READ ALSO…..
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark threw her star power behind a bid for an expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League, but the NWSL is reportedly following the money in a different direction. According to Sportico, the women’s soccer league has entered exclusive negotiations with a group from Denver for the league’s 16th franchise. The expansion fee is expected to be between $105 million and $120 million, per sources in the report.
It is far from finalized, but a final number in that range would shatter the previous record expansion fee for a women’s sports franchise, set by recent NWSL expansion teams Bay FC and Boston at $53 million. Before the NWSL Championship in November, commissioner Jessica Berman revealed that the league had narrowed its expansion search to three finalists: Denver, Cleveland and Clark’s Cincinnati-based group.
The WNBA star was a part of the Cincinnati bid, alongside the owners of MLS franchise FC Cincinnati.
Their proposal included shared use of FC Cincinnati’s three-year-old TQL Stadium and $5 million toward a a new training facility exclusively for the women’s team.
“She wants to win and see this happen,” FC Cincinnati co-CEO Jeff Birding told The Athletic about Clark’s involvement. “She’s 100 miles away (with her Indianapolis-based WNBA team) and she’s going to have a great opportunity to be involved in a meaningful way.
Clark, who was one of the top 10 highest-paid female athletes in 2024, gave the bid an extra layer of credibility in the eyes of the NWSL commissioner. “Having her interest in the NWSL is an honor,” Berman said last month. It wasn’t enough to sway the league away from the eye-popping numbers of the Denver bid.
Fans on social media were quick to call it a mistake by the NWSL.
Known as For Denver FC, the Denver group is led by IMA Financial Group CEO Robert Cohen, who is supplying a significant portion of the financing and would be the team’s control owner.
It also includes Ben Hubbard, a former official in the Obama administration, sports business executive Tom Dunmore, Phos CEO Nicole Glaros and former NWSL player Jordan Angeli.
