The National Women's Soccer League awarded its eighteenth franchise to Columbus on Tuesday for an expansion fee of $205 million, paid by Jimmy Haslam's ownership group behind MLS side Columbus Crew. The team begins play in 2028, three years after the league's most recent entrants in Boston and Denver joined for fees around $100 million apiece.
The Haslam family—Jimmy owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns and a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks—will control the franchise through Haslam Sports Group, the same entity managing the Crew. The Columbus franchise becomes the second NWSL club owned by an MLS operator after Angel City FC's connection to LAFC through shared investor networks. The $205 million figure represents a 105 percent premium over what Denver and Boston paid in 2024, and more than quadruples the $50 million Sacramento Republic FC paid to enter in 2023. Atlanta, awarded expansion rights in October, paid an undisclosed fee pegged by league sources near $175 million.
The valuation jump matters because it resets the floor for future expansion conversations. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters in January the league would cap growth at 20 teams by 2030, leaving two slots open after Columbus. Cincinnati and Philadelphia are understood to be preparing bids. The league's new media rights deal with CBS, ESPN, and Prime Video—worth $240 million over four years starting in 2023—gives prospective owners revenue visibility that didn't exist when Racing Louisville paid $2 million to join in 2021. The Columbus fee also reflects the stadium-first posture the league adopted after early teams played in minor-league baseball parks and training facilities. Columbus will share Lower.com Field, the Crew's $314 million venue opened in 2021, avoiding the $50 million to $80 million cost of a standalone women's soccer stadium.
The Haslams are installing Dee Haslam—Jimmy's wife and Browns minority owner—as the franchise's lead governor, following the Angel City and San Diego Wave precedent of centering women executives. The Columbus bid includes former U.S. women's national team captain Julie Ertz, who retired in 2023 and lives in Arizona but was born in Mesa County, Ohio. Ertz's involvement is cosmetic for now—no operational role was disclosed—but provides the investor-relations narrative NWSL ownership groups use to secure local sponsorships. Angel City raised $100 million in equity before its first match, partly by attaching Natalie Portman and Serena Williams to the cap table.
The timeline matters as much as the check. By launching in 2028, Columbus skips the league's expected media rights renegotiation in 2027, when analysts expect the domestic package to at least double based on NWSL Championship viewership that hit 1.1 million on CBS in 2024, a 47 percent increase over 2023. The franchise will miss three years of operating losses—Boston and Denver are projected to lose $8 million to $12 million each in year one—but enters when the revenue model is mature. The Haslams also avoid the roster-building chaos of an inaugural draft. By 2028, the league will have negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement; the current CBA expires after the 2026 season, and players are expected to push median salaries past $75,000 from today's $48,500.
The Columbus market was always a question of when, not if. The city hosted a SheBelieves Cup match in February that drew 19,490 fans to Lower.com Field, the largest crowd for a U.S. women's national team friendly outside a World Cup year since 2021. Crew president Tim Bezbatchenko, who stays in his MLS role, told reporters the franchise will hire a separate NWSL president and general manager by the end of 2025. The organization has begun staffing a community relations team focused on central Ohio youth clubs, where girls' registration grew 18 percent between 2020 and 2023 according to Ohio Youth Soccer.
The Haslam family's track record is uneven. Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns in 2012 for $1.05 billion and has cycled through seven head coaches in twelve years, though the team's franchise valuation has climbed to $5.2 billion per Forbes. Dee Haslam's operational imprint is lighter but includes oversight of the Browns' analytics department, which advised on the Deshaun Watson contract now regarded as the worst quarterback deal in the league. The NWSL bet is simpler: own the stadium, share back-office infrastructure with the Crew, and let media rights lift all boats.
Watch for the franchise's branding rollout in the first quarter of 2026, when the league will announce a kit manufacturer and likely a founding sponsor. The coaching hire follows six months later, giving the front office time to scout the 2026 and 2027 NWSL seasons. Cincinnati and Philadelphia are expected to submit formal expansion bids by mid-2025, with the league targeting one or both for a 2029 launch. The $205 million Columbus paid sets their entry price, and the league has no reason to negotiate down.
The takeaway
Columbus's **$205 million** expansion fee doubles valuations from 2024 and sets the baseline for Cincinnati and Philadelphia bids expected by mid-2025.
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