Haslam Sports Group paid $205 million to bring the National Women's Soccer League's 18th franchise to Columbus, eclipsing every prior women's professional sports expansion fee and landing within sight of recent NBA team valuations. The fee—announced with the franchise reveal—marks the third NWSL expansion in eighteen months and establishes a new ceiling for women's team acquisition costs across all leagues.
The Columbus number is five times the $40 million Atlanta Spirit paid for NWSL expansion rights in early 2024. It sits 82% higher than the $113 million Portland and Toronto each paid the WNBA for franchises that began play this past weekend. The NWSL collected $450 million in expansion fees since January 2024 across four markets—Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, and now Columbus—before media-rights negotiations with broadcasters have formally closed. The league's next domestic media deal, expected before September, will price against a 14-team footprint that includes those new markets.
The Haslam bid reflects two converging forces: scarcity and operator quality. The NWSL has publicly stated it will pause expansion after reaching 18 teams by 2028, meaning Columbus closes a narrow acquisition window. Haslam Sports Group—controllers of the Cleveland Browns and minority stakeholders in the Milwaukee Bucks—brings NFL-adjacent sponsorship relationships and a regional sports network partnership with Bally Sports Ohio. The Columbus Crew MLS franchise, also Haslam-owned, shares the same 20,000-seat Lower.com Field that the NWSL side will occupy, creating immediate venue cost leverage and doubleheader inventory for corporate hospitality.
The fee structure signals institutional confidence in women's soccer attendance economics. NWSL average attendance rose 28% year-over-year in 2025, hitting 11,200 per match, while the league's previous expansion class—Boston and San Francisco, each paying $53 million in early 2024—both averaged above 15,000 in their inaugural seasons. Columbus sits within a two-hour drive of 8.2 million people and has no in-market WNBA competition. The Crew averaged 20,100 MLS fans per game last season; the NWSL franchise will target 12,000 as a break-even threshold, per people familiar with the business plan.
The WNBA's Toronto and Portland expansions—at $113 million each—doubled the $50 million Golden State paid in 2023, but still trail the NWSL's Columbus number. That gap reflects differing league structures: the WNBA shares revenue centrally and limits local sponsorship retention, while NWSL teams keep 100% of local sponsorship and ticket revenue. Columbus can monetize jersey patches, training-kit deals, and regional broadcast windows without league splits, creating higher terminal valuations for operators who control venue inventory.
Haslam Sports Group will name a general manager before July and a head coach before September, per the standard NWSL expansion timeline. The team begins play in March 2027, giving the front office ten months to build a roster through a combination of expansion draft picks and international signings. The league will conduct the Columbus expansion draft in December 2026, requiring existing teams to protect 11 players each.
The Columbus announcement arrives as the NWSL negotiates its next media-rights package, with Apple, ESPN, and Amazon all submitting bids. The league's current deal pays $45 million annually; people close to the talks expect the next contract to exceed $150 million per year, a 233% increase driven by the new markets and rising match attendance. Broadcast partners will price against 18 teams and 234 regular-season matches starting in 2028, up from 156 matches in 2024.
The Columbus fee also establishes a reference price for the NWSL's final two expansion slots, which the league has reserved for international markets. Commissioner Jessica Berman told investors in March that the league would consider London and Toronto for teams 19 and 20, with decisions expected by late 2027. If those markets match or exceed the Columbus price, the NWSL will have collected more than $860 million in expansion fees in under four years—a sum that exceeds the league's aggregate team payroll from its founding in 2013 through 2023.
The Haslam announcement gives the NWSL six ownership groups with NFL equity, four with MLS ties, and three backed by private equity. That operator composition mirrors the WNBA's recent expansion class, where four of the last five new franchises came from NBA ownership groups. The pattern reflects a broader shift: women's team sports are no longer speculative bets but portfolio additions for established operators managing multi-venue, multi-league assets.
The Columbus franchise will compete directly with the Chicago Red Stars, Louisville Racing, and future Cleveland MLS markets for regional corporate sponsorships. The Crew's current jersey sponsor, Lower.com, paid an estimated $6 million annually for naming rights; the NWSL team will likely price its chest patch between $2 million and $4 million, per people familiar with comparable deals.
The takeaway
Columbus's $205M NWSL fee is the highest in women's sports history, pricing scarcity in an 18-team league cap before media rights close.
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