The NWSL awarded its 18th franchise to Columbus on Monday at a $205 million expansion fee, paid by Haslam Sports Group and the Edwards family. That is $40 million more than the $165 million Atlanta paid in November 2025, five months ago. The team begins play in 2028.
Haslam Sports Group owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns and MLS's Columbus Crew. The Edwards family holds minority stakes in both clubs. The Columbus bid emerged in January, weeks after Atlanta's fee was reported. The NWSL opened formal bidding in March. By April, Columbus had won. The league did not disclose competing bids, but two people familiar with the process said Cincinnati and Nashville submitted letters of interest without formal proposals.
The 24 percent increase over Atlanta's fee in five months signals two dynamics. First, the league's media rights deal with ESPN, CBS, and Amazon—signed in August 2024 for $240 million over four years—continues to pull institutional capital into the sport. Second, the Haslams are paying for optionality. Columbus already has a purpose-built stadium in Lower.com Field, home to the Crew, with 20,371 seats. The NWSL team will play there until a dedicated venue is built, likely by 2030. The Crew's average attendance in 2025 was 20,088. The NWSL's league average was 11,250. The Haslams are betting they can fill the gap with cross-promotion and a single marketing budget.
The fee also reflects the league's scarcity model. The NWSL has added five teams since 2022—Bay FC, Utah Royals (reboot), Boston, Atlanta, and now Columbus. That puts the league at 18 teams by 2028, two short of the 20-team cap the league set internally in 2023. Two slots remain. The next bidding cycle opens in 2027, and the valuation floor is now $205 million. Family offices and PE shops sizing women's sports allocations are watching. The Haslams just told them the price only moves one direction.
The Columbus franchise will share infrastructure with the Crew—front office, training facilities, analytics staff. That reduces operational burn by an estimated $8 million to $12 million annually, according to one person familiar with the Haslams' budget. It also creates a natural pipeline for sponsorship bundling. Nationwide, a Columbus-based insurer, holds naming rights to the Crew's former stadium and has been in early talks about a kit deal with the NWSL team, per two people briefed on the discussions. The team has not yet hired a general manager or head coach, but the Crew's front office has begun informal outreach to candidates.
Watch the coaching hire. The Haslams are expected to announce a GM by July and a head coach by September, per one person close to the ownership group. The league's CBA allows teams to carry three players above the salary cap via allocation money, and Columbus is expected to use all three slots for U.S. Women's National Team players returning from the 2027 World Cup. The team's first kit launch is scheduled for early 2028, likely February, timed to the league's preseason. Nationwide's sponsorship talks include stadium signage and a potential naming-rights extension to the NWSL team's future venue, expected to break ground in 2029.
The takeaway
Columbus paid $205M for NWSL's 18th slot, resetting the floor $40M above Atlanta's November bid and leaving two franchise slots before the league's 20-team cap.
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