Angel City FC is now the most valuable women’s sports team in the world. The news comes as the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side changes their majority shareholders. Willow Bay and Bob Iger have agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the club at a valuation of $250 million. The duo have been married since 1995.
Bay is currently the dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The 60-year-old journalist and former model previously worked as a senior editor for the Huffington Post. Iger, on the other hand, is widely known as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company. He was also previously a television executive at ABC before the company was purchased by Disney.
“We are thrilled to join this team as owners at this historic moment in sports,” Bay proclaimed after agreeing to the deal. “ACFC and these incredible athletes have already had a tremendous impact on the NWSL, women’s soccer, and the Los Angeles community.”
“With this investment of resources and capital, we hope to accelerate the growth of the club and the NWSL. Working with the team and board, and the incredible community of ACFC fans, we are committed to advancing the club’s mission of driving equity on and off the field.”
Along with officially taking over the team, the couple will also invest another $50 million into the club shortly. Although Bay and Iger are becoming Angel City’s controlling owners, several other minority investors remain in place. The team’s official board will continue to include other high-profile figures such as Natalie Portman, Alexis Ohanian, and Julie Uhrman.
Angel City’s valuation is particularly impressive considering they were only just founded in 2020. The club then first officially competed in the NWSL two years later. Despite being a new team, Angel City has managed to draw massive crowds on matchdays. Team officials even sold more than 15,000 total season tickets before even playing an official game. This came at a time when the league averaged around 5,000 fans per match during the 2021 season.
Ticket sales, however, are not exactly reflective of how the team has performed on the pitch. Angel City failed to qualify for the playoffs in their inaugural season. They then finished fifth in the NWSL table the following year. Yet, Angel City fell in the first round of the playoffs to OL Reign. Bay and Iger’s new club currently sits 11th in the standings at the moment.
The aforementioned massive valuation of Angel City is also impressive when compared to other top teams around the world. Chelsea is the best women’s club in England and one of the biggest in Europe. After all, the Blues recently recorded their seventh Women’s Super League (WSL) crown. Nevertheless, despite these massive successes, Angel City is still worth more money than Emma Hayes’ old team.
The Athletic reported earlier this summer that Chelsea values their women’s team at nearly $200 million. Soccer financial experts, however, were a bit skeptical of this figure though. The Deloitte Football Money League previously reported that Barcelona recorded the highest revenue of any women’s soccer team in the world.
The club reported about $14.6 million in revenue for the 2022/23 season. This was an increase of 74% over the previous year. Chelsea was sixth on the list that featured eight English clubs in the top 15 across Europe.
Experts from the aforementioned report also claim that valuations are currently tough to determine amongst WSL teams. This is partially due to select women’s teams not providing full financial details just yet. Despite this, Angel City’s new valuation is yet another sign that women’s soccer continues to grow in popularity.
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