Disney CEO Bob Iger and his spouse Willow Bay, who’s Dean of the USC Annenberg College, are shut to buying management of Angel Metropolis FC, the Los Angeles ladies’s soccer franchise that’s the most dear ladies’s sports activities franchise on this planet.
The funding from the Bay-Iger group might be new capital at a pre-money valuation of $250 million, two folks with data of the transaction stated — an eye-popping quantity that raises the stakes in ladies’s sports activities. One of many folks declined to specify the funding however stated the group now values itself at greater than $300 million, indicating that the brand new funding is at the least $50 million. The couple will change Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian because the group’s controlling shareholder.
The opposite particular person near the transaction stated the investor Marc Lasry and the Manchester United proprietor Avie Glazer additionally bid competitively, however Bay and Iger pitched their long-term dedication to the enterprise and constructing the model in the long run.
They have been additionally desirous to have a girl personal the group, and are stressing Bay’s function within the deal. Puck’s Dylan Byers first reported the settlement, and reported that Bay was the customer. The group’s different shareholders embody actors Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria and the soccer stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm.
Iger and Bay attended the Angel Metropolis defeat to the Kansas Metropolis group Sunday.
Huge cash has poured into sports activities in recent times, together with skilled traders. However Jessica Berman, the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer commissioner, stated at a Semafor occasion final week that whereas she welcomed Wall Avenue cash — the NWSL was the primary skilled league to permit institutional traders to personal groups outright — she appeared to desire the easier mannequin: wealthy folks.
“Understanding that there’s a human we will go to to make selections, that may bind the capital with out having to go to an funding committee or a bunch of people that have to get approval from traders is basically vital,” she stated, “particularly in our league that’s so quick rising and we transfer in a short time.”
Semafor has obtained a pitch deck they circulated, wherein they promised to “ignite greater expectations” for the membership.