The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is rapidly expanding. Founded in 2013 with eight inaugural teams, the league is set to increase to 16 clubs for the 2026 season.

Last week, ESPN and Sportico reported that a Denver ownership group had won the race to become the league's 16th team. The Colorado group fought off competition from expansion bids in Cincinnati and Cleveland. The NWSL has yet to announce the addition of Denver publicly.

With 14 clubs competing in the NWSL for the 2025 season, the other club set to join the league in 2026 is BOS Nation FC led by the Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) ownership group.

BUSP was awarded an expansion team in Dec. 2023, and so have had a slightly longer runway to prepare. In that time, they announced the team's name would be BOS Nation and that former FC Barcelona executive Domènec Guasch would be the team's first general manager.

What's an expansion team?

In U.S. professional sports, there is no pyramid. Unlike in the majority of the soccer world, there is no promotion or relegation. Teams cannot advance into the NWSL on soccer merit. So, for teams to join the closed league, the league has to either expand or a team (sometimes referred to as a franchise) has to be relocated.

Since 2013, the NWSL has added seven expansion teams: Houston Dash (2014), Orlando Pride (2016), Racing Louisville (2021), Angel City FC (2022), San Diego Wave (2022), Bay FC (2024), and Utah Royals (2024). Boston and Denver will become the eighth and ninth, respectively.

To join the NWSL, an ownership group must pay an expansion fee. This fee has been roughly linked to how much the average club is valued. These fees have skyrocketed in recent seasons.

In 2022, Angel City and the Wave paid roughly $2 million to join the NWSL, while Sportico has reported that Denver is expected to pay a record-breaking $110 million to be an expansion team in 2026. This has likely been a result of the recent sales of Angel City and the Wave in 2024 for $250 million and $120 million, respectively.

Who is behind Denver's ownership group?

CEO of IMA Financial Group Robert Cohen is the lead backer for the ownership bid, while other names from business and sports sectors, such as Ben Hubbard, Nicole Glaros, and Tom Dunmore, are also expected to be a part of the boardroom.

The Denver bid was first launched in 2023 with the "For Denver FC" campaign. Former NWSL player turned broadcaster, and Colorado native Jordan Angeli was a front-facing spokesperson for the group and has played a key part in guiding the bid from the ground.

When will Denver join the league?

The NWSL's 16th club will begin play in 2026 alongside fellow expansion club BOS Nation FC. Adding Denver will mean the NWSL has almost doubled its total number of clubs since the 2019 season when there were just nine.

It has been commonplace for the NWSL to expand in sets of two so that the league retains an even number. In 2022, Angel City and San Diego arrived; in 2024, Bay FC and Utah entered as a duo.

Denver is on the clock when it comes to being ready to start play in March 2026, just 14 months on from winning its expansion bid. Due to the new collective bargaining agreement that was signed in July 2024, there will be no expansion draft for Denver. The club will likely have to go out and sign free agents starting in fall 2025.

Where will they play?

The group leading the Denver bid has stated a desire to build its own stadium in the area but the short-term plan is to temporarily rent Dick's Sporting Goods Park, an 18,061-seater stadium on the outskirts of Denver that belongs to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Dick's Sporting Goods Park has been a fairly consistent destination for U.S. women's national team friendlies. Most recently, in June 2024, Emma Hayes made her debut as head coach of the U.S. with a resounding 4–0 win over South Korea at the venue.

How did Denver win the bid?

Beyond significant finances, one of the major talking points behind Denver's successful bid has been the thriving youth soccer landscape in Colorado. U.S. women's national team stars Mal Swanson, Sophia Smith and Lindsey Horan all grew up in the Centennial State.

Chicago Stars FC head coach Lorne Donaldson has also lived in the area for over two decades. He served as the director of the youth club Real Colorado, which both Swanson and Smith played for.

In addition to being a hotbed for emerging talent and being on the USWNT's list of stadiums to visit, Denver is also in a geographical position the NWSL is keen to move into. The city will be the second club in the Mountain Time Zone after the Royals and is more central and northern.

Since 2022, three expansion clubs have come on the West Coast, another on the East Coast, but Denver, like Utah, will add a more central hub. The theory is this will help grow the NWSL more regionally across the country and help give more rivalry connections to Utah and perhaps other clubs who can cut down on travel time to the Mile High city.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Did Denver Become the NWSL's 16th Expansion Team? .

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