A Different Model: How a Women’s Sports Team Raised Capital like a Tech Startup

As part of an initiative to connect women and nonbinary General Partners with Limited Partners and in celebration of Juneteenth, the All Raise LA Chapter hosted an inspiring networking event at an Angel City FC match where Ashley Balla, Partner at Halogen Ventures, sat down with Robyn Ward, ACFC investor, leadership coach, and founder, for a fireside chat and Q&A with the All Raise community.

Robyn shared about the founding of Angel City FC and how it all started with All Raise co-founding member Kara Nortman, when there were only 3 women investors writing checks in Los Angeles (today there are 73 Women Partners, which is a 2,000% Increase). Robyn reflected that two of the women played in a pick-up basketball league together. It was during a time when the US Women’s National Soccer Team was coming off their 2014 World Cup Victory, the Me Too movement was taking place in Hollywood, and All Raise launched not too long after that. These pick-up basketball games became the place for a small group of women investors to gather and discuss the opportunities in professional womens’ sport.

Week after week, they would play basketball and discuss the current state of the economy and society. They built trust and camaraderie that eventually led to co-founding and co-investing in Angel City FC before they even had a team or a stadium. Robyn remembers those days fondly and reflected the level of commitment and support that small team of investors turned friends had for each other. “When you have a sh*tty day, that is when you show up [to the game], and from there the team was off to the races”.

Before Angel City even took to the field, the team built their brand and presence through grassroot community activities. They gave back to the local community before they even had tickets to sell, as reported by Fast Company, ACFC hosted over 550 events between 2022–2023 from coaching training sessions to replanting school gardens. The team used their social capital through influencer marketing campaigns with their celebrity ownership group of Natalia Portman, Mia Hamm, Jennifer Garner, and Jessica Chastain, to name a few, to make a giant impact for the city and beyond.

Now, with the recent announcement of Bob Iger & Willow Bay’s aquisition of a majority stake, ACFC is the most valuable franchise in women’s professional sports at $300 Million.

Robyn remembers receiving 100s of no’s before getting to the yes they needed to start the team. The expansion fee that ACFC paid in 2019 to join the NWSL was $2 Million — in just four years that number has jumped to $50M+ in 2024. An expansion fee is a one-time payment made to a professional sports league by a new team when it joins that professional sports league and is essentially a franchise fee with the owners of the new team buying into the existing finances of the league, including TV contracts, merchandising, and other forms of revenue. Overall, the increasing cost of expansion fee for an NWSL team is a reflection of the value of joining a growing sports league, the financial requirements of operating a professional sports franchise, and the potential benefits of league expansion for both new and existing teams. And a lot of that has to do with the unique approach ACFC took when building the team.

• The team’s unique 10% sponsorship model puts 10% of all sponsorship dollars back into community programs in the Los Angeles area — with $5.6 million already set to be distributed in the next five years to benefactors like the Garden School Foundation via the Sprouts Partnership and Las Fotos Project via the Pacsun partnership.
• The Player 22 Program aims to position current and retired soccer players for success in new jobs or entrepreneurial endeavors through small business grants and education. 10% of all Player 22 merchandise goes directly into the fund as well as tax-deductible donations directly to the fund.
• 1% of net ticketing revenue goes back to athletes who take part in the team’s optional revenue-sharing program, a key part of the team’s ultimate mission to reach pay equity with their male equivalents in Major League Soccer. (Fast Company) For the inaugural 2022 season, the ‘ACFC Fan-Fueled Player Fund’ was available to all players who opted in. Having sold more than 16,000 season tickets for its opening campaign, Angel City believes that this will allow players to earn thousands of dollars on top of their salaries.

Robyn spoke to how sports and music can be great gateways to connect people, shift the narrative, and change culture. As more boys and young men see women in professional sports, they will grow up with a different understanding of equality across the industry. Sports tends to lead and shape culture in society, and with FIFA, the governing body for men’s and women’s soccer, announcing new policies around childcare and maternity leave, we are hopeful these changes will begin to be adopted into other industries as well.

All Raise would not be able to do what we do without the great work of all of our volunteers. We recognize the hard work of Carmen Palafox and Madeline Darcy who led our team to make this event a giant success. A special thank you to our friends at BMO who graciously donated their suite for the match! And what a match it was as ACFC defeated Racing Louisville 3–2!!