“It’s arguably the unit of measure on the planet of reside sports activities,” Hen mentioned. “It’s the place numerous the worth of the product lives, as a result of the worth tags are so excessive.”
Collective worth
Jasmine Robinson, managing partner at Monarch Collective, has helped her fund discovered and handle three NWSL franchises: Angel Metropolis FC, the San Diego Wave, and the forthcoming Boston Legacy growth franchise.
After the NWSL struck its new media deal in late 2023, the Wave have been valued at $120 million once they have been offered to the Levine Leichtman household. Two years earlier, Ron Burkle paid simply $2 million for the Wave’s growth rights.
In June 2024, USC Annenberg Faculty dean Willow Bay and Disney CEO Bob Iger bought Angel Metropolis FC at a valuation of $250 million. Angel Metropolis’s authentic possession group—which included Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and actors Natalie Portman and Jennifer Garner—additionally initially paid a $2 million growth charge in 2022.
By the point Denver was awarded the NWSL’s sixteenth group earlier this yr, the growth charge had risen to $100 million. Robinson famous, nonetheless, that league media rights offers have advantages far past franchise valuations.
“I believe they’re so necessary as a result of it’s not solely the income that comes into the leagues and might be then shared out with the groups and gamers consequently, however it’s additionally the advertising and marketing and protection that each one suits round it that multiplies the affect of those media offers,” she mentioned.
Final yr, because the NWSL started to reap the advantages of its new media package deal, the league and its players association negotiated a brand new collective bargaining settlement that eradicated entry and growth drafts, embraced unrestricted free company, assured participant contracts, elevated salaries, added constitution flights, and expanded parental depart, childcare, and psychological well being advantages. In October, after the WNBA introduced its deal, its gamers’ union opted out of its collective bargaining settlement with the league.
