NWSL Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang is aiming for her women’s soccer portfolio to be breakeven within the next three yearsTim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES -- Yesterday, prolific sports investors Michele Kang and Marc Lasry headlined a panel conversation that drew a crowd of industry heavyweights to Beverly Hills’ Waldorf Astoria hotel. Kang is behind a women’s soccer team roll-up strategy that began with her
acquisition of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit for a then-record $35M in 2022, while Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group last year launched a dedicated sports fund. Both pointed to the NWSL’s Angel City, which is currently exploring the addition of a new control owner, as evidence of the sort of rapid valuation growth that’s possible in more nascent sports leagues.
“That team could fetch anywhere from $180 million to $200 million. That’s about 60- to 70-times what it was five years ago,” Kang said during the panel at this week’s Milken Institute Global Conference. “I can absolutely tell you that the revenue did not go up by 70 times. Attendance didn’t go up by 70 times. But there was underlying value, and it was grossly undervalued.”
In expanding on the investment opportunity in women’s soccer, Kang explained why her roll-up strategy, which also includes acquisitions of the
London City Lionesses and
Olympique Lyonnais’ women’s team, is more necessity than luxury. “If you can pull some teams together, you can invest at the scale you need to accelerate the movement and development of women’s soccer,” said Kang, who added that she’s aiming for her women’s soccer portfolio to be breakeven within the next three years.
Lasry’s Avenue, meanwhile, has joined the rush of institutional capital into the sports industry, and he shared that a key part of his firm’s strategy is to get into early-stage leagues at the ground floor. Avenue’s newly launched sports fund has acquired franchises in
SailGP,
TGL and the
PBR Team Series.
“We want to be invested in new leagues and existing leagues, we want to be buying interests in teams, we want to be lending money to teams,” said Lasry. “There’s a real need for capital in sports; you’re going to see it, and you’re going to get, at least for the short-term, pretty large returns.”
Lasry added that he believes Avenue has an edge over competing sports investors thanks to his background as an individual team owner -- Lasry last year
sold his stake in the Bucks -- and the firm’s roster of athlete partners that includes Candace Parker and Michael Strahan.
Kang and Lasry were joined on stage by Parker, Hextec CEO and Angel City investor Heather Brooks Karatz, Yahoo Sports President Ryan Spoon and Raptors President Masai Ujiri. Others in attendance included FIFA President Gianni Infantino, The Raine Group co-founder Joe Ravitch, Discovery Capital Management founder Rob Citrone, former NFLer Dhani Jones, Cardinals OT Kelvin Beachum, Hogan Lovells’ Michael Kuh and Innovative Partnerships Group’s Matt Wiener.
