The National Women’s Soccer League is officially set to have 14 teams for the 2024 season. The league announced on Tuesday that it has awarded an expansion club to the Bay Area, California for next year. The northern California club will be the third California team added to the league in just two years. The expansion bid is backed by leading global investment firm Sixth Street and comes with a record-breaking fee of $53 million.
The expansion news comes just weeks after the announcement of Utah Royals as the league’s 13th team. The arrival of the two new teams will nearly double the league’s size from its inaugural season which fielded just eight teams in 2013. It’s the second consecutive wave of expansion to feature two incoming teams since Los Angeles and San Diego both joined the league in 2022.
“The number of bids and the increase in the league’s expansion fees are indicative of both the demand that exists for women’s soccer in the professional sports landscape and the validated growth trajectory of our league,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.
“We said at the start of the expansion process in July 2022 that we would be intentional in seeking out strong markets and ownership groups that not…
