Haslam Sports Group—owners of the NFL's Cleveland Browns and MLS's Columbus Crew—has acquired the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise for $205 million, the highest expansion fee ever paid for a women's professional sports team. The Columbus team will begin play in 2028, five years after the Crew moved into a $314 million stadium built with $50 million in public money.
The NWSL awarded Boston and Denver expansion teams in late 2024 for $53 million each. Atlanta followed in December 2024 at $165 million—a number that raised quiet questions inside the league office about whether the valuation could hold. The Columbus deal confirms it. Atlanta's full payment was structured with contingencies tied to the next franchise sale; Haslam's $205 million wire removes those conditions. League revenue-sharing now assumes an 18-team footprint through 2028, with per-team distributions rising accordingly.
The Haslams control one of the few NFL-MLS ownership pairs, and Columbus is already the smallest market in MLS by metro population. The bet here is venue efficiency: the Crew's Lower.com Field seats 20,000, and the NWSL team will play there. MLS stadiums hosting NWSL teams typically draw 8,000–12,000 per match; Columbus Crew averaged 20,341 in 2024. The margin on a half-full soccer-specific stadium is better than a quarter-full NFL bowl. Haslam Sports Group also operates the Crew's jersey sponsorship (Field) and kit deal (Adidas), both of which now cover two teams sharing the same match calendar and sponsor hospitality windows.
The $205 million fee resets the valuation floor for the next round of expansion, which the league has indicated will pause after Columbus. The NWSL is now an 18-team league with five expansion franchises added since 2023—Utah, Bay FC, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, and Columbus. Each raised the price. Institutional buyers who passed on Boston at $53 million are now pricing secondary stakes in existing clubs against a $205 million primary-market comp. Gotham FC sold for $50 million in 2023; Angel City raised at a $250 million post-money valuation that same year. The Columbus number suggests the midpoint for an existing playoff-contending team is now $180–$220 million.
The Haslams are also notable for their operational history. DEP—Dee and Jimmy Haslam's holding company—owns Pilot Flying J, the truck-stop chain that paid $92 million in criminal penalties in 2014 after a fuel-rebate fraud investigation. Jimmy Haslam has been Cleveland Browns owner since 2012; the team has posted two winning seasons in 13 years and burned through seven head coaches. The Columbus Crew, purchased in 2018 after a relocation fight, has been more stable: one MLS Cup in 2020, another in 2023, consistent playoff appearances, and a front-office reputation for signing Designated Players at below-market rates. The NWSL president who negotiated this deal, Amanda Duffy, spent 2018–2020 as Crew president. She knows the ownership group's budgeting cadence and risk appetite.
The NWSL's CBA expires after the 2027 season. The Columbus team begins play in 2028, one season into the next labor deal. Player salary pools have doubled since 2022, and the union has already filed equal-pay grievances tied to FIFA prize-money payouts. A $205 million expansion fee does two things for collective bargaining: it raises the league's enterprise valuation in arbitration models, and it ensures the players' share of media revenue is calculated against a bigger denominator. The next CBA will determine whether expansion fees flow into revenue-sharing buckets or stay with the owners.
Watch for Haslam's general manager hire in the next 90 days. The Crew's front office is led by president/GM Tim Bezbatchenko, who has no women's soccer background. The NWSL team will likely operate as a parallel entity under the Haslam Sports Group umbrella, not a Crew subsidiary. Also watch for kit and jersey announcements before the 2026 expansion draft. Lower.com—a mortgage technology company—paid $11 million per year for Crew naming rights in 2021; that deal runs through 2031. A second team playing in the same venue makes the naming asset more valuable, and Lower.com has a 12-month window to renegotiate before the NWSL team's brand launch.
The Columbus announcement arrives three weeks before the NWSL's new media rights deal begins. CBS and ESPN will pay a combined $240 million over five years—$48 million annually, up from $1.5 million under the previous contract. The league has now collected $793 million in expansion fees since 2023. That is 3.3 times the total value of the media contract.
The takeaway
Columbus pays **$205M** for 2028 NWSL entry—highest women's sports fee ever—locking in Atlanta's payment and resetting franchise comps by **24%** over six months.
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