Notable update on the IR…Soph has been upgraded to “questionable” and Porter appears to be “OUT” with covid. Hopefully no one else got sick (or will test pos by tomm.)
Unless media/technical staff have really misled Soph’s status the last couple weeks and she’s further along than we know, I can’t see her going from “OUT” and only doing individual work a week ago to playing any meaningful minutes tomm. Maybe another week would seem to fit the timeline better…but what that means, hard to say. 15 mins? 45? More? Hard to know what they’re shooting for or how slowly they’ll fade her in. Honestly I think with a knee injury, a player should remain out if they’re still considered “questionable.” Regardless, great news that’s she’s been upgraded!
I would lean more towards that…I would be less surprised if she was an unused sub than if she played even garbage minutes. I think Gotham is one of the top high-fouling teams though, so if she’s truly not ready she shouldn’t play…still, having her on the bench as an unknown does mean Amoros has to give some extra thought to her coming in, even if the plan was for her to always sit this one.
So, KC were officially eliminated last night, and by weekend's end Chicago and Angel City could join them there.
Listened to one of the KC Current podcasts last night. It's a fan podcast, admittedly, and unlike the old Riveting podcast it's not a very good one.
But... the sentiment from them is that the HC must go and perhaps the GM too.
Why? Because the talent among the players is definitely there, as is the commitment from ownership, but the team has lacked an identity all season long.
Last year, under Potter, they had a very clear identity: the underdog who punched above their weight. This year, they came into the season as favorites to return to the Championship, but they never rose any higher than 8th place all season long.
Injuries surely didn't help them: they've missed something like 157 player-games through 20 matches this season, meaning that a player has been ruled out due to injury 157 times this season to date.
That's brutal. But that's also a bit misleading insofar as Mewis and Weber themselves represent 40 of the 157.
They also noted that the story as to why Potter was fired still remains incomplete on details. I suppose we'll never know.
Loovull beat Pride 3-2, and then PSWST and DC Kang raised their glasses to scoreless futility. More on that below...
Here's how it looks heading into Saturday:
SD 33 (2 to go)
POR 32 (2 to go)
NJY 30 (2 to go)
WAS 30 (1 to go)
NC 29 (2 to go)
OLR 29 (1 to go)
ORL 28 (1 to go)
LOU 27 (1 to go)
HOU 26 (2 to go)
ACFC 25 (2 to go)
CHI 24 (2 to go)
KC 22 (2 to go)
Even if all goes to hell and Thorns get stuck on 32, only Houston and OLR could tie POR at 32. WAS could still get to 33, NC could still get to 35, Gotham could get to 36, and SD could get as high as 39. (At least I think so; I need to check who plays whom down the last 1-2 weekends).
But....Thorns are actually assured of a playoff spot because none of the teams that can get to 32 will catch them on goal differential.
Chicago is dead-last in franchise valuation! All 12 NWSL teams are losing money each year! Portland is worth less than the league average valuation (tho that's because Angel City's absurdly high)!
The average National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise is now worth US$66 million, with Angel City top at US$180 million, according to new data from Sportico.
Confirmed:
* Angel City ranked as NWSL’s most valuable club and ‘likely the world’s most valuable women’s team in any sport’
* Revenue for Angel City this season estimated at US$31 million, with roughly US$11 million from sponsors – more than many MLS teams
* San Diego Wave second with valuation of US$90 million
* Chicago Red Stars valued at US$40 million, putting them bottom, with revenue 34 per cent lower than the team next franchise above them
* NWSL teams will collectively generate an US$112 million in revenue during the 2023 regular season
* Average annual revenue for teams has been pegged at US$9.7 million
* NWSL’s average value-to-revenue-multiple is x7.1, putting it ahead of Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), Formula One and the Premier League
Context:
Angel City’s status as the NWSL’s most valuable franchise was aided by their 16,000 season-ticket holders, as well as leading the league in attendance during its first season in 2022 with an average of 19,105 fans per game – twice as many as any other club besides the Portland Thorns.
Backed by celebrity investors including Serena Williams, Christina Aguilera, Eva Longoria and Billie Jean King, Angel City have also landed high-profile sponsorship deals with the likes of Chevrolet, Gatorade, PNC and BMO. The club’s Series A financing round in February 2022 featured investment from Seven Seven Six and Initialized Capital.
Confirmation last month of Boston being awarded the NWSL’s latest expansion franchise spot further highlighted the surging value of the league’s teams. The Boston consortium will reportedly pay a US$53 million expansion fee, which dwarfs the US$2 million to US$5 million sums paid as recently as 2020.
Despite all this, Sportico notes that all of the NWSL’s 12 teams are losing money, albeit a scenario that mirrors many sides in MLS and the Premier League.
Coming next:
Two NWSL teams on the market are the Portland Thorns (fourth in Sportico’s rankings with a valuation of US$65 million) and OL Reign (eighth with US$49 million). Both hope to have new owners in place by the end of the year.
One real issue is that the clubs, and the league, are closed books. AFAIK there's no way to get independent accounting of their value, income, and expenses. Are they really losing millions a year? Is ACFC really worth that, or is it more-or-less Monopoly money?
Whisler - not exactly an untainted source - used to constantly claim that the Red Stars were (thanks to his relentless cheeseparing) among the more financially solvent of the NWSL clubs and were "only" losing a million or so a year, and that other clubs were REALLY hemorrhaging cash. Was that true? Who knows?
But my guess is that if not, the income levels are still pretty precarious. Money in sport - the genuinely big money - is from broadcast revenues, and the broadcast deal in place now and for the foreseeable future is about as poor as it gets outside of the old YouTube days. Soccer is well behind the Big Three pro sports in the U.S. and the women's game is likely on the outlier of that. The money is better than ten years ago...but not THAT much better. A typical MLB franchise probably has more cash to throw at spring training that an NWSL club has all season.
It’s hard to believe that some of the more recent team valuations are backed by the expectation of an immediate financial return. A league source said that, in an ordinary year, the average NWSL team loses money on some $3 million to $4 million in revenue.
“Are these numbers justified by typical financial valuation analyses and revenue multiples? Probably not. You can’t get there on a cashflow basis or revenue multiple,” said Chuck Baker, co-chair of Sidley Austin’s sports and media practice. “It’s all about the upside. Given how long the holding period tends to be and how infrequently these teams trade, investors are bidding on long-term appreciation.”
My question regards vastly underperforming clubs (attendance #s foremost) in big media markets (e.g., Chi) and whether market forces will pry some of them away to greener pastures. Would the league interfere?
IIRC Jessica Berman talked about setting up ways for teams to share best practices to improve. I think with that in place they'll be a push for underperforming owners to get their act together or sell.
Chicago is a good example. Not ignoring the abuse issues, but the prior owner didn't have deep enough pockets to make the investments in infrastructure and operations. The new ownership group has very deep pockets (Pritzkers and Ricketts money) to make the investments.
Doubt it... Why would you sell the team when if you wait a decade it will be worth ten times as much, plus the new broadcast deal is rumored to be 10x what CBS paid? Advertisers, which are really going to be the big revenue stream care about how big the possible audience would be and Chicago and LA are big ass markets.
At $65 million, the Portland Thorns were ranked as the fourth most valuable team in the National Women's Soccer League by sports business news website Sportico.
Sportico's analysis placed the Thorns below Angel City FC, San Diego Wave FC and Kansas City Current, which were valued at $180 million, $90 million and $75 million respectively. The Thorns’ regional rival, the OL Reign, ranked eighth with a valuation of $49 million.
The news site said it calculated the valuations and revenues of each team by using publicly available information on each team’s financial records, as well as interviewing sports bankers, attorneys and investors involved in NWSL transactions.
The Portland Thorns and Timbers were previously jointly valued at $685 million by Sportico, placing the two among the 30 most valuable soccer clubs in the world. But the Thorns’ value specifically is of interest right now as owner and former CEO Merritt Paulson seeks to sell the team after revelations of abuse by former coach Paul Riley emerged in an NWSL report last year.
The club’s CEO, Heather Davis, and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman both have said the sale of the team is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Names of bidders haven’t been publicly revealed, but Berman said the ideal buyers are “an individual or a family that has the resources and commitment and is values-aligned and interested in achieving the same short-, medium-, and long-term goals as we are.”
The only prospective ownership group that has identified publicly — an all-women group investors led by former Nike executive Melanie Strong — said its bid did not make the cut.
Valuation looks to be about 6-10x revenue. ACFC was reported (in this week’s Oregonian) to have $30mil in revenue which PTFC has $10.5mil in revenue. Chicago is at the bottom of the table with $3.3mil of revenue with a valuation of $40mil.
I imagine there’s a floor on valuation, hence the 6-10x.
Demographics. The LA metro area has over 13 million people in it. That's a lot, I mean a lot, of eyeballs for either TV appearances or live gate. Their growth potential is enormous next to the Portland Metro's 3.2 million.
Because "sports teams" ARE the NFTs of finance. Seriously; with a tiny minority otherwise there's no actual accountability there. The "value" is more-or-less what they're thought to be worth.
So is LA really worth $180M? Could be. Or it might be worth $10M; how could you prove either one without a look at the books, and you and I and everyone outside the organization can't, either.
True, and also what someone is willing to pay to acquire said (ACFC)NFT.
Steve Ballmer was willing to pay $2B for the Clippers outright, but just to make sure that he got them he added another $200M to his winning bid. Also, he had that much and more in liquid assets.
Since then, NBA franchise valuations have grown to exceed the GDP of some countries.
When I go back and read some of the articles about the Strong group there were a couple of things that made me raise an eyebrow, like their idea that ticket sales remain a shared operation.That made me wonder if they had the funds to have the level of operations expected in what I'll call NWSL 2.0. Michelle Kang, ACFC, and the Wave definitely raised the bar for expectations of investment.
Notable update on the IR…Soph has been upgraded to “questionable” and Porter appears to be “OUT” with covid. Hopefully no one else got sick (or will test pos by tomm.)
Unless media/technical staff have really misled Soph’s status the last couple weeks and she’s further along than we know, I can’t see her going from “OUT” and only doing individual work a week ago to playing any meaningful minutes tomm. Maybe another week would seem to fit the timeline better…but what that means, hard to say. 15 mins? 45? More? Hard to know what they’re shooting for or how slowly they’ll fade her in. Honestly I think with a knee injury, a player should remain out if they’re still considered “questionable.” Regardless, great news that’s she’s been upgraded!
I wonder if that's just to make Gotham have to gameplan for the possibility of Soph?
I would lean more towards that…I would be less surprised if she was an unused sub than if she played even garbage minutes. I think Gotham is one of the top high-fouling teams though, so if she’s truly not ready she shouldn’t play…still, having her on the bench as an unknown does mean Amoros has to give some extra thought to her coming in, even if the plan was for her to always sit this one.
A thought occurs:
What are the odds that part of the reason why the Thorns sale has not been finalized and announced is that Sinc is part of the new ownership group?
Usually active players cannot own, on any level, the team for which they play or any team in that league.
So, KC were officially eliminated last night, and by weekend's end Chicago and Angel City could join them there.
Listened to one of the KC Current podcasts last night. It's a fan podcast, admittedly, and unlike the old Riveting podcast it's not a very good one.
But... the sentiment from them is that the HC must go and perhaps the GM too.
Why? Because the talent among the players is definitely there, as is the commitment from ownership, but the team has lacked an identity all season long.
Last year, under Potter, they had a very clear identity: the underdog who punched above their weight. This year, they came into the season as favorites to return to the Championship, but they never rose any higher than 8th place all season long.
Injuries surely didn't help them: they've missed something like 157 player-games through 20 matches this season, meaning that a player has been ruled out due to injury 157 times this season to date.
That's brutal. But that's also a bit misleading insofar as Mewis and Weber themselves represent 40 of the 157.
They also noted that the story as to why Potter was fired still remains incomplete on details. I suppose we'll never know.
Well, that settled one thing.
Loovull beat Pride 3-2, and then PSWST and DC Kang raised their glasses to scoreless futility. More on that below...
Here's how it looks heading into Saturday:
SD 33 (2 to go)
POR 32 (2 to go)
NJY 30 (2 to go)
WAS 30 (1 to go)
NC 29 (2 to go)
OLR 29 (1 to go)
ORL 28 (1 to go)
LOU 27 (1 to go)
HOU 26 (2 to go)
ACFC 25 (2 to go)
CHI 24 (2 to go)
KC 22 (2 to go)
Even if all goes to hell and Thorns get stuck on 32, only Houston and OLR could tie POR at 32. WAS could still get to 33, NC could still get to 35, Gotham could get to 36, and SD could get as high as 39. (At least I think so; I need to check who plays whom down the last 1-2 weekends).
But....Thorns are actually assured of a playoff spot because none of the teams that can get to 32 will catch them on goal differential.
Chicago is dead-last in franchise valuation! All 12 NWSL teams are losing money each year! Portland is worth less than the league average valuation (tho that's because Angel City's absurdly high)!
These and other gems below...
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/nwsl-franchise-team-values-2023-angel-city-revenue
The average National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise is now worth US$66 million, with Angel City top at US$180 million, according to new data from Sportico.
Confirmed:
* Angel City ranked as NWSL’s most valuable club and ‘likely the world’s most valuable women’s team in any sport’
* Revenue for Angel City this season estimated at US$31 million, with roughly US$11 million from sponsors – more than many MLS teams
* San Diego Wave second with valuation of US$90 million
* Chicago Red Stars valued at US$40 million, putting them bottom, with revenue 34 per cent lower than the team next franchise above them
* NWSL teams will collectively generate an US$112 million in revenue during the 2023 regular season
* Average annual revenue for teams has been pegged at US$9.7 million
* NWSL’s average value-to-revenue-multiple is x7.1, putting it ahead of Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), Formula One and the Premier League
Context:
Angel City’s status as the NWSL’s most valuable franchise was aided by their 16,000 season-ticket holders, as well as leading the league in attendance during its first season in 2022 with an average of 19,105 fans per game – twice as many as any other club besides the Portland Thorns.
Backed by celebrity investors including Serena Williams, Christina Aguilera, Eva Longoria and Billie Jean King, Angel City have also landed high-profile sponsorship deals with the likes of Chevrolet, Gatorade, PNC and BMO. The club’s Series A financing round in February 2022 featured investment from Seven Seven Six and Initialized Capital.
Confirmation last month of Boston being awarded the NWSL’s latest expansion franchise spot further highlighted the surging value of the league’s teams. The Boston consortium will reportedly pay a US$53 million expansion fee, which dwarfs the US$2 million to US$5 million sums paid as recently as 2020.
Despite all this, Sportico notes that all of the NWSL’s 12 teams are losing money, albeit a scenario that mirrors many sides in MLS and the Premier League.
Coming next:
Two NWSL teams on the market are the Portland Thorns (fourth in Sportico’s rankings with a valuation of US$65 million) and OL Reign (eighth with US$49 million). Both hope to have new owners in place by the end of the year.
One real issue is that the clubs, and the league, are closed books. AFAIK there's no way to get independent accounting of their value, income, and expenses. Are they really losing millions a year? Is ACFC really worth that, or is it more-or-less Monopoly money?
Whisler - not exactly an untainted source - used to constantly claim that the Red Stars were (thanks to his relentless cheeseparing) among the more financially solvent of the NWSL clubs and were "only" losing a million or so a year, and that other clubs were REALLY hemorrhaging cash. Was that true? Who knows?
But my guess is that if not, the income levels are still pretty precarious. Money in sport - the genuinely big money - is from broadcast revenues, and the broadcast deal in place now and for the foreseeable future is about as poor as it gets outside of the old YouTube days. Soccer is well behind the Big Three pro sports in the U.S. and the women's game is likely on the outlier of that. The money is better than ten years ago...but not THAT much better. A typical MLB franchise probably has more cash to throw at spring training that an NWSL club has all season.
Here's more from a 2022 Sportico article:
https://www.sportico.com/valuations/teams/2023/nwsl-team-values-angel-city-1234740928/
It’s hard to believe that some of the more recent team valuations are backed by the expectation of an immediate financial return. A league source said that, in an ordinary year, the average NWSL team loses money on some $3 million to $4 million in revenue.
“Are these numbers justified by typical financial valuation analyses and revenue multiples? Probably not. You can’t get there on a cashflow basis or revenue multiple,” said Chuck Baker, co-chair of Sidley Austin’s sports and media practice. “It’s all about the upside. Given how long the holding period tends to be and how infrequently these teams trade, investors are bidding on long-term appreciation.”
Impossible to argue Thorns slide, only question is how many slots? Saturday will reveal that detail.
Meanwhile, article (paywalled) asserts not only is Angel City the most valuable NWSL franchise, they may be the most valuable women's sports team.
https://www.sportico.com/valuations/teams/2023/nwsl-team-values-angel-city-1234740928/
https://nitter.net/Sportico/status/1709647071613956153#m
My question regards vastly underperforming clubs (attendance #s foremost) in big media markets (e.g., Chi) and whether market forces will pry some of them away to greener pastures. Would the league interfere?
IIRC Jessica Berman talked about setting up ways for teams to share best practices to improve. I think with that in place they'll be a push for underperforming owners to get their act together or sell.
Chicago is a good example. Not ignoring the abuse issues, but the prior owner didn't have deep enough pockets to make the investments in infrastructure and operations. The new ownership group has very deep pockets (Pritzkers and Ricketts money) to make the investments.
Doubt it... Why would you sell the team when if you wait a decade it will be worth ten times as much, plus the new broadcast deal is rumored to be 10x what CBS paid? Advertisers, which are really going to be the big revenue stream care about how big the possible audience would be and Chicago and LA are big ass markets.
Anyone have a Portland Biz Journal subscription and can tell us if there's any bits in here about the imminent sale?
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2023/10/05/thorns-nwsl-valuation-sale-paulson.html?csrc=6398&taid=651f2ae4ce2bfe00016db49d&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
I got in. Must know I'm a furriner.
At $65 million, the Portland Thorns were ranked as the fourth most valuable team in the National Women's Soccer League by sports business news website Sportico.
Sportico's analysis placed the Thorns below Angel City FC, San Diego Wave FC and Kansas City Current, which were valued at $180 million, $90 million and $75 million respectively. The Thorns’ regional rival, the OL Reign, ranked eighth with a valuation of $49 million.
The news site said it calculated the valuations and revenues of each team by using publicly available information on each team’s financial records, as well as interviewing sports bankers, attorneys and investors involved in NWSL transactions.
The Portland Thorns and Timbers were previously jointly valued at $685 million by Sportico, placing the two among the 30 most valuable soccer clubs in the world. But the Thorns’ value specifically is of interest right now as owner and former CEO Merritt Paulson seeks to sell the team after revelations of abuse by former coach Paul Riley emerged in an NWSL report last year.
The club’s CEO, Heather Davis, and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman both have said the sale of the team is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Names of bidders haven’t been publicly revealed, but Berman said the ideal buyers are “an individual or a family that has the resources and commitment and is values-aligned and interested in achieving the same short-, medium-, and long-term goals as we are.”
The only prospective ownership group that has identified publicly — an all-women group investors led by former Nike executive Melanie Strong — said its bid did not make the cut.
Clearly I know nothing about a wide array of subjects, but the idea that ACFCNFT has a franchise valuation of $180M is an absolute headscratcher.
I mean, based on what?
They don't own their own stadium.
They likely aren't #1 in merch sales.
They don't have a separate TV/radio broadcasting rights deal (can you imagine how boring it would be to listen to soccer on the radio?)
And so on...
And yet their franchise valuation is nearly 3x that of Portland and close to 4x that of Reign?
Is it all because they have a lot of investors who have a lot of assets?
Valuation looks to be about 6-10x revenue. ACFC was reported (in this week’s Oregonian) to have $30mil in revenue which PTFC has $10.5mil in revenue. Chicago is at the bottom of the table with $3.3mil of revenue with a valuation of $40mil.
I imagine there’s a floor on valuation, hence the 6-10x.
ACFC has $30M in revenue? From what? Sponsorships is the only thing I can think of....
Demographics. The LA metro area has over 13 million people in it. That's a lot, I mean a lot, of eyeballs for either TV appearances or live gate. Their growth potential is enormous next to the Portland Metro's 3.2 million.
Because "sports teams" ARE the NFTs of finance. Seriously; with a tiny minority otherwise there's no actual accountability there. The "value" is more-or-less what they're thought to be worth.
So is LA really worth $180M? Could be. Or it might be worth $10M; how could you prove either one without a look at the books, and you and I and everyone outside the organization can't, either.
True, and also what someone is willing to pay to acquire said (ACFC)NFT.
Steve Ballmer was willing to pay $2B for the Clippers outright, but just to make sure that he got them he added another $200M to his winning bid. Also, he had that much and more in liquid assets.
Since then, NBA franchise valuations have grown to exceed the GDP of some countries.
When I go back and read some of the articles about the Strong group there were a couple of things that made me raise an eyebrow, like their idea that ticket sales remain a shared operation.That made me wonder if they had the funds to have the level of operations expected in what I'll call NWSL 2.0. Michelle Kang, ACFC, and the Wave definitely raised the bar for expectations of investment.