National Women's Soccer League owners own a share in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and have the right to operate a team. Players' rights to play in the league are held an individual team. [1] Each NWSL team has an investor-operator that is a shareholder in the league. The league has a profit-sharing arrangement amongst the teams. [2]
As of April 2023 [update] , the league has 14 investor-operator individuals or groups for its 12 current and 2 future clubs.
Angel City FC was founded in 2020 by Kara Nortman, Natalie Portman, Alexis Ohanian, and Julie Uhrman. [3] Other notable investors include: [4] [3]
Arnim Whisler was a co-founding owner of the Chicago Red Stars in 2007 in the Women's Professional Soccer, the top American league at the time. [8] [9] He was owner of the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL from the inception of the league in 2012 [10] until September 1, 2023, when Whisler and all minority owners of the Red Stars sold their stakes to an investment group led by Laura Ricketts, which included Debra Cafaro, Jennifer Pritzker, and Hilary Rosen. [11] [12]
The majority owner of the Houston Dash is Ted Segal. [13]
Other investors include Gabriel Brener, Oscar De La Hoya, Jake Silverstein, and Ben Guill. [14]
James Harden joined the ownership group in 2019. [15]
Lead investors of the Kansas City Current are Angie and Chris Long. Other minority investors include Jen Gulvik and Brittany Matthews and her husband Patrick Mahomes. [16] (2020–present; started play in 2021) [17]
The founding investor of NJ/NY Gotham FC is Thomas Hofstetter [18] Since 2012, majority owners have included Tammy Murphy, Phil Murphy, Steven Temares. [19] In 2020, Ed Nalbandian joined as a minority owner. [20] In 2022, Kristin Bernert, Karen Bryant, Carli Lloyd, Sue Bird, Kevin Durant, and Rich Kleiman joined as minority owners. [21] [22] [23] [24]
Since 2017, Steve Malik has been the majority and managing owner of the North Carolina Courage and served as its chairman. [25]