The staff’s board of administrators unanimously permitted the sale by way of a vote, nevertheless it nonetheless have to be permitted by the NWSL, the game’s high ladies’s league within the United States. The sale is anticipated to shut within the subsequent 30 to 60 days.
Bay, dean of the Los Angeles-based USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, have acquired the controlling stake of the membership at a complete valuation of $250million (£192m), and have dedicated to an extra $50m in funding. Bay will function the membership’s major consultant on the NWSL board of governors and in addition serve on and management Angel City’s board.
“We are so excited to be right here,” Bay instructed The Athletic earlier than the announcement. “I hold considering how historic this second is — historic in sports activities and in ladies’s sports activities. What we’re seeing now’s breathtaking, and it’s solely the start of the ascent, and that’s for girls’s sports activities however significantly for this staff.”
The greenback figures hooked up to the sale will make historical past.
According to Angel City’s official press launch, the $250million enterprise valuation makes it “essentially the most useful ladies’s sports activities staff on the earth”. While there’s no official listing, a $250m valuation outstrips essentially the most useful staff in ladies’s basketball’s WNBA (the Las Vegas Aces at $140m, per Sportico, earlier this 12 months) and the Women’s Super League in England (Chelsea has explored the sale of a minority stake in its ladies’s staff with a complete valuation round $200m).
Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman of the United States, not too long ago visited Angel City’s apply facility to spotlight the efforts of Kamala Harris, the U.S. vp, to advertise gender equality. He known as the sale a “nice assertion” for the league.
“The truth that individuals like Bob Iger and Willow Bay are probably investing in that staff is a superb assertion concerning the well being of the league and the prospects going ahead, particularly with the media,” Emhoff instructed The Athletic on Tuesday in the course of the Olympics send-off recreation for the U.S. ladies’s nationwide staff.
Originally based by actor Natalie Portman and entrepreneurs Kara Nortman and Julie Uhrman, the enlargement staff was the sudden results of connections between Portman, Nortman and the USWNT gamers’ affiliation by way of Time’s Up. The three introduced on businessman Alexis Ohanian because the membership’s largest shareholder and controlling proprietor earlier than the staff’s launch in 2020. Despite that title, Ohanian didn’t really management the Angel City board, writing on social media that it was “one in every of many arduous classes (he) realized as a first-time sports activities staff proprietor”.
For all of the reporters who hold reaching out: after I purchased the franchise to launch @weareangelcity in 2019, I did not setup board management for myself. (One of many arduous classes I realized as a first-time sports activities staff proprietor). But as I’ve stated from soar, I’m not promoting any shares in…
— Alexis Ohanian 🇦🇲 (@alexisohanian) July 3, 2024
The membership additionally added dozens of smaller buyers, amongst them former USWNT gamers, together with Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Lauren Holiday, in addition to celebrities and different well-known athletes, reminiscent of Billie Jean King, Jennifer Garner and Uzo Aduba.
Angel City has largely struggled on the sphere since beginning play in 2022 — although they did make the 2023 NWSL playoffs earlier than being knocked out within the first spherical — however the staff has been a runaway success from a enterprise perspective.
Wednesday’s $250million valuation is a large step up from final 12 months’s Sportico figures, which Angel City led at $180m, and the Los Angeles membership laps the remainder of the NWSL in income. It makes greater than $30m a 12 months, about double that of the subsequent highest, fellow Californians San Diego Wave.
This 12 months, Angel City’s 4 major homeowners voted to rent New York funding financial institution Moelis & Company to discover a new controlling proprietor, with that call turning into public in March after stories of squabbling among the many board. Four months later, the board collectively introduced the membership’s sale to Bay and Iger, however particular person founding homeowners weren’t made out there to the media.
“Willow and Bob deliver unparalleled operational expertise, experience and keenness to Angel City and the NWSL,” the membership assertion begins.
“They are the appropriate companions to steer us into this new period — they’re dedicated to strengthening Angel City’s place as a preeminent group and model in ladies’s sports activities and to championing the staff’s broader mission, together with the development of fairness for athletes and women-founded companies.
“With their management, we are going to proceed to harness the trade’s momentum and construct on Angel City’s robust basis of fan and neighborhood help.”
Portman, Uhrman, Ohanian and one other early investor and board member, Gillian Berry, will proceed their roles on the board as soon as the sale is accomplished. But Bay will quickly be on the head of the desk, together with Iger, hoping to advance the present Angel City mission. Bay believes that the work forward have to be completed as a part of a area people, whilst Angel City’s attain extends globally.
“We’re dedicated to doing no matter it requires — leveraging experience, capital and our networks to proceed constructing and elevating this franchise on and off the pitch,” Bay stated on Tuesday
Natalie Portman, Julie Uhrman and Kara Nortman in 2023 (Allison Zaucha/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)
When Angel City unveiled itself as a brand new NWSL enlargement staff 4 years in the past, nobody may have predicted that it might be up for a $250million sale, even with all the joy of Hollywood connections, USWNT star energy, and the anticipation for the return of girls’s skilled soccer to Los Angeles for the primary time since 2010.
The staff introduced in ahead Christen Press as their first signing, then pulled out all of the stops for his or her residence opener in May 2022, with a sold-out crowd of twenty-two,000 watching them eke out a win over North Carolina Courage.
“What you see right here (with Angel City) is a mix of so many individuals getting collectively and going, ‘No. It may be totally different. It may be this, don’t do that’. We could make this no matter we would like,” Wambach stated earlier than that 2-1 victory.
That’s largely been the story of Angel City’s method: leverage the information and experiences of Wambach, Hamm and the remaining throughout varied former leagues — WUSA, WPS, even the early days of the NWSL — then mix it with the ambition of recent buyers who’re sure by the historic concern of a league folding too quickly. For essentially the most half, it has labored — although not completely.
Chief among the many criticisms of Angel City has been that the membership has been extra excited about constructing a model than an precise soccer staff. While a lot of the staff’s early language has been scrubbed from its web site, the business-centric theme remains to be current within the web page description for its on-line retailer: “Angel City isn’t just one other soccer membership. We’re a model on a mission to make a distinction on this world. We’re born of the streets of Los Angeles and stand side-by-side with our neighborhood.”
Angel City’s Claire Emslie, left, celebrates her aim towards NJ/NY Gotham in 2022 (Ira L Black – Corbis/Getty Images)
Since March, nevertheless, the staff has been adopted by stories of infighting on its board because it determined to discover a new controlling proprietor.
The Los Angeles Times reported Ohanian was sad over the staff’s spending. This week, The Wall Street Journal went in-depth on energy struggles inside Angel City’s management, primarily between Ohanian and Uhrman. According to that report, inside paperwork present staff officers complained about Uhrman’s “monetary and personnel administration”, with Ohanian cited as having considerations over her spending, the hiring of her sister as a staff government, and her temperament.
The Wall Street Journal additionally reported there may be disagreement over Uhrman persevering with because the staff’s president. That determination would fall to Bay as the brand new controlling proprietor, with Uhrman herself mentioning that within the Journal’s story. However, Wednesday’s affirmation that Uhrman (and Ohanian) will stay on the board following the sale’s closure exhibits she is going to nonetheless have some function with the staff shifting ahead.
Still, there was all the time going to be unimaginable curiosity within the membership’s controlling stake because of the expansion of Angel City, the NWSL and ladies’s sports activities as a complete.
Angel City had the NWSL’s highest attendance in 2022, was barely off San Diego Wave’s tempo the next 12 months, and leads the league once more in 2024. According to the membership, in addition they high the league in season ticket membership and sponsorship income.
“We’re going to be the primary ladies’s staff to have a billion-dollar valuation in 5 years,” Uhrman instructed The Athletic final 12 months. “There’s no higher funding right this moment than ladies’s sports activities.”
On the league entrance, when Angel City was nonetheless constructing its possession group in 2019, staff valuations had not but exploded. In December of that 12 months, OL Groupe purchased out Seattle Reign for just $3.5million. Last month, when a bunch led by Seattle Sounders of MLS and funding agency Carlyle finalized its buy of the Reign from OL Groupe, it was for $58m. Just earlier than the Angel City information broke in March concerning the seek for a brand new controlling proprietor, San Diego Wave bought for $120m.
Valuations can’t be considered in a vacuum, nevertheless, with media rights, services, attendance and different metrics weighing in. The NWSL has loved excellent news on these fronts, too, whether or not it’s the purpose-built stadium in Kansas City, final 12 months’s media-rights offers, or will increase in attendance and engagement figures in 2024.
Women’s sports activities, basically, are having an prolonged second.
Global monetary firm Deloitte needed to revise its preliminary predictions on ladies’s sports activities income, predicting that 2024 could be the 12 months that it would surpass $1 billion. North America is anticipated to account for 52 p.c of that income, with soccer’s income forecast determine ($555m) the very best amongst all sports activities.
It is no surprise that there have been bidders, although a consultant of Bay’s declined to touch upon different bids or the bidding course of itself. Marc Lasry, former proprietor of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and CEO of Avenue Capital Group, in addition to Avram Glazer, half proprietor of the Premier League’s Manchester United and the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had been linked as potential bidders, with sources confirming to The Athletic this month that Glazer had pursued Angel City’s controlling curiosity.
The Bay-Iger bid emerged as the favourite this month, with the deal already near completion.
It is simple to imagine that Angel City — a product of the connections shaped between ladies — would desire a girl as its controlling proprietor, they might do one step higher: somebody who had been a fan since day one.
“The staff has been on our radar since its inception,” Bay stated, calling herself and Iger, her husband, members of the Angel City neighborhood — however she additionally knew two of the founding buyers, Uhrman and Nortman, so she took specific curiosity of their new challenge. Bay and Iger have attended video games, however Bay has gone additional and included Angel City in her function as a professor on the University of Southern California.
“I deliver college students as a part of my sports activities class to go to Angel City, to study concerning the trajectory of the staff and its growth,” she stated, including she has additionally hosted the staff’s co-founders on campus. “It’s necessary to supply a platform to this staff, a part of this neighborhood, and these ladies who’ve helped create it.”
Bay, who has a prolonged media and journalism resume that spans Huffington Post, Good Morning America, Moneyline, the Today Show and NBA Inside Stuff, loves a story.
“This is a superb enterprise story, an incredible sports activities story, an incredible neighborhood story, and definitely an incredible story about driving fairness with a purpose-driven model,” she stated. “So for all these causes, I’ve adopted this staff for the reason that starting.”
Asked about altering her mindset from fan to proprietor, Bay didn’t wish to get into too many specifics concerning the membership’s new day-to-day. To her, there may be time forward to dig into priorities, strategic planning and the choices that should be made. The sale is a month or two from being finalized, and he or she’s nonetheless embracing the second to have fun. Bay is in big-picture mode, not the nitty-gritty logistics.
Bob Iger and Willow Bay on the Academy Awards in March (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
That stated, the acquisition of Angel City has repercussions past simply the membership. Bay shall be one in every of 15 (ultimately 16, as soon as the subsequent enlargement staff is chosen) governors who might help form the league’s future.
“There have by no means been limits for this staff,” Bay stated. “That additionally applies to the NWSL, with this new infusion of power, capital sources, and unimaginable individuals becoming a member of this possession group. There are actually no limits to what we are able to anticipate from these athletes.”
One of these athletes, Press, addressed the participant facet of the sale, acknowledging that the staff does have “plenty of issues that they should get proper”. The deal — plus that additional $50million of funding — means some huge cash is about to movement in.
“It permits the membership to proceed to professionalize. Angel City acknowledges that they’ve plenty of room to develop on that finish,” Press instructed The Athletic this month.
Angel City’s Christen Press in 2022 (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
While Bay promised the specifics of priorities would come later, she did say that services are completely on the listing, “significantly with participant growth and participant help”.
That’s not new data. The Bay-Iger group’s pitch deck, acquired by information web site Semafor, exhibits that the group needs to “enhance staff efficiency, participant help and retention”, which does embody a coaching facility — however Bay and Iger additionally supply their experience on media, content material creation, and managing manufacturers.
A pitch deck is one factor, actuality may be one other. Bay, unsurprisingly, stated the primary couple of months as soon as the sale closes shall be full of plenty of listening.
“It’s untimely to even speculate about the place we land first and what we do first, however we’re dedicated to listening, understanding the place the alternatives are, then making selections about the best way to prioritize sources,” she stated. Player help and growth throughout the board, together with gamers, technical employees and entrance workplace employees, are areas they’ve already circled.
As of Wednesday, they’re one step nearer to the true work forward.
(Top photograph: Angel City in latest motion towards guests San Diego Wave; Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
