It’s official: Angel City FC is bringing in new club leadership, welcoming Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay as controlling owners, pending NWSL approval. The club announced the news Wednesday, confirming reports of the sale from a couple of weeks ago.
Bay and Iger will acquire the controlling stake with a value of $250 million, with the plan to invest an additional $50 million, per a press release from Angel City. Bay, the Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, will control Angel City’s board of directors and will represent the club on the NWSL’s board of governors.
According to the press release, the new investment will make ACFC the most valuable women’s sports team globally. Although it’s a difficult statement to check, given that valuations of women’s professional teams are a recent and still emerging development, the value surpasses the most valuable franchise in the WNBA (the Las Vegas Aces, at $140 million, per Sportico) and the most valuable Women’s Super League team in Europe (Chelsea, at an estimated $200 million, per The Athletic).
The $250 million value, up from $180 million last fall per Sportico, is also by far the highest in the NWSL. The club with the next-highest valuation, San Diego Wave, was sold in March for a then-record $120 million.
With the move, Bay and Iger will gain control of Angel City from Alexis Ohanian, who had been the controlling stakeholder since the club was founded in 2020.
Although ACFC did not clarify whether Ohanian would remain as an owner of the team, the Reddit co-founder wrote on X that he will stay on the board. His wife, tennis star Serena Williams, and daughters Olympia and Adira all own shares of ACFC; per Ohanian, they will all keep their shares.
I have stories for another day of professional investors back in 2019 who told me investing in an NWSL team would be a total failure. Needless to say, we’re just getting started and I couldn’t ask for better partners than Willow & Bob who will have the board control necessary to… https://t.co/1NwtGLgNhb
— Alexis Ohanian 🇦🇲 (@alexisohanian) July 17, 2024
ACFC has a large and impressive ownership group. The group is led by actress Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman in addition to Ohanian. A slew of big names, including Billie Jean King, Jennifer Garner, America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and former USWNT stars like Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy, make up the large cluster of minority ownership investors.
Source Agencies
