USC Annenberg School dean Willow Bay and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, are close to reaching a deal to buy control of Angel City FC, a source familiar with the situation told ESPN on Wednesday.
The pair's intention to buy control of the NWSL club from Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, the team's largest shareholder, was first reported by Semafor.
According to Semafor, the club's current valuation is $250 million, and Iger and Bay's proposal would raise the new valuation to $300 million.
Ohanian, who is Serena Williams' husband, does not have control of the NWSL club's board of directors. Later Wednesday, Ohanian posted on social media: “To all the journalists who keep reaching out: When I purchased the franchise to launch @weareangelcity in 2019, I did not establish board control for myself. (One of the many hard lessons I learned as a first-time sports team owner.) But as I've said from the beginning, I'm not selling any shares of the team — I don't know why I keep seeing false reports.”
Angel City is looking for a female owner, the source told ESPN, highlighting Bay's role in the deal. Puck's Dylan Byers was the first to report Bay's involvement.
In March, Sportico valued the club at $180 million. The San Diego Wave sold for a valuation of $120 million in March, setting an NWSL record.
The team has three co-founders: Kara Nortman, Natalie Portman and Julie Uhrman.
Other investors include Eva Longoria and former U.S. women's national team stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm.
The club, which plays at BMO Stadium near downtown Los Angeles, has more than 16,000 season ticket holders.
Earlier this year, Angel City FC's board of directors hired global investment bank Moelis & Company to explore a possible sale of the franchise, Sportico reported.
Former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry also submitted a competing offer, another source told ESPN, but Bay and Iger's bid was favored because of their long-term commitment. Manchester United owner Avie Glazer was another contender, according to reports.
A Disney spokesman declined to comment Wednesday on the potential deal. The Walt Disney Company is the majority owner of ESPN.
In November 2023, the NWSL announced a new four-year media rights agreement that will see the U.S. women’s top flight partner CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports in 2024.
Nearly every team in the 14-team NWSL has new owners or major investors who joined in the past four years, creating an influx of billionaire ownership groups with big-league experience and deeper pockets than the league has ever had access to before.
“We're not sitting here today saying, 'Is this going to be around a year from now?' which I think is a very different mindset than in the past,” Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, principal owner and league board governor of NJ/NY Gotham FC, recently told ESPN.
In the past four years, all but one team (North Carolina Courage) have either given up majority ownership or joined the league as a new team.
In almost all cases, these have been high-profile and eye-catching additions.
“From when we joined the league and even the conversations leading up to it, to now, the mindset around the desire to invest, the desire to see growth, how to achieve excellence, is wildly different,” Kansas City Current co-owner Chris Long, who sits on the NWSL's expansion committee and co-founded Current in late 2020 with his wife, Angie, and Brittany Mahomes, recently told ESPN.
“There's been a sea change and it's exciting,” he said. “There are a lot of well-meaning people with a lot of capital who have gotten involved over the last four seasons and secondly, there are a lot more people in the door.”
This NWSL season brought the arrival of expansion team Bay FC, backed by private equity firm Sixth Street, which says it manages more than $75 billion in assets, and CEO Alan Waxman.
San Diego Wave FC, which joined the NWSL for about $2 million ahead of its 2022 expansion season, is in the midst of a sale process to the Levine Leichtman family (also billionaires) that values the club between $113 million and $120 million.
Seattle Reign FC was sold to OL Groupe in late 2019 for approximately $3.5 million. Now, that team has just been sold again for $58 million.
