NWSL
- Columbus NWSL team to debut in 2028
- Team will play at MLS’s Crew’s home stadium
- Commissioner eyes 32-team league in the future
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has awarded its latest expansion franchise to Columbus, Ohio, with the team joining the competition in 2028.
The league’s 18th franchise will be owned by the same group as Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Columbus Crew and will play at the 20,000-capacity ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, which is the home of their male counterparts.
The consortium is led by the Haslam Sports Group, which owns the National Football League’s (NFL) Cleveland Browns and is an investor in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Milwaukee Bucks. It has also committed to building a state-of-the-art training centre ahead of their debut campaign.
“Our family is thrilled to help bring an NWSL team to Columbus and further invest in Ohio, with the honor of bringing the 18th team into the league,” said Haslam Sports Group managing partner Whitney Haslam Johnson. “We believe in the power of women’s sports and are humbled to be part of the number one women’s soccer league in the world.
“Sports are one of today’s greatest unifiers and are incredible for their communities. The NWSL will have a significant impact on Columbus within and beyond sports, now and for future generations.”
The new ownership group will reportedly pay a record expansion fee of US$205 million.
This is nearly double the US$110 million paid by Denver in early 2025 and US$40 million more than the US$165 million shelled out by Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports + Entertainment, which owns the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS’s Atlanta United last November. As recently as the early 2020s, teams were joining the NWSL for as little as US$2 million.
It is worth nothing however that although Columbus is an established soccer city, with its stadium frequently used by US Soccer and MLS for marquee matchups, both Denver and Atlanta are among the US’s biggest media markets. Meanwhile, Blank has made a US$50 million donation towards the construction of US Soccer’s new headquarters in Atlanta.
Although such considerations could have influenced the size of the fee paid by each team, such exponential growth has been driven by surging interest in women’s sport, women’s soccer and the NWSL itself. Indeed, only two expansion franchises have paid more to join MLS than Columbus have to become part of NWSL.
The league’s domestic media rights deals with CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Ion Television signed in 2023, are reportedly worth US$240 million in total. A fifth deal was signed ahead of the current campaign with Victory+.
Meanwhile, the NWSL’s newest markets have reported huge demand for tickets, with Denver attracting a league record 63,004 fans to Mile High Stadium, home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.
The US is widely expected to be awarded the 2031 Fifa Women’s World Cup and the NWSL will hope to capitalise on any surge in interest in soccer following this year’s men’s World Cup, which will be played across North America.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman previously said that the league could expand to 32 teams. It switched last year to a rolling expansion model moving forward, allowing it to be more agile and give teams a longer runway to establish themselves in their respective markets.
“As the NWSL continues its rapid growth, expanding to Columbus is a natural next step. This is a city with a rich soccer tradition, a proven track record of support at the highest level, and an ownership group making meaningful, long-term investments in women’s sports, said Berman.
“We’re excited to bring the world’s most competitive women’s soccer league to Columbus and to see this community embrace the game in a new way.”
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