Another NWSL team is changing ownership hands.
The Seattle Reign and its owners OL Groupe announced on Monday that the team was finalizing a sale to a group headlined by the Seattle Sounders, the city’s MLS team. In its press release, OL Groupe said the sale was for $58 million. The transaction is pending final votes from the NWSL and MLS boards of governors.
The sale follows news over the weekend that Ron Burkle is selling the San Diego Wave at a $120 million valuation in a deal scheduled to be completed in full after the 2024 season.
Along with the Sounders, the Reign announced that global investment firm the Carlyle Group will also be part of the consortium buying the team.
The sale price represents a significant return on investment for OL Groupe, which bought the Reign for $3.51 million in 2020 and intended to pair the team with its other major holding in the space, French women’s soccer powers Olympique Lyonnais Fémenin.
OL Groupe spun off most of its French women’s soccer operation in a separate sale last year to Michele Kang, owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit.
Why is OL Groupe selling?
The Reign-Lyon partnership sounded nice in theory, but in practice they were just two teams who happened to share an ownersihp group. When OL Groupe acquired the Reign in 2019, former owner Bill Predmore said that OL had the capacity to invest in the growing the club, while Lyon’s press release spoke about wanting to bring the OL brand to the United States. And while OL Groupe made material improvements, such as moving the Reign from Memorial Stadium to Lumen Field as their home ground, for all their success on the field, they’re still not the type of flagship brand OL Groupe hinted at wanting when they made the purchase.
There’s also the matter of Michele Kang’s entanglement (Kangtanglement?) with OL Groupe; Kang purchased Olympique Lyonnais Femenin earlier this year, leaving OL Groupe with a minority share in the French team. Good business decision or no, OL Groupe is clearly washing their hands of certain assets, two of which are women’s teams. Kang herself described previous inadequate investment and subpar training conditions the moment she took over Lyon.
📽️ La première interview de notre nouvelle présidente, Michele Kang.
En intégralité sur YouTube 👉 https://t.co/mDM8owqUeh pic.twitter.com/Boig8ZdNLJ
— OL Féminin (@OLfeminin) February 8, 2024
It’s also just the right time to sell, from a financial perspective. OL Groupe acquired an 89.5% stake in the Reign for $3.125 million. NWSL club valuations have soared in the last few years; it’s a no-brainer for OL Groupe to take the money and run. –Steph Yang
(Photo: Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports)
Read the full article here