Haslam Sports Group is paying $205 million to place the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise in Columbus, a $40 million premium over the Atlanta expansion fee announced in November and the third record in the league's accelerating valuation cycle.
The Columbus award puts the NWSL expansion price 24% above Atlanta's $165 million bid just five months ago. Before that, Atlanta had eclipsed Boston's $108 million fee from February 2024 by 53%. The curve is steeper than MLS, where expansion fees rose from $150 million in 2017 to $325 million for Charlotte in 2019—a 117% increase over two years, but across a longer timeframe and into larger markets. Columbus is metro population 2.1 million. Atlanta is 6.1 million. The NWSL is pricing scarcity, not just population.
Haslam Sports Group already owns the Columbus Crew and Cleveland Browns, both under the Dee and Jimmy Haslam family office. The NWSL franchise sits inside the same operating structure that runs Lower.com Field, the $314 million stadium that opened in 2021 and seats 20,011 for Crew matches. The women's team will share the venue, which means no separate capital raise for infrastructure and immediate access to corporate hospitality inventory already being sold to Nationwide, Accenture, and OhioHealth. The Crew averaged 20,508 paid attendance in 2025, sixth in MLS. The NWSL's San Diego Wave, playing in a 35,000-seat stadium, averaged 17,142 in 2025, league-high by 4,000. Lower.com Field is sized correctly.
The fee itself is a bet on two things: national media and local sponsorship velocity. The NWSL's next media deal, expiring after the 2027 season, is expected to exceed the current $60 million annually from CBS and ESPN. The league is in early conversations with Amazon, Apple, and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to two people with knowledge of the process. A $150 million annual package—2.5x the current deal—would still be one-tenth of MLS's $2.5 billion over 10 years with Apple, but MLS has 30 teams and the NWSL will have 18 by 2026. On a per-team basis, the math tightens. The NWSL also benefits from FIFA structuring: the 2027 Women's World Cup is in Brazil, the 2031 edition is in the United States. National team cycles create audience momentum that sponsors can't buy in men's leagues outside World Cup years.
Locally, Columbus is already proven. The Crew's jersey sponsorship with Lower.com is worth $6 million annually, low-middle for MLS but high for a market of Columbus's size. OhioHealth, a $7 billion health system, sponsors both the Crew and Ohio State athletics. Nationwide, headquartered 1.2 miles from Lower.com Field, has the naming rights to the Blue Jackets' arena and sponsorship inventory with the Crew. The NWSL team walks into conversations where the relationship infrastructure is already installed. That's worth $3 million to $5 million in Year One sponsorship, based on comparables from Bay FC and Utah Royals, both of which launched into similar shared-ownership environments.
The Haslams are not flipping this. Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns for $1.05 billion in 2012; the team is now worth $5.2 billion, per Forbes. The Crew was acquired for $150 million in 2018 and is worth $680 million today. The NWSL franchise is the same structure: buy in while the league is subscale, hold through media cycles, exit into a market where private equity is paying 8x to 10x revenue for women's sports assets. Sixth Street paid $100 million for a 15% stake in the NWSL in 2024, implying a league valuation of $667 million. At 18 teams, that's $37 million per team. Columbus is paying $205 million for a team that—on Sixth Street's math—should be worth $37 million. The Haslams are underwriting 5.5 years of appreciation before breakeven, assuming zero revenue growth. Revenue will not be zero.
What to watch: NWSL head coach and general manager appointments typically come 90 to 120 days after expansion awards, so expect Columbus to name leadership by late July. The league's 2026 schedule will be released in December, and Columbus will begin play in 2027. The next media deal will be announced before the 2026 season starts, likely in January. If that number exceeds $120 million annually, expect two more expansion fees before 2028, and expect them to clear $250 million.
The Columbus fee is not an outlier. It's the market clearing.
The takeaway
Columbus's **$205M** NWSL fee—**24%** above Atlanta's five months ago—prices scarcity ahead of a **2027** media deal expected to exceed **$120M** annually.
nwslexpansionhaslam sports groupcolumbusvaluationmedia rights
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