Leading this edition of notables is the news that Steve Malik, the primary owner of the North Carolina Courage is in formal talks to sell a 60% stake in the Courage to billionaire Marc Lasry. Should that deal go through retired NWSL player Lauren Holiday is expected to have “a very active role” in the Courage organization.
Also, Bay FC has announced plans to acquire a lease of land on Treasure Island, in the San Francisco Bay, for a permanent and dedicated training facility, which would also include offices for its sporting operations.
In head coaching news, the Houston Dash have officially parted ways with Fran Alonso who had been mysteriously absent from the team since the end of June.
Other notables include:
- Angel City: MLS club Los Angeles FC acquires minority stake
- Kansas City Current: CPKC Stadium will host 2025 NCAA Women’s College Cup
- Gotham FC: Ali Krieger named Club Ambassador
- Portland Thorns: RAJ Sports awarded Portland WNBA Franchise
- Racing Louisville’s attendance woes — “We’d love to see more of you”
Angel City’s violation of the salary cap and other league rules is covered in a separate post: Angel City FC fined $200,000 and docked 3 points for violating salary cap and other league rules.
Additionally, SafeSports investigation into former Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames has apparently been closed due to “insufficient” evidence. However, the root cause appears to be a blatantly deficient investigation.
North Carolina Courage: Billionaire Marc Lasry has apparently signed a letter of intent to acquire controlling stake
On September 19th, Sportico published an article, sourced from “multiple people familiar with the details”, stating that billionaire Marc Lasry (Wikipedia bio, Forbes.com profile) had recently signed a letter of intent to acquire a 60% stake in the Courage from Steve Malik.
Two weeks later, on October 4th, Jeff Kassouf of ESPN.com reported “that Lauren Holiday is expected to play ‘a very active role’ with the North Carolina Courage” if the deal goes through. Holiday, who won a Women’s World Cup (2015) and two Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012) with the USWNT, Holiday “would join the team board and be involved in operations with a particular focus on player development, multiple sources said.”
Lasry is the CEO and Chairman of Avenue Capital, which he founded with his sister, Sonia Gardner. He was interviewed by CNBC in September about investing in sports, before the news about the letter of intent became public (cnbc.com video).
The deal, if approved by the NWSL Board of Governors and completed, would result in a $108 million valuation for the Courage.
The sale of a controlling interest to Lasry would leave Racing Louisville as the only NWSL team with a majority ownership connected to a United Soccer League men’s team.
Mark Lasry previously owned a 25% stake in the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA and now serves on the board of newly promoted English Premier League team Ipswich Town (press release) after becoming a minority investor in the club (frontofficesports.com). Ipswich Town has a women’s team (www.itfc.co.uk) that currently competes in the third level of English women’s soccer (Wikipedia).
Lauren Holiday’s husband, Jrue Holiday, played for the Bucks when Lasry was a minority owner. She is involved with Avenue Capital as one of its athlete advisors (AvenueCapital.com). Other named athlete advisors include current English men’s international Harry Kane and current NBA player Steph Curry.
Holiday has a small equity interest in Angel City FC and would likely need to sell that stake should she become formally involved with the Courage.
Bay FC: Training Facility planned for Treasure Island
On September 24th (press release), Bay FC revealed that they are planning to build a permanent training facility on Treasure Island, which is located in the San Francisco Bay, east of San Francisco and northwest of Oakland.
The training facility will be on 8.5 acres of land in the center of the island (Google Maps) and will have three practice fields. The facility will also house the club’s “sporting operations”.
Construction of the training facility is expected to begin in 2025, but the lease of the land to Bay FC still needs approval from the Treasure Island Development Authority and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Bay FC expects to operate out of the facility starting in the 2027 NWSL season.
Treasure Island is an artificial island originally created for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition that is located in the San Francisco Bay, east of San Francisco and northwest of Oakland. From 1942 to 1997, the island was a United States Navy facility. It is accessible via Interstate 80 and a ferry service (sanfranciscobayferry.com). Since 2009, there has been a concerted redevelopment effort. (Wikipedia) Bay FC’s current home stadium, PayPal Park, is approximately a 50 mile drive away.
Thousands of new residential units are in the process of being built on Treasure Island, so some Bay FC players and staff could live on the island.
Houston Dash: Fran Alonso is officially out as head coach
On October 1st, in a social media post (x.com), the Houston Dash announced that the club and Alonso “agreed to part ways”. Here is the full text of the statement:
The Houston Dash and head coach Fran Alonso have agreed to part ways in lieu of a return from his leave of absence. We thank Fran for his contributions to the team and wish him well in his future endeavors.
Ricky Clarke will continue to lead the team and will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
The organization plans to announce a new general manager whose role will include the selection of the next head coach.
Alonso was hired ahead of the 2024 NWSL season and last coached a match for the Dash on June 22nd. Alonso “did not travel with the team due to an illness” for the Dash’s June 28th away match against the Kansas City Current (Dash match preview). No further explanation of his extended absence was given.
The Dash have been without a general manager since Alex Singer was fired on July 25th.
Angel City: MLS club Los Angeles FC acquires minority stake
During the summer, Los Angeles FC of Major League Soccer acquired a minority interest in Angel City FC through the exercising of equity options. The news was first reported by Sportico on September 26th. As part of Angel City’s lease agreement for the use of BMO Stadium, ACFC granted “priced warrants” to LAFC. At least some of those warrants were exercised “over the last two months” (August and/or September).
With the sale of ACFC’s controlling stake to Willow Bay and Bob Iger, the club’s valuation increased significantly, which likely means that the buy-in price paid by LAFC is far below the fair market value of the equity interest it acquired.
Kansas City Current: CPKC Stadium will host 2025 NCAA Women’s College Cup
On Wednesday, the NCAA announced that CPKC Stadium, which is owned by the Kansas City Current, will host the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s College Cup. (NCAA press release, Current press release)
The 2025 College Cup was originally awarded to Sacramento, California, in October 2020 (NCAA press release). (Note: I have not been able to find any reason for why Sacramento, which was also suppose to host the 2024 NCAA D1 Men’s College Cup, is no longer the host for either event.)
The 2024 edition of the College Cup will be held at WakeMed Soccer Park, which is the current home of the North Carolina Courage.
Gotham FC: Ali Krieger named Club Ambassador
On September 19th, Gotham announced Ali Krieger as their first “Club Ambassador”. From Gotham’s press release:
In the new role, Krieger will work closely with the club’s Front Office on a range of off-field initiatives, each designed to elevate Gotham FC’s profile in the New York & New Jersey market. Krieger will collaborate with Gotham FC’s leadership team to further amplify Gotham’s profile, create innovative and unique fan experiences, and deepen its relationship in the community.
Portland Thorns: RAJ Sports awarded Portland WNBA Franchise
On September 19th, the WNBA announced that RAJ Sports, which officially acquired a controlling stake in the Portland Thorns earlier this year, has been awarded a franchise for the 2026 season. (WNBA press release)
Portland previously had a WNBA expansion team, the Portland Fire, which folded after three seasons in 2002. (Wikipedia)
Racing Louisville: “We’d love to see more of you”
On Wednesday, October 3rd, ahead of Racing Louisville’s home match against the Kansas City Current on Friday, its hometown newspaper, The Courier-Journal, posted a guest op-ed by head coach Bev Yanez titled “Why Racing Louisville FC needs the city’s support”. Here are two key paragraphs from the op-ed:
We know how amazing support looks: We had a record crowd in April when 11,365 people watched us win and took in Thunder Over Louisville at Lynn Family Stadium. We just saw a record 14,000-plus people at the Yum Center for the magnificent University of Louisville volleyball squad. I know Louisville packs the house for Cardinals women’s basketball.
But the truth is, we haven’t seen those kinds of crowds at our games lately. Don’t get me wrong, I love our fans, as do our players. Those who come push our team forward. But we’d love to see more of you. The home crowd energy fuels our group and discourages opponents, and it gives us an advantage. We are in this together.
The attendance for Racing Louisville’s match was 6,013, which was slightly below their median attendance of 6,172. Their previous home match, against the Courage, was a season low of just 4,653.
Here is Racing’s home attendance for the 2024 season:
- 6,123 — March 16, 2024 — Orlando Pride
- 6,818 — April 13, 2024 — San Diego Wave FC
- 11,365 — April 20, 2024 — Utah Royals FC (season high, “Thunder Over Louisville”)
- 6,222 — May 10, 2024 — Washington Spirit
- 6,061 — June 7, 2024 — Houston Dash
- 6,412 — June 15, 2024 — NJ/NY Gotham FC
- 8,096 — June 29, 2024 — Bay FC
- 6,607 — August 24, 2024 — Chicago Red Stars
- 5,011 — August 31, 2024 — Seattle Reign
- 5,493 — September 14, 2024 — Angel City FC
- 4,653 — September 21, 2024 — North Carolina Courage (season low)
- 6,013 — October 5, 2024 — Kansas City Current
Racing’s final home match is against the Portland Thorns on Saturday, October 19th.
NWSL Abuse Scandal: SafeSport investigation into former Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames closed due to “insufficient” evidence
According to a Washington Post article published on October 3rd, which has been summarized by Dan Lauletta at The Equalizer, former Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames is no longer under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which has jurisdiction to investigate allegations of abuse and other misconduct of persons involved with Olympic sports in the United States (Wikipedia).
According to the Post article, four of the six “publicly named accusers” of Dames were not contacted by SafeSport. One was last contacted in 2021.
Dames is no longer in SafeSport’s public disciplinary database (USAToday.com), indicating that he is under no restrictions by SafeSport. However, he was listed in the database as of August 1st, so sometime in the last two months, SafeSport’s investigation of Dames was ended.
SafeSport’s (lack of) investigation does not affect the NWSL’s lifetime ban against Dames.
Women's Soccer Express 