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Angel City is the NWSL’s most valuable franchise at $250 million, while LAFC holds the same title in MLS at $1.15 billion.
credit: Lorenzo Gordon, Adobe
MLS club Los Angeles FC has acquired a small stake in the NWSL’s Angel City FC. The deal stems from priced warrants issued to LAFC when Angel City signed a lease agreement to play its games at LAFC’s stadium—now called BMO Stadium—upon starting play in 2022 as an expansion team. LAFC exercised those warrants over the last two months.
“LAFC has been a champion of Angel City Football Club and its co-founders since the very beginning, and it has been incredible to watch how far the club has come in just three seasons,” LAFC said in a statement. “We are thrilled to officially join the ACFC ownership group as minority investors and look forward to continuing to support the club, management, Willow and Bob for many years to come.”
LAFC and ACFC declined to comment on the terms.
The move comes as Angel City has new controlling owners. Willow Bay and her husband Bob Iger bought roughly 40% of the club at a $250 million valuation with an additional $50 million investment into the club that will go toward operations, facilities and personnel. Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is the team’s primary governor.
Angel City is the NWSL’s most valuable franchise at $250 million, while LAFC holds the same title in MLS at $1.15 billion.
In 2022, Sportico was the first to report the existence of the warrants. They were set to expire at the end of the four-year lease, which has not been extended to date. The warrants are part of ACFC’s unique cap table, which includes dozens of celebrities. The team added new investors in 2022 in what it called a “Series A” round, terminology more common for tech startups than sports franchises. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was the club’s lead investor before Bay and Iger took over.
Over its last three games, Angel City has lost two matches and tied one to jeopardize its chances of making the playoffs for a second time—it lost in the first round of the 2023 postseason. ACFC sits in 10th place with five games to go. The top eight teams make the playoffs.
LAFC, which made its MLS debut in 2018, is controlled by Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck and a pair of Apollo Global executives, Larry Berg and Bennett Rosenthal. It is attempting to be the first team to appear in three straight MLS title games since 2007 (New England Revolution). Wednesday night, LAFC defeated Sporting KC 3-1 in the U.S. Open Cup final. The 109th edition of the tournament kicked off in March with 95 teams from all different levels of American soccer.
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