Angel City FC – Women's Soccer Express

NWSL News of Note: Merritt Mathias and Desiree Scott announces retirement, Alexa Spaanstra and Shae Holmes extend, Wave sale completed, Expansion update

This week, two long-time NWSL players, who both played in the NWSL’s inaugural season, Angel City defender Merritt Mathias and Kansas City Current midfielder Desiree Scott, announced their retirements.

Meanwhile, three players —Portland Thorns forward Alexa Spaanstra, Seattle Reign center-back Shae Holmes, and Orlando Pride forward Summer Yates — are set to stay in the NWSL through the 2026 season.

Also, Racing Louisville back-up goalkeeper Olivia Sekany has been loaned to the Brisbane Roar of the A-League until early March 2025.

In team news, the sale of the San Diego Wave from Ron Burkle to the family of Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine has been completed.

Regarding expansion, an article from Sports Business Journal has added Nashville and Philadelphia to the list of known bids in the hunt for the second 2026 expansion franchise.

Finally, the Red Stars are not the only professional soccer team in Chicago looking to build a new soccer-specific stadium.

NWSL: Angel City FC’s statement on disciplinary sanctions

On Monday, Angel City FC posted a statement via social media regarding the three-point standings deduction and other disciplinary sanctions imposed by the league in response to the club violating the salary cap and other league rules.

Angel City’s statement includes two major notables:

First, it appeared that childcare benefits were the (or at least one of the) “undisclosed benefits” which caused Angel City to exceed the salary cap.
Second, Angel City “formally requested a reconsideration of the three-point deduction” by the NWSL. However, the league “confirmed that, based on the totality of their findings, the sanctions stand as is.”

Additionally, Angel City claims to have had the understanding that “childcare payments [did] not count against the salary cap”, which is hard to square with the text of the NWSL Competition Manual.

Regarding the first notable, on Friday, a The 19th article revealed that only one of the undisclosed supplemental agreements covered childcare payments:

A league source told The 19th that child care payments were only part of the reason Angel City was over the cap and got sanctioned. Only one of the five side letters addressed additional child care payments; the rest of that side letter and the other four letters were for additional amounts covering other terms.

NWSL: Angel City salary cap investigation began after former ACFC player discussed supplemental agreement with their new club

On Tuesday, The Athletic published a write-up of a brief interview with NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman where she disclosed how the existence of Angel City’s “side letters” were initially discovered. According to the article, “one of [ACFC’s] former players signed with another team and brought up the existence of a supplementary agreement”, presumably with the new team. While The Athletic article does not have much in the way of new details, it does have some illuminating quotes from Berman.

Previously: Angel City FC fined $200,000 and docked 3 points for violating salary cap and other league rules

Regarding the “annual investigations and audits of player spending across clubs” mentioned in last week’s press release, Berman added that the league is “now going to proactively investigate and audit clubs on a random basis”. According to the article, in the past “the league routinely ask[ed] teams about their salary-cap compliance”, which, although not specified in the article, appears to be a reference to a requirement that multiple representatives from each team, including the “President”, “General Manager”, and “Head Coach” complete an annual “NWSL Team Player Compensation Compliance Affidavit”.*

In the interview, Berman reiterated that all player agreements must be disclosed to the league: “We have very clear rules… Any agreements that are not disclosed are by definition a violation of our rules.”*

NWSL: Angel City FC fined $200,000 and docked 3 points for violating salary cap and other league rules

Last week, the NWSL announced disciplinary actions against Angel City FC for violations of “multiple league rules”. According to the league, Angel City went over the salary cap “by approximately $50,000 for four weeks during the 2024 season”. Contributing to the salary cap overage were five “side letter” agreements with players which included some “excess benefits that were neither reported to the league nor included in the Standard Player Agreement”. The disciplinary actions announced by the league include a $200,000 fine, a deduction of 3 points in Angel City’s league standings, and partial suspensions for two members of Angel City’s front office: President/CEO Julie Uhrman and the general manager, Angela Hucles Mangano. (All quotes in this paragraph are from the league’s press release, which is reprinted later in this post.)

The NWSL’s disciplinary actions against Angel City should not be viewed as just for violating the salary cap. More significantly are the conclusions that Angel City failed to properly report the side letter agreements to the league.

NWSL News of Note, Teams Edition: Billionaire Marc Lasry expected to acquire controlling stake in Courage; Bay FC to build training facility, Current stadium to host 2025 NCAA College Cup

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.

NWSL News of Note: Alex Morgan announces retirement, Croix Bethune on SEI list, Magic Johnson invests in Spirit, plus lots more

Sunday, September 8th will be the end of an era as Alex Morgan will play her final professional soccer match. On Thursday, September 5th, Morgan announced her retirement via a social media video. The suddenness of Morgan’s retirement was due in part to a pregnancy, which was first publicly disclosed in the social media video.

The other major NWSL news of the week is the loss of Washington Spirit midfielder Croix Bethune for the rest of the season due to a meniscus injury that occurred during a ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game.

Here are the rest of the notables from September 3rd to the 5th:

Washington Spirit: Earvin “Magic” Johnson joins the club’s investor group
Seattle Reign: Jordyn Huitema extends until 2026, with mutual option for 2027
Angel City: Forward Jun Endo signs on through 2027
Angel City: Sale of Controlling interest to Willow Bay and Bob Iger completed
Houston Dash: Forward Bárbara Olivieri extends for two years
Houston Dash: Forward Cece Kizer released from contract
Orlando Pride: Amanda Allen loaned to USL Super League’s Lexington Sporting Club
Utah Royals: Addisyn Merrick released, signed by USL Super League’s Carolina Ascent
Rumor: Sofia Jakobsson “close to signing” with London City Lionesses

NWSL News of Note: Olympics Break Catch-Up: Balcer-Howell Swap, Katie Zelem to Angel City, Jess Carter to Gotham, and Lots More

After a seven week break for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the USWNT once again won gold, the second-half of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League season gets underway on Friday, August 23rd.

During the Olympic break, most of the teams were involved in player trades, signings, and other roster moves. The most notable (and shocking) trade during the break, just happened on Monday, when the Seattle Reign and Racing Louisville swapped forward Bethany Balcer for Racing’s captain, midfielder Jaelin Howell. Meanwhile, the most surprising signing was not a player, but an interim head coach: Landon Donovan, with the San Diego Wave.

Updates:

August 20th: Racing signs Colombian defender Ángela Barón, NC Courage loan defender Talia Staude to USL Super League side Tampa Bay Sun…

For player-related moves, as well as other developments involving all fourteen NWSL teams, including Angel City FC’s sale to Willow Bay and Bob Iger, keep reading…