The Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League introduced that Denver has been awarded the league’s sixteenth franchise and can start play in 2026. The group can be managed by IMA Monetary Group CEO Robert Cohen.
In December, Sportico broke the information that Denver and the NWSL had entered to be the newest growth franchise. It emerged over candidates from Cleveland () and Cincinnati (MLS membership Cincinnati FC). The primary a part of Denver’s growth charge, the most important within the historical past of U.S. girls’s sports activities, was paid earlier than the top of 2024, Sportico beforehand reported.
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The has come collectively over the previous couple of months, as Sportico reported this week. Ariel Investments invested via its subsidiary Venture Stage, led by Ariel co-CEO Mellody Hobson and former Washington Commanders president Jason Wright. The announcement stated Venture Stage is an asset administration agency affiliated with Ariel that seeks to “stage the taking part in subject in girls’s sports activities via funding and possession.”
Dhiren Jhaveri and his spouse, Neelima Joshi, are additionally a part of the cap desk. Joshi and Jhaveri, who dwell in Denver, are investing within the group personally, not through Kuvare. Jhaveri is the founder and chairman of the monetary companies platform and has made different sports activities investments via his firm. In 2023, the Chicago-based agency dedicated financing to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez of their ongoing pursuit to purchase the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
Siblings Jon-Erik Borgen and Kaia Borgen Moritz invested through their FirstTracks Sports activities Ventures. Molly Coors can be an investor; in line with , she was beforehand a director at AllianceBernstein.
Cohen would be the group’s governor, whereas Hobson will function different governor. Hobson is a minority investor within the NFL’s Denver Broncos and sits on the boards of Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase. She can be a shareholder of the Chicago White Sox, the WNBA and League One Volleyball.
NWSL stated the Denver franchise is finalizing plans for a brand new stadium and observe facility. The group identify, brand and colours can be introduced at a later date.
The NWSL added two groups this previous season: the Utah Royals and Bay FC. A Boston-based membership will be part of the league in 2026; it agreed to pay the identical $53 million growth charge as Bay FC. Utah beforehand had an NWSL franchise and returned below a .
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