Michele Kang on growth of women’s sports
Michele Kang walks the Women Sports Foundation’s red carpet and answers questions on her vision of women’s sports.
Sports Seriously
The city of Atlanta will soon rejoin the ranks of women’s professional soccer after being awarded a new NWSL team, according to multiple reports on Monday, Nov. 10.
Arthur Blank and his holding company AMB Sports + Entertainment, which also owns the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United FC of MLS and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, is set to purchase an NWSL expansion team for a league record $165 million, The Athletic first reported. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing a source with knowledge of the expansion, wrote an official announcement could come as soon as Tuesday, as part of a women’s sports summit being held in Atlanta.
The new team is expected to debut in the NWSL sometime after the 2026 season, according to the The Athletic, and will reportedly play its home matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
AMB Sports + Entertainment said in a statement to ESPN it has “had productive engagement with NWSL and others in its stakeholder group on the possibility of bringing an expansion franchise to Atlanta. We have nothing to announce currently as those conversations are ongoing.” The NWSL declined comment in multiple reports.
The reported $165 million expansion fee would be 50% higher than the $110 million expansion fee paid by the new owners of Denver Summit FC last January. Other recent expansion teams like the Bay FC and Boston Legacy paid around $53 million, according to The Athletic.
Blank, the 83-year-old Home Depot co-founder, would be bringing women’s professional soccer back to Atlanta after years of speculation it was a prime candidate for future NWSL expansion. The city had the Atlanta Beat in two previous women’s leagues ‒ WUSA (2001-2003) and WPS (2010-2012) ‒ and drew a crowd of more than 50,000 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the SheBelieves Cup semifinals in 2024.
The United States Soccer Federation is also moving its national training center and headquarters to Fayetteville, Georgia, outside Atlanta next year, with a new facility made possible by a $50 million donation from Blank.
The NWSL would expand to 17 teams with the addition of Atlanta. The league is set to increase from 14 to 16 teams for the 2026 season with Boston and Denver teams scheduled to begin play.
