When a group of investors paid a $110 million expansion fee in January 2025 to bring an NWSL team to Denver, it shattered records for North American women’s pro sports.
That was more than double the previous NWSL expansion price, the $53 million paid by Bay FC and Boston’s ownership group for expansion teams awarded in 2023. Meanwhile, just one year before that, the Wave formed with an expansion fee of only $2 million.
So when the group featuring Ariel Investments paid that $110 million fee for the Summit, Jason Wright—who now runs Ariel’s Project Level investment fund focused on women’s sports—says people thought “oh my gosh, we’re way past the value.”
But just 10 months later, last November, the bar was raised again when Arthur Blank paid $165 million for an NWSL team in Atlanta. Only five months after that, the Haslams paid $205 million for a team in Columbus.
That’s just one indicator of why Wright, the former NFL player and Commanders president, thinks the investment case for women’s sports is still accelerating.
