Columbus, Ohio will be the home of the NWSL’s next expansion team, the league and team ownership announced on Tuesday.
The 18th team in the top US women’s professional soccer league will be owned by the same consortium that runs the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. That collection of owners is led by Haslam Sports Group (HSG), which also owns the Cleveland Browns of the NFL and a stake in the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
The team will begin play in 2028, the same year as the NWSL’s incoming Atlanta franchise owned by Arthur Blank, owner of MLS’s Atlanta United and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. The yet-to-be-named Columbus team will play at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, the 20,000-capacity home of the Crew.
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According to reports from multiple outlets, the Haslams will pay an eye-popping fee for entry: $205m, a record amount for the women’s league that tops the amount Blank paid for the Atlanta franchise by $40m. The fee is also more than all but two MLS ownership groups have paid to enter that league, with only Charlotte FC ($325m) and San Diego FC ($500m) shelling out more.
“As the NWSL continues its rapid growth, expanding to Columbus is a natural next step. This is a city with a rich soccer tradition, a proven track record of support at the highest level, and an ownership group making meaningful, long-term investments in women’s sports,” said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman. “We’re excited to bring the world’s most competitive women’s soccer league to Columbus and to see this community embrace the game in a new way.”
As part of the deal, HSG said they would modify ScottsMiracle-Gro Field to add a locker room specifically for the NWSL team. The group also reached a deal with the Columbus City Council to build a training facility for the team on city parkland, though that was not without its controversy. Opponents of the deal have pointed out that the park in question was due for renovation and was placed nearby some of the city’s underserved communities. As part of the training facility deal, HSG will contribute $3m for the construction of a new public park.
The NWSL is firmly in expansion mode, with eight teams having started play since 2020, doubling the size of the league in a six-year span. The latest two of those additions, Boston Legacy and Denver Summit, began play this year, with the Summit shattering the league attendance record when more than 63,000 came to their inaugural home opener in March.