The Journal. - Women's Soccer Is Getting a Big Upgrade

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Denver was named the winner of a new women’s pro soccer franchise last month, in part because it plans to build one of the first stadiums exclusively for the league. WSJ’s Rachel Bachman explains the seismic shift in women’s sports - and the big money that is coming with it. Further Reading: -The Force in Women’s Sports That’s Even More Powerful Than Caitlin Clark  -No One Wanted to Finance Their Stadium. Now Every Game Is a Sellout.  Further Listening: -Can the WNBA Cash in on the Caitlin Clark Effect?  -The Kiss Rocking Women’s Soccer  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have the great honor of officially 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 Bachman. Perhaps most important, they pledged to build a practice facility and a stadium solely for this team. What's notable about that? About a year ago, women's professional stadiums essentially didn't exist, really, in the world.

In the world? In the world. There might've been a playing field somewhere, but there was not a stadium for women really anywhere professionally. Rachel says building a stadium signals a new level of investment coming for women's sports. 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. A new era. It is a new era. It is a new era. I would say it is an unprecedented era of investor confidence in women's professional

team sports. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leimbach. It's Monday, February 10th. Coming up on the show, how big money is making its way into women's soccer. 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? 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. Why couldn't they have their own? 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? What is the downside of being a renter, of playing at other people's stadiums? 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. Things began to change for women's soccer in 2019, after the U.S. won the Women's World Cup. 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.

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 U.S. 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. 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. 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? 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. — On what grounds? — 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 let's take a chance on this. No there was no blueprint for this the Longs created it. There's no blueprint for this. The Longs created it. 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 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. History made. It's 2024, but if someone's going to 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.

Go KC Curran! In the first year, the stadium sold out and there are plans to expand it. But the Longs 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 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? Yes. Attendance has gone up significantly in the NBSL. 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. 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. 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. We think we've got a really good bid and it's baking right now

and we're very optimistic about the future. There was Cincinnati. With the excitement around this situation here in Cincinnati is palpable. And there was Denver. When it comes to footy foundation, can any other state boast the type of talent that we cultivate?

Each bid offered something different. The Cincinnati group had a celebrity backer, one from a different sport. Basketball sensation, Kaitlyn Clark, had signed up to be part owner of the team. Caitlin getting involved is just, I think, another level of excitement. What she's doing to 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 doing on a bid for a women's soccer team in Ohio? 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. What's in it for the NWSL to have Caitlin Clark be a part owner of a new team? 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.

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. 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 it's just the nature.

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, 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 is authentic to Denver and that will help elevate the league and other teams. 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. 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 all the elements that men's sports have. They just haven't been put on the same platform stage. And not that we're in it for the financial side of it, but if you just look at it and say,

the women's teams up 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. When you saw that Caitlin Clark was affiliated with the BID from Cincinnati, were you like, oh god, this is game over? 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. 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? 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 a deep breath and inhaled, bent over and tried to catch my breath. And then I'm pretty sure I let out a little scream. You pumped your fists or something? Yep. How important do you think the stadium component was to your winning bid? 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 we just saw an opportunity

to create a different environment. Denver's new team will start playing next year. And Rachel says the NWSL is favoring stadium ownership going forward. So what the NWSL wants to move toward is their teams being the primary tenant wherever they play. That's a big change. It's a huge change.

It's an absolute 180 because it basically never existed before. 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? 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're 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. Wow. From the failed leagues of the past to now a future of massive investment. 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. 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.