With Angel City FC leading the way at $250 million, the average value of an NWSL team is up 57 percent from last year to a record $104 million, Sportico reported Wednesday.
Citing conversations with team owners, investors and executives along with those involved in transactions, the report put the 14 franchises’ collective worth at $1.46 billion.
Following Angel City, the Kansas City Current rank second at $182 million, followed by the San Diego Wave at $132 million and Bay City at $121 million.
With the addition of Angel City and the Wave in California, the NWSL will set season records this year in revenue, attendance and TV ratings.
Aided by celebrity support, Angel City set records for merchandise sales and sponsorship while selling nearly 16,000 season tickets in its inaugural season of 2022.
The Wave entered the NWSL the same year, setting a league mark with 20,718 fans per game last season. In comparison, in the last pre-COVID season of 2019, only two teams averaged as many as 6,500 fans.
Angel City and the Wave each paid approximately $2 million in expansion fees to join the league.
Elsewhere in the NWSL, former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry is close to purchasing a controlling stake in the North Carolina Courage from Steve Malik for approximately a $108 million valuation, Sportico reported last week.
From the NWSL’s inception in 2013, the Portland Thorns led the league in attendance through 2021, and in 2019 they became the first team to average 20,000 fans per match — an exception at the time.
With new owners entering the NWSL in 2021 and the severing of the league’s relationship with U.S. Soccer, investment in the league went through the roof.
The league, which topped 1 million fans in 2022, will top 2 million fans this year with the addition of the Utah Royals and Bay FC, along with a 26-game regular season — four games longer than in 2023.
With average attendance increasing by 10 percent this season following a 32 percent growth in 2023, half the league this year is averaging 10,000 fans per game.
Regular season revenue has also seen major growth this year, a 91 percent increase to an estimated $215 million. The Current lead the way at $36.3 million, with the Chicago Red Stars last at $6.5 million. The league average is $15.4 million, just below the WNBA, which saw at least a 30 percent increase due in large part to Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s debut season.
It’s not all good news, though, as every NWSL club is losing money at a record clip — between $5 million and $10 million, per team owners. On the positive side, the league’s revenue growth rates are well above those in MLS and the English Premier League as NWSL owners continue to invest capital and build on their nine-figure assets.
–Field Level Media
