Forgive my accounting ignorance, but how does franchise appreciation contribute to operating break-even unless/until the club gets sold (or sells off minority ownership)?
Our sponsors are losing their minds, they are so excited at the prospect. The sponsorship levels/$ of both teams would go through the roof. Also, what the article doesn’t cover (doesn’t apply to Denver) is that having a women’s team would greatly increase the value of the Crew as a whole. It’s a valuation increase greater than the cost of acquiring a NWSL team even though we’d have to pay through the nose (more than Atlanta) to get one. You didn’t think Jimmy would want to do this just out of the goodness in his heart, did you ; ) ?
It doesn’t unless sponsorship deals for the men’s team increase, which they would. You’re correct though, the greatly increased valuation of the men’s team is the main motivation in acquiring a women’s.
Ha. With HSG? I suspect never is it based on heart. I work in Mergers and Acquisitions. I am that guy who validates if the expansion actually moves the balance sheet ... or if the numbers are "hopium" that will turn out to be false (well after the deal makers got their bonus, of course). NWSL is one hell of a gamble for some owners. Attendance is already slipping in some markets. Down 5% overall from 2024. Half the sponsorship dollars are in 3 markets. Getting the expansion fees much, much higher before some teams have to move (Louisville) is an interesting race. Should be a roaring success in Columbus. I look forward to going to more games at SMGF.
Some details on the training facility on Stimmel Rd: https://columbusunderground.com/has...ans-to-city-for-soccer-training-facility-bw1/ Five fields - 2 grass ‘first team’ and 3 turf ‘academy - plus a dog-legged shaped training facility structure. I’m curious if ‘academy’ means that the site might also be used by Crew youth academy teams. Assuming this goes through, the Crew would own or play a role in managing three training facilities in Columbus: this one, the OhioHealth facility, and the Kilbourne Run facility.
#NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman in a start-of-season press conference:- Denver Summit have sold 50,000 tickets for their home opener, which will break the league's attendance record- team 18 will be announced sometime this year— Pardeep Cattry (@pcattry) March 11, 2026
With just about every new thing, there's hope...and there's fear. There were people who were excited about cars, electricity, CDs, name it...and there were people who were equally in doubt. I really really hope the NWSL works, but I look at how many women's soccer leagues there's been and there's some reality there. I look at the outdoor women's volleyball game in Nebraska when 92,003 showed up and realize that's an outlier. There's no way they'd get that number for anywhere near a total season. I look at WNBA games when certain players are in the building. (Then again, MLS also has outliers, as we all are well aware.) OSU women's basketball has trouble filling the first two levels of the Schott, but when Iowa came during Caitlyn Clark's senior year, people were lined up well in advance and they did better than most men's games. This team in Denver plans to build a 14,500 seat stadium which was basically our attendance prior to the STC era. Their investment group is lead by Jordan Angeli, FWIW.
No, it's not. Their investment group is lead by Robert Cohen. Columbus Darling (for unknown reasons) Jordan Angeli spearheaded the effort to bring NWSL to Denver and was the face of the ownership group, but she is by no means leading the investment. She's effective the head of their MLS2ATX movement.
Are people still under the impression that she was a good color commentator? Because she was...rough.
Yeah I have no idea why such a large portion of the Crew Fanbase is obsessed or even enamored with her. She was mediocre at best as a commentator and has no ties at all to Ohio - let alone Columbus - other than her brief stint in the booth here.
She had more tactical insight than we get from Neil or Chris, but she did not present it well. Her current podcasting forum and I believe sitting third in a three commentator booth for nwsl suits her better.
I don't have any particular axe to grind abou Angeli (I'd largely forgotten who she was), but it's also hard to imagine that someone with her background could be leading the investment group for that effort. She played women's pro soccer and has had a very modest broadcasting career.
Neil and Chris are play by play guys. Their job is not to give tactical insight. It's to narrate the game. Her tactical insight was ok, but nothing special. She was decent in the pre/post game but her in game product was horrible. She literally couldn't talk without constantly fumbling over her words. She did have a friendly personality though, so that definitely seemed to draw people to her.
She's just another in the long list of Crew alumni, just the same as anyone else whether it be Ashleigh Ignelzi, Dwight Burgess, Oscar Pisano, Tom Fitzgerald or anyone else to ever work in any Crew FO or team capacity. Maybe she's *slightly* notable for being at the end of the era when teams signed their own TV deals and being the only female in the booth (right?), but that's it.
I think this post has some merit to it, and is certainly understandable. But I also think you are not crediting NWSL enough. Times are changin'. WUSA: 2000-2003. WSL: 2008-2012 NWSL: 2012-2026 NWSL has been operating longer than WUSA + WSL combined. They have more than doubled in size (8 to 17). They just decided to offer $1 mil pay to some players (psuedo DP rules, Rodman rule). Yeah, every market isn't booming attendance wise, but sponsorship $$ are.
Columbus has the talent. Columbus has the fans. Columbus has earned a seat at this table. @ColumbusSports #NWSLtoCBUS pic.twitter.com/6u5shbGiz0— Mayor Andrew Ginther (@MayorGinther) March 17, 2026
Dumb question, because I’m sure it’s linked or posted somewhere, but what city/cities are we up against??
Per a source from the 2 for $20 marketing campaign, Cincinnati is the primary competitor but hasn't offered as much money.