LA team to be first majority-women founded in NWSL
A primarily woman-founded group led by actress and activist Natalie Portman, technology venture capitalist Kara Nortman, media and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian, has secured exclusive rights to bring a professional women’s football team to Los Angeles, California, for the spring 2022 season.
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) said the team’s official name and venue partner will be announced before the end of the year, but the group calls itself “Angel City” in reference to its planned home.
According to a statement from NWSL, the move was inspired in part by the successful US women's national team (USWNT) performance in 2019 and fans' interest in an NWSL team in the region.
“We took this as an opportunity to listen, talk to players, union reps, presidents and owners to develop a totally new playbook of how to build a professional sports team where mission and capital, entertainment and sport, were equally important,” said Ms Nortman.
In a Facebook post announcing the launch, a founding investor Glennon Doyle wrote about the team's origin story. A few years ago, her wife, former US Women’s National Team player Abby Wombach, shared with a group of women her frustrations in retiring from soccer and having to embark on a second career just to “pay the bills” — despite having been a FIFA World Cup champion.
Natalie Portman, who was in the audience, “became infuriated by the inequity between the men’s and women’s experience inside of professional sports,” Ms Doyle wrote. “She had a crazy idea: Why don’t we start our own team and do it differently — with the respect and equality and celebration these women deserve?”
The founding investor group is led by Ms Uhrman and includes Serena Williams and her daughter; actors Uzo Aduba, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera, Jennifer Garner and Eva Longoria; talk show host Lilly Singh, former USWNT players Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Rachel Buehler, Shannon Boxx, Amanda Cromwell, Lorrie Fair Allen, Ronnie Fair Sullins, Joy Fawcett, Angela Hucles, Shannon MacMillan, Tisha Venturini Hoch, and Saskia Webber; two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA World Cup champions Lauren Cheney Holiday and Ms Wambach; author and activist Ms Doyle; Netflix exec Cindy Holland, tech entrepreneur Casey Neistat, founding board member of Baby2Baby, Sabina Nathanson, media executive David Nathanson, Baby2Baby co-president Norah Weinstein, and Bad Robot COO Brian Weinstein.
“Together, we aim to build not only a winning team on the field, but also to develop a passionately loyal fan base,” said Ms Portman. “We also hope to make a substantive impact on our community, committing to extending access to sports for young people in Los Angeles through our relationship with the LA84 Foundation.”
