Report: NWSL Expansion Group Headed By Four Women’s Players

At the ESPNW Summit in May, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said “the time is now” for the league to consider expansion teams. 

Now, a high-profile group of potential new owners has emerged for a team in the Bay Area.

Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner, and Danielle Slaton — all former players — are heading up a group aiming to create an expansion team, The Athletic reported. The group’s investors are 70% female.

The four athletes want to work for the team as well as own a piece of it.

“We are very quickly realizing that athletes’ voices aren’t just nice to have, it’s essential for success,” Slaton told The Athletic.

The news comes on the heels of major success for the NWSL’s most recent expansion team, Angel City FC — a team also headed by female owners.

The team’s inaugural home game was played in front of a sellout crowd of 22,000 fans. At the ESPNW Summit, Berman said that fans appeared to be accepting the challenge of supporting the growth of women’s soccer.