The race for the rights to broadcast live sports has raised the values of teams and leagues and caught the attention of the world’s largest investment firms. And those funds flow beyond the handful of men’s sports that have traditionally attracted the most money and media attention to women’s sports around the world, including football, basketball, tennis and cricket.
On Tuesday, the National Women’s Soccer League said it had sold the rights to a new team for a record price. The Sixth Street investment firm led an ownership group that plans to spend $125 million on the Bay Area franchise, with about $53 million for the expansion fee, a huge jump from the $5 million fee paid in 2021 for a Kansas City team.
Another $30 million to $50 million will be spent building a new training facility, said Alan Waxman, Sixth Street’s CEO and co-chairman of the new club. The rest helps the business and builds the team’s brand.
Jessica Berman, the commissioner of the NWSL, who joined the league in 2022, said the league “has not historically been built as a business.” But now “it has really been able to scale and improve professionalism, operational rigor and business strategy and tactics for growth,” she said.
The Bay Area team will be led by a board that includes former U.S. national team players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner, who will serve as co-chair. The league will begin in 2024, the league’s 12th season.
“Suddenly reality catches up with the data,” said Mr. Waxman on the investment reasons.
More than 1.1 billion people worldwide watched the 2019 Women’s World Cup. In the United States, 915,000 people watched the NWSL final last year, compared to about two million for the men’s championships in Major League Soccer.
In other leagues, the Women’s Tennis Association raised $150 million this month from private equity firm CVC Capital to fund a new subsidiary that manages sponsorship and broadcast rights. The Women’s National Basketball Association raised $75 million last year from investors for marketing and recruiting. And in India, investors spent a combined $570 million in January on an auction for five teams in a new women’s cricket league.
Yet the all-important media rights for women’s sports lag far behind those for men’s competitions. Apple recently signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal to broadcast most MLS games. The NWSL’s current deal with CBS, signed in 2020, was worth $4.5 million over three years.
Investors in women’s soccer, like Sixth Street, are betting on a big price hike for those rights when they’re due for renewal soon, along with higher spending on sponsorships and stadium purchases.
The deal comes as the NWSL is reeling from a sexual assault scandal that led to the firing of at least four coaches.
Against the backdrop of that scandal, and motivated by the NWSL’s successful expansion to Los Angeles, Ms. Chastain, Ms. Osborne, Ms. Slaton and Ms. Wagner began seeking investment for a new team. Mrs. Wagner was in contact with Mr. Waxman through his wife; Sixth Street has also invested in Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
Other investors in the new Bay Area football team include Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer, who will join the new team’s board and “work with the club to create leadership programs that empower women and girls,” she said in a statement. .
