Laura Ricketts Group to Buy NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars for $36M
A group led by Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts has reached an agreement in principle to buy the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League from longtime owner Arnim Whisler.
Terms of the deal were not released, but a source who was familiar with the agreement but not authorized to speak publicly said the deal valued the team at $35.5 million, and the new owners would invest an additional $25 million into the club. The transaction still needs approval from the NWSL Board of Governors.
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“I am honored to lead this group of Chicago business and civic leaders in our effort to purchase the Chicago Red Stars,” Ricketts said in a statement released by the ownership group. “Our respective backgrounds in professional sports, finance, turnaround management, commercial real estate, marketing and advertising, paired with our deep community ties, make for a powerful combination that will serve us well in our ultimate goal: building a championship organization on and off the pitch.”
The NWSL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Red Stars declined to comment, as did one for Ricketts beyond the press release.
The prospective Red Stars ownership group, which consists of more than a dozen members, includes Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro, Tawani Enterprises CEO Jennifer Pritzker and Smartly.io CEO Laura Desmond. They were represented in the sale by Sidley Austin, LLP. The sellers were represented by Much Shelist, P.C., while Arent Fox LP served as counsel for the NWSL.
Ricketts and Desmond are also recently minted co-owners of the Chicago Sky; the pair were among a group of six women who bought a 10% stake in the WNBA club earlier this summer at an $85 million valuation—the second highest in the women’s basketball league—making them the first owners with stakes in both the NWSL and WNBA. In 2009, the Ricketts family bought the Cubs for $845 million; the franchise is now worth $4.7 billion.
NWSL valuations have soared in recent years. In 2021, teams were valued in the low single-digit millions. Fast-forward to today: The league is commanding $53 million for a 2024 expansion team in the Bay Area. The inflating fees mirror rising valuations throughout the league. The Washington Spirit were valued at $35 million in early 2022; Gotham FC at $40 million a few months later; and Angel City FC, now entering its second season, has raised money at a valuation over $100 million.
As Sportico first reported, Red Stars majority owner Whisler began the process of selling Chicago’s NWSL team in December after he was implicated in a pair of investigations into widespread abuse and rampant misconduct within the league. Investment bank Inner Circle Sports facilitated the sale on Whisler’s behalf. Chicago was put up for sale the same day as the Portland Thorns, which share an ownership group led by Merritt Paulson with MLS’ Timbers.
Whisler was a founding owner of the Red Stars, which made its debut as a Women’s Professional Soccer team in 2007 and went on to become an NWSL franchise upon the league’s birth in 2013. The club was one of several caught up in the league-wide abuse scandal, news of which broke in 2021, and was implicated in a pair of resulting reports, commissioned by U.S. Soccer and the NWSL. The Red Stars were also one of three NWSL clubs called out for failing to cooperate with the investigations.
Chicago has struggled on the field this season amid the front office turbulence, sitting near the bottom of the NWSL standings. Additionally, Mallory Swanson, the face of their franchise, suffered a season-ending knee injury in early April during a U.S. Women’s National Team friendly vs. Ireland. The club’s struggles are a stark contrast from previous seasons; the Red Stars have reached the postseason in seven straight years, including a pair of championship appearances in 2019 and 2021. That prior success on the pitch, however, has not translated off the field.
The Red Stars, which play at SeatGeek Stadium in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, have long sat in the bottom half of the league’s attendance rankings, finishing eighth out of 12 teams in average turnout last season. Despite being one of the league’s founding members, the Red Stars have yet to crack an average of 6,000 fans in the club’s history. Chicago also lacks any facility ownership or operating rights, leaving plenty of work to do for new ownership in bringing the club up to the speed of its NWSL peers.
(This story has been updated in the fifth paragraph with details of the law firms involved in the transaction.)
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