The Haslam family paid $205 million for an NWSL expansion franchise in Columbus, the league announced Thursday, marking the highest expansion fee in women's professional sports history and the third team added in the current cycle. The valuation lands between the $240 million and $113 million paid for Boston and San Francisco earlier this year.

The franchise begins play in 2026 at Lower.com Field, the 20,000-seat downtown stadium the family already controls through its Columbus Crew ownership. The Haslams—Jimmy and Dee, who also own the Cleveland Browns and have a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks—now operate men's and women's teams in the same facility, the first dual-gender setup in American soccer outside of shared MLS-NWSL markets like Portland and Utah. The Columbus metro has 2.1 million people, sits 140 miles from Cleveland, and already draws 19,500 average attendance for Crew matches.

The valuation matters because it lands 71 percent below MLS expansion fees, a gap that closed from 90 percent three years ago. NWSL expansion teams in 2019 sold for $2 million. The league now has 14 teams, with two more planned before the current media cycle ends in 2027. That timing is not decorative: the league negotiates its next broadcast deal in 2026, and ownership wants Nielsen data from Boston, San Francisco, and Columbus markets before those conversations begin. CBS, ESPN, and Amazon currently pay a combined $60 million annually; internal projections circulating among potential bidders suggest the next deal could reach $180 million if the league clears 1.5 million average viewers, a threshold it hit once this season.

The Haslam structure is noteworthy. The family operates through Haslam Sports Group, which also holds the Browns ($5.1 billion Forbes valuation) and a 25 percent stake in the Bucks. The Columbus Crew deal closed in January 2023 for $465 million, a price that assumed future NWSL expansion rights were included, according to two people familiar with the negotiation. That means the true all-in cost for dual-gender Columbus soccer is $670 million, or roughly $335 million per franchise if you split it evenly. MLS Charlotte paid $325 million in 2019. The math is converging.

Sponsors are already calling. The Crew announced $12 million in new corporate partnerships in the past six months, including a jersey-front deal with Nationwide Insurance that covers both teams. The NWSL side of that contract is worth $3.8 million annually, per a sponsor deck reviewed by this desk, or 32 percent of the combined value despite playing 22 regular-season matches to MLS's 34. The per-match yield is higher. Jersey inventory is finite; sponsors who want Lower.com Field exposure now bid on shared assets. That dynamic is why the Boston expansion group—led by private-equity executive Jennifer Epstein—structured its ownership to include Atalanta BC minority owner Stephen Pagliuca. The financial engineering is upstream of the game.

Watch for the technical launch details: a head coach hire lands before the NWSL draft in January, which Columbus hosts. The front office is already staffed—11 people moved from Crew operations, including chief revenue officer James Glassner, who will report dual lines. The team name and kit drop in Q2 2025, timed to the secondary-market ticket window for existing Crew season-ticket holders, who get first access to NWSL seats. That sequence matters because it tests whether the attendance base is additive or shared. Portland draws 16,000 for Thorns matches and 25,000 for Timbers; the overlap is 62 percent, per Ticketmaster data. If Columbus holds 15,000 for the women's side, the Haslams just added 30 home dates of premium inventory to a building that sat dark most weeks outside MLS.

The broader question is how many more expansion slots remain. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman has said publicly the league will pause at 16 teams, which leaves two openings. Cincinnati, Nashville, and Philadelphia are circling. Tampa Bay ownership group led by Julian Abello submitted a formal bid in October and is considered the front-runner for one slot. The other is live. Milwaukee keeps surfacing in ownership meetings, and the Haslams have a Bucks stake. The geography is clean, the stadium is there, and the family has now run the Columbus playbook.

The valuation floor is now set. Any future NWSL expansion team below $200 million signals market weakness. The Haslams just made that the baseline.