Angela Hucles (r.) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
When the NWSL announced Los Angeles as its newest expansion team in late July, the identity of the owners caused a stir across the national sports landscape. There are more than 30 members of the founding investor group, who are calling the franchise Angel City (it’ll debut in 2022). The consortium includes Hollywood stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner and Eva Longoria; tennis legend Serena Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian; and 14 former women’s national team players, including a dozen who now call Southern California home.
One of those 12 is Angela Hucles, who was a mainstay on the U.S. women’s national soccer team in the 2000s, winning Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008 and joining the World Cup squads that finished third in both 2003 and 2007. Her four goals in the ’08 Games were the most by any American.
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2000 as the school’s all-time goals and points leader (she now ranks second in both), Hucles was selected by the Boston Breakers in the inaugural 2001 draft for the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first women’s pro soccer league in the U.S. The WUSA lasted only three years before she joined the Boston Renegades in the USL W-League for two seasons. When the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) formed, Hucles joined the Boston franchise, again named the Breakers, for the 2009 season before retiring from the sport.
Hucles, who later became president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, has been an active speaker focusing on self-empowerment, a studio and game analyst for Fox Sports and NBC, and an active LGBT advocate. She has also traveled as a State Department sports envoy. She now co-owns a real estate firm, Hucles Mangano Real Estate Team in Beverly Hills.
On joining the Angel City ownership group . . .
I was asked if I wanted to get involved, if I wanted to become an owner with the launch of this new team. I got an email from Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm. They reached out, and I understand that it was actually Foudy’s idea to approach it in this way and get some of the Southern California-affiliated former U.S. women's national team players involved. I think everyone, almost immediately as they saw the email, said ‘absolutely.’ Everyone is understanding the uniqueness, the excitement, the opportunity that this could provide for all of us, and, I think, to continue to help grow the game. That was something that we all wanted to jump on board with.
On the star power of the owners . . .
That excitement just draws more attention where we want it. It draws the attention to women’s professional soccer and the growth of the game and how we're approaching—and really, in a new time, in the way that women’s sports can really be looked at. I think we're just starting out, in some respects, in a new space on this path, which has really been grown to this point. I've heard from even a potential couple of different agents about, ‘Oh, we'd love to see some transfers there,’ and players reaching out and saying, ‘Oh, I want to play for this new L.A. team.’ Just tremendous excitement, but it's all for the greater good as well. We are in the city of entertainment here in L.A., right? To be able to really involve the community and have different industry people involved in the ownership of the team is unique and special.
There's such diversity within the ownership of backgrounds, of experiences—and not just gender and race but, yes, those too, and those are important. Being able to have so many knowledgeable people within different industries and facets of life, I think just makes such a powerful mix. Being able to come together in union with that, to be able to help advise and guide the people that will hopefully be making those final decisions.
On her role with the franchise . . .
It's a great question. So many things are at the very beginning stages. People are definitely reaching out wanting to be involved in the team in different capacities, whether that is on the technical side or the administrative side. There’s still a lot more to be done until this team will actually see the pitch and obviously we'll see what happens with the league itself in terms of what play looks like moving forward after their championship week just happened.
For my personal involvement, I feel hopeful that I can really be a voice and a sounding board all at once just through the experiences that I've had with the game and the sport and even the experiences I've had after being a player, on the business side. It's a fantastic learning opportunity for myself, I've never been an owner of a professional sports team before. Our roles will probably evolve from from now until we even see the start of this team playing. But I definitely want to be involved, be an ambassador, be an advocate for this team within the city of Los Angeles being a resident here, but also still maintaining a similar role on a larger scale and sense of continuing to grow this sport in this game.
On the business stability of the NWSL compared to the WUSA and WPS . . .
It's been afforded the 20-20 hindsight, and I think when you look at the different models, whether it's a single entity or a franchise model, being able to see essentially two different leagues operating with two different styles has benefited to some extent the NWSL in terms of how things can be done in a more sustainable way. By no means do I see this league being where I think it can get to and where I think most of us hope it will get to. Because I still think that there are players who don't have the sense of security that I would love to see, finally, female professional athletes feeling and having that they have job security, that there's not necessarily that fear of something going away. I still don't think we have that yet, and I think that the NWSL has given that more so than any other league. But it's still something that needs to be improved. And I think we're at a point now where we also have seen the growth of the women's game at probably the most professional, the most technical [level].
You look at the popularity and the rise of the sport, and the attention that especially our U.S. women's national team players receive, that shows how much the game has grown. And the NWSL has been a large part of that growth, giving these young women and professionals a platform to showcase the talent that has truly evolved. The players’ game has evolved since I was on the field years ago. That’s just a testament to the growth of the sport and really the efforts of the professional athletes and staff and coaches who've also been a part to really see this be the longest standing professional league in our country.
On being a pro in a new league . . .
That's probably some of the differences when you look at a player like myself who played during those times and a professional athlete now. Everything was so new. It was the first time that we had a professional women’s soccer league when I first started playing. I was part of the very first league in our country. As, you know, female professional soccer players, we had to understand what it meant to get traded, you know, and not ‘you got put on this team, and you're going to stay there.’ Oh, right, we actually could get traded to another team. That was something that was, I think, very foreign to a lot of us because we'd never experienced it before—that wasn't part of the culture for women's soccer players because it didn't exist at a professional level.
Now, it's a whole different ball game. ...We can start to shift our energy and attention to other things now and really look at how we grow the game and not just keep our head above water for fear of a league going away.
On the popularity of women’s soccer . . .
It's incredible to see the tremendous growth, to remember even walking around Newbury Street in 2012 for the Olympics and seeing display signs out in front of bars saying, ‘Come in and watch the game for the women's team.’ And then also the year for the World Cup, just the excitement around women’s soccer publicly at bars—that was something that didn’t necessarily even exist when I was playing. And for coworkers at that time saying, ‘Hey, did you catch the game?’ This was part of the cooler talk. That was just a huge change.
In every single Olympics and World Cup, you can see the progression, the excitement. And I've been on the commentary side of all of it now. It’s another level. It's probably just where it should be, minimally, in my own personal opinion. But sometimes the good things take time, and we're seeing this be one of those good things that I feel like, it's not like we're waiting anymore. It's here now.
On her post-soccer profession . . .
I’m in real estate and definitely more on the residential side here. Our office is out of Beverly Hills. I actually got into real estate when I first retired and lived in Boston and then worked for CB Richard Ellis. So I did more commercial real estate and then wound up moving out to L.A. Four years ago now was when I got my real estate license, when I was pregnant with my son. I had been doing a lot more of the sports commentary, leadership conferences, and things like that. I still had an interest and passion in the real estate industry. It was something that I've always been interested in and had done a few condo purchases in Boston and wound up renovating them. This market out in Los Angeles is much like New York City or San Francisco and is just such a wild one, and my competitive nature helped attract me to the real estate industry out here.
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com
