Scan the field after a Washington Spirit match, when players, staff and family gather to debrief and swap stories, and team owner Michele Kang is almost certain to be holding court. Kang is at most games, home and away. It is hardly the life once imagined by the investor and philanthropist who made her name (and fortune) in the field of health information technology.
“If you asked me even three years ago, ‘Are you going to be a sports team owner?’ I would have looked at you like you’re crazy,” Kang told ESPN recently.
Now, having assumed majority ownership of the Spirit in early 2022 for a then-record National Women’s Soccer League team sale of $35 million, Kang is doubling down. A deal to purchase the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team — eight-time champions of Europe in the past 12 years — is expected to close in the next month.
Kang’s acquisition of the world’s most successful women’s team of the modern era is the start of a multiteam, global network, she said. She expects to add at least one more team to her new, yet-to-be-named parent company’s portfolio before the end of the year, with a goal of…
