Cities pour millions into stadiums to attract women's pro teams

Cities vie for women’s sports with new stadiums, practice facilities as team valuations soar

What you probably already know: Denver won the bid for the newest National Women’s Soccer League team this week, beating out Cincinnati for the opportunity, even though WNBA star Caitlin Clark threw her weight behind the Cincinnati group. But Denver won out because it promised to build a brand new stadium and practice facility for the team. The move is part of a major shift in women’s sports, where cities are committing millions of dollars for facilities to attract owners to launch there. Approximately $1 billion has been spent on new facilities exclusively for professional women’s sports — primarily basketball and soccer — in the last three years.

Why? Experts now predict that in the next decade, as many as 70% of pro women’s sports teams will have their own stadium. That’s driven very simply by the public’s demand for better access to women’s sports. San Francisco has a stadium planned for its new NWSL team and Kansas City opened its $140 million NWSL stadium last year. The Kansas City stadium, which seats 11,500 people, sold out for the season and is already planning an expansion.

What it means: Women’s sports are expected to generate more than $1 billion in worldwide revenue this year, four times what they brought in three years ago. It’s staggering growth for any industry, but it’s also opening up investment opportunities for many women who are buying into the ownership groups. Public valuations of the NWSL and WNBA have both crossed the $1 billion mark and the Angel City FC soccer team in Los Angeles was valued at $250 million when Bob Iger and Willow Bay purchased the team last year.

What happens now? Many of these franchises have more diverse owners groups than men’s sports teams. Yongmee Michele Kang owns the NWSL Washington Spirit, and the Seattle Storm is owned by a group of Seattle business women including former star player Sue Bird. Former WNBA star Candace Parker has joined Faith Hill, Peyton Manning and Tim McGraw in an ownership group that is working to bring a WNBA expansion team to Nashville. Team leadership tends to be more diverse as well, with more women and people of color in leadership positions than in men’s sports.