Continuing the growth trend around women’s sports, plans were announced across professional volleyball, soccer, hockey and basketball in North America for expansion teams or the creation of new leagues:
League One Volleyball
Sept. 27: League One Volleyball raises $35 million in Series B funding led by Left Lane Capital with participation from Ares Management Funds and brings the league’s total funding to nearly $60 million. LOVB’s inaugural pro season will launch after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. It will feature six teams in Omaha, Neb.; Madison, Wis.; Salt Lake City; Atlanta; and Houston, with the last to be announced at a future date.
NWSL
March 11: Utah Soccer, the ownership group of MLS’s Real Salt Lake led by Ryan Smith and David Blitzer, has paid $5 million to the NWSL to revive Royals FC. Smith and Blitzer bought the MLS club in 2022, a deal that allowed them to resurrect the Royals at a price that is now far below market value for an NWSL club. The Royals will begin play in 2024.
April 4: A Bay Area ownership group, led by global investment firm Sixth Street and former U.S. women’s national soccer team players, is awarded a franchise for a $53 million fee, which is part of an overall $125 million commitment from Sixth Street. The new team, Bay Football Club, will begin play at PayPal Park in San Jose in 2024.
Former U.S. women’s national soccer team member Brandi Chastain is among the co-owners of the NWSL’s Bay FC franchise.usa today network
Sept. 18: Boston Unity Soccer Partners pays a $53 million expansion fee for a Boston-based franchise expected to begin play in 2026 as the league’s 15th club. Juno Equity founder Jennifer Epstein, the daughter of Celtics co-owner Robert Epstein, is the controlling partner of the group that will invest another $50 million on refurbishing White Stadium, building a separate training facility and operational costs.
PWHL
June 30: Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter purchases the Premier Hockey Federation, clearing the way for the Professional Women’s Hockey League to begin competing in North America on Jan. 1. On July 7, the league and the newly formed players association reached and eight-year collective-bargaining agreement. Brian Burke, former Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations, was later hired as PWHLPA executive director. The league will begin its first season with six teams in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montreal, the New York metro area, Ottawa and Toronto. The league is led by a board of directors that consists of legendary tennis star Billie Jean King, her spouse Ilana Kloss, Dodgers President Stan Kasten and Royce Cohen, Dodgers senior vice president of business strategy.
Unrivaled
July 6: Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty and Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx are founding a new women’s basketball league aiming to give players an option to compete domestically during the WNBA offseason. Unrivaled will feature 30 players across six teams in games of 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 in Miami. Their goal is to secure enough private funding and sponsorships to compensate players for the contracts they would be giving up overseas. New WNBA rules require players to return from international commitments by the start of training camp.
USL
May 16: Teams in Charlotte; Dallas/Fort Worth; Washington, D.C.; Lexington, Ky.; Phoenix; Spokane, Wash.; Tampa; and Tucson, Ariz., will make up the USL Super League, a pro soccer league scheduled to kick off in August 2024. USL plans to pursue Division I sanctioning from U.S. Soccer, which would put the Super League at the same tier as the NWSL. A Fort Lauderdale, Fla., franchise was announced in November, with more expected.
WNBA
Oct. 5: Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber are awarded an expansion franchise, which will begin play in the 2025 WNBA season. This will be the league’s 13th franchise, and its first new team since 2008. The team will play at Chase Center, while practicing and working out of the Warriors’ previous practice facilities in Oakland. Lacob and Guber will pay $50 million over 10 years for the rights to the franchise.
