Major League Volleyball awarded its tenth franchise to Los Angeles on May 29, with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Ben Priest, and Alisha Childress leading the ownership group. The team begins play in the 2027 season. League sources place the expansion fee near $15 million, roughly double the $7-8 million paid by Columbus and Atlanta groups in 2024.
Soon-Shiong owns the Los Angeles Times and holds a minority stake in the Lakers through a $50 million 2010 investment. Priest runs NantWorks' sports ventures; Childress comes from USA Volleyball's commercial side and spent three years at WME Sports. The trio will operate the franchise independently, not under the Times masthead, though the paper's promotional inventory becomes an obvious arbitrage lever. No venue announcement yet. The league's other California team, San Diego, plays at a 5,200-seat university arena and averages 3,800 paid attendance.
MLV launched in 2022 with six teams and has added four since, all in metros with existing WNBA, NWSL, or NCAA powerhouse volleyball programs. Los Angeles is the first major market without an incumbent pro women's team since the Sparks. The timing aligns with a broader shift in women's sports economics: NWSL expansion fees jumped from $2 million in 2019 to $53 million for BOS Nation FC in 2024. WNBA's Golden State franchise sold for a reported $50 million in 2023. MLV's valuation curve is earlier but tracking the same slope.
The league plays a 14-match regular season from January through March, positioned in the NCAA offseason when club volleyball runs year-round clinics and college stars can moonlight. Broadcast is linear-light: matches stream on Volleyball World TV with occasional CBS Sports Network windows. Sponsorship is category-sparse but defensible—Michelob Ultra, Hyperice, a handful of apparel deals. The economic model resembles early-stage NWSL more than WNBA's NBA subsidy structure. Owners fund operations; the league sells centralized media and takes a rake.
Soon-Shiong's involvement matters less for his capital—he has $8 billion in biopharma proceeds—and more for the signal it sends family offices and sports adjacents. A billionaire with NBA and newspaper assets doesn't write a $15 million check for novelty. The play is land-grab valuation upside if women's pro sports continue compressing the time from launch to institutional sale. BOS Nation paid 26x what early NWSL teams cost. If MLV reaches similar multiples over the next cycle, the Los Angeles franchise underwrites itself on exit alone.
Priest and Childress handle operations, which means Soon-Shiong is the name on the term sheet but unlikely to sit in lineup meetings. Childress's USA Volleyball background gives the team a recruiting edge in a league where 60% of rosters are current or recent NCAA All-Americans. Priest's NantWorks role suggests the franchise may test sports tech integrations—biometric tracking, fan engagement tools, the usual startup theater—but the core business is ticket sales and local sponsorship.
The league has not disclosed its aggregate revenue, but back-of-envelope math using attendance, ticket pricing, and disclosed sponsorships suggests MLV generates $12-15 million annually across ten teams. That's break-even or slightly unprofitable depending on travel costs and player salary structures, which the league does not publish. The expansion fee revenue—$30 million from Columbus, Atlanta, and now Los Angeles over two years—funds league operations and smooths early losses.
What to watch: venue announcement by August, likely a 4,000-6,000 seat college or minor-league basketball facility in the South Bay or near USC. Head coach and GM hires by October, pulled from NCAA or international club circuits. Sponsorship deals by November, focused on LA-based consumer brands looking for cheaper inventory than Sparks or Galaxy. The league's next media rights cycle begins in 2028; adding Los Angeles before that negotiation was the only move that made sense.
Soon-Shiong's Lakers stake has appreciated roughly 6x since 2010. The Los Angeles Times loses $30-40 million per year and pays for access, not returns. The MLV franchise sits between those poles: a calculated bet that women's sports franchises in major markets become scarce assets faster than the league's underlying economics justify. The expansion fee is rounding error. The question is whether institutional buyers show up before the league needs another capital call.
The takeaway
Los Angeles MLV franchise at **$15M** signals family offices are pricing women's pro sports on scarcity, not current revenue.
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