cohen]

Champions of the world, the United States, nobody.

[Kate Linebaugh]

The tournament was huge, and the win cemented the US Team as a powerhouse of global women's soccer. Millions watched the final on TV and in the stands, soaking up the excitement was a couple from Kansas City, Missouri.

[Rachel Bachmann]

So Chris and Angie Long are a married couple who work in investment. And they were blown away at the fervor for that event, at the fandom of the US Women's soccer team. And they just saw limitless potential in this league, the National Women's Soccer League, that was quite young at the time, in fact, that many people had never even heard of. And they said, this is a business opportunity.

[Kate Linebaugh]

In 2020, the Longs bought an NWSL team in Utah and relocated it to Kansas City. And they wanted to go beyond that shoestring business model. They wanted to make a big investment, to do something no other women's professional sports team had done before, build their team its own stadium. But first they needed a bank to finance it. How did that go?

[Rachel Bachmann]

It was a struggle. Even though the Longs work in finance, 40 banks rejected their plan to build a women's specific stadium. 40, 40 banks?

[Kate Linebaugh]

On what grounds?

[Rachel Bachmann]

The bankers looked at their financial projections and were just very skeptical. They said, we don't think you can do this. We don't think this is going to pencil out and we're not going to finance your stadium. The one bank that said yes was JP Morgan, where both of the Longs had previously worked. But still, this had never happened before. No banks could look at other cities and say, well, this, it worked here, it worked there, so let's take a chance on this. No, There was no blueprint for this. The Longs created it.

[Kate Linebaugh]

The new Kansas City stadium opened last March. It cost $140 million and has an 11,500 seat capacity, which is about half the size of a men's soccer stadium.

[Rachel Bachmann]

In the U.S. so it's small, it's pretty intimate. But they knew they wanted it to be packed with fans and raucous and the place to be, and so they wanted to right. Size it for this young team. And that's what they opened.

[Kate Linebaugh]

History made.

[Rachel Bachmann]

It's 2024, but if someone's gonna do it, I'm glad it's Kansas City. Kansas City is officially home to the first stadium ever built for a women's professional team.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Go Casey girl. In the first year, the stadium sold out, and there are plans to expand it, but the Long said they didn't turn a profit. Investment in the NWSL has been growing. In 2022, businesswoman Michelle Kang paid a record breaking $35 million for the Washington Spirit. And then two years later, Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife paid $50 million for a controlling stake in LA's team that valued the franchise. And at a new record of $250 million. So we're talking about investment into these teams and a move from renter teams to owner teams. Alongside that, are we seeing greater spectator interest in women's soccer?

[Rachel Bachmann]

Yes. Attendance has gone up significantly in the nwsl. Viewership is going up, and certainly people wanting to start teams of their own. That has surged. Right. They can only add so many teams in a year, but there are many more cities who want teams than are getting them. So demand is outstripping supply right now.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And so last year, when the NWSL opened bidding for a new team, the competition was fierce. What that competition looked like is after the break.

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[Kate Linebaugh]

When the NWSL opened up bidding for a new team, more than a dozen cities submitted bids. Just three made it to the final round. There was Cleveland.

[Rob Cohen]

We think we've got a really good bid and it's baking right now and.

[Rachel Bachmann]

We'Re very optimistic about the future.

[Kate Linebaugh]

There was Cincinnati, but the excitement around this situation here in Cincinnati is palpable. And there was Denver.

[Rachel Bachmann]

When it comes to footy foundation, can any other state boast the type of town talent that we cultivate?

[Kate Linebaugh]

Each bid offered something different. The Cincinnati group had a celebrity backer, one from a different sport. Basketball sensation Caitlin Clark had signed up to be part owner of the team.

[Rob Cohen]

Caitlin getting involved is just, I think.

[Rachel Bachmann]

Another level of excitement. What she's doing. The wnba, like every game she's playing at, is a sellout right now. And just to have that type of star power and excitement, what is she.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Doing on a bid for a women's soccer team in Ohio?

[Rachel Bachmann]

Great question. She played soccer very well in high school and she also has an interest in running teams, even owning teams when she retires from basketball. And so she told Cincinnati's owners that she wanted to be an owner because she wanted to learn the business and what it was like to own and run a team.

[Kate Linebaugh]

What's in it for the NWSL to have Caitlin Clark be a part owner of a new team?

[Rachel Bachmann]

She has a very high profile and the fact that she wanted to spend time on the business I think would have helped the soccer league. It would have brought more attention to the league.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Denver had a different plan. Inspired by the success of Kansas City's team. Denver was promising something Cincinnati wasn't to build a stadium. Rob Cohen is the biggest investor in Denver's bid.

[Rob Cohen]

So spend a fair amount of time in Kansas City and see that stadium, and I think it's significant. When we saw that, we said, that's part of our vision. And, you know, it's just the nature. There are. There are no new ideas out there in the world. But then how can you add to it and make it additive and make it better for the league? And so that's kind of what we looked at and said, you know, how do we take what they do and do something that. That is authentic to Denver and that will help elevate the league and other teams?

[Kate Linebaugh]

Rob has done a lot of thinking about sports investment. He was in an investor group bidding for the city's NFL team, and he helped put together Denver's bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games. They lost to Salt Lake City. Lately, Rob's been eyeing women's sports teams.

[Rob Cohen]

Women's sports are just as entertaining, just as competitive. You know, have all the elements that men's sports have. They just haven't been put on the same platform and stage. And not that we're in it for the financial side of it, but, you know, if you just look at it and say the women's teams of today are valued at one tenth of the men's team, you obviously realize there's incredible opportunity as a business person, but also to do something unique and different.

[Kate Linebaugh]

When you saw that Caitlin Clark was affiliated with the bid from Cincinnati, were you like, oh, God, this is game over?

[Rob Cohen]

No, not necessarily. Look, I have tremendous respect for Caitlin Clark and what she does for women's sports and what she's been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. But, you know, the ownership group is one element. There's a lot that goes into an expansion bid that the expansion committee is looking at before they even make a recommendation to the board of any league.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And then in late January, it was announced that Denver would be the next city to have a new women's soccer team. Do you remember the moment you learned you won the bid?

[Rob Cohen]

You know, honestly, it's like any long race that you finish, you know, you come across the finish line and you're super excited, but you're also exhausted. And I took it. I took a deep breath and inhaled, bent over and tried to catch my breath. And then I. I'm pretty sure I let out a little scream.

[Kate Linebaugh]

You pumped your fist or something?

[Rob Cohen]

Yep.

[Kate Linebaugh]

How important do you think the stadium component was to your winning bid?

[Rob Cohen]

I think it's significant. I think having a facility where you control your schedule, where you have sponsorship opportunities to maximize revenue, where you can control kind of what happens, is important for men's sports and it's equally important for women's sports. I do think obviously teams can coexist in shared facilities, but, you know, we just saw an opportunity to create a different environment.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Denver's new team will start playing next year, and Rachel says the NWSL is favoring stadium ownership going forward.

[Rachel Bachmann]

So what the NWSL wants to move toward is their teams being the primary tenant wherever they play.

[Kate Linebaugh]

That's a big change.

[Rachel Bachmann]

It's a huge change. It's an absolute 180 because it basically never existed before.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And is this move to start building women's only stadiums or have teams that own their own stadiums, is it spreading to other women's soccer teams?

[Rachel Bachmann]

So Bay fc, which is starting its second year in the National Women's Soccer League, is in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their owner has told me they are planning to build a stadium in the coming years. They're also building a practice facility which will probably come first. And actually the Bay FC owner told me he thinks that within a decade, 60 to 70% of the teams in this league will own their own stadiums.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Wow. From the failed leagues of the past to now. A future of massive investment.

[Rachel Bachmann]

Yes. We've gone from no stadiums and owners who weren't entirely sure that the league would even survive to owners who are now making decades long investments in their teams.

[Kate Linebaugh]

That's all for today. Monday, February 10th. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every Weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.