Club América defeated the Washington Spirit 5-3 in the Concacaf W Champions Cup final on Saturday, but the match also showed how the region’s clubs are entering FIFA’s expanding women’s club pathway: the winner qualified for the 2027 FIFA Women’s Champions Cup and moved toward the inaugural 2028 FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.[s][s]
The Spirit, owned by Korean-American billionaire Michele Kang, operates under a multi-club ownership structure spanning three clubs in North America and Europe.[s] Club América, backed by Liga MX’s deep roots in Mexican football culture, represents the traditional single-market model. Both approaches are colliding with a surge in NWSL expansion fees that has reshaped investor calculations across women’s professional soccer.
The NWSL Expansion Fee Explosion
In 2020, Angel City FC paid the first NWSL expansion fee in league history: $2 million.[s] Six years later, the Columbus franchise led by Haslam Sports Group is paying $205 million for the league’s 18th team.[s] That represents a 10,150% increase in expansion fees over six years.
The trajectory accelerated rapidly. In 2025, the NWSL announced Denver at $110 million and Atlanta, owned by Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports and Entertainment, at $165 million.[s] Columbus shattered that ceiling. Private investment for the new franchise will exceed $300 million when facilities and operations costs are included.[s]
For context: MLS reached $200 million in expansion fees with its 28th franchise in 2019. The NWSL hit that mark with its 18th.[s] The women’s league is commanding comparable expansion fees at an earlier franchise count than its men’s counterpart did.
The Kang Model: Multi-Club Ownership as Infrastructure
Michele Kang’s approach to women’s soccer differs from the City Football Group playbook familiar from men’s football. She owns the Washington Spirit in the NWSL, London City Lionesses in England’s Women’s Super League, and OL Lyonnes in France’s top division.[s]
“My model is, because of where women’s soccer is in terms of its development relative to men’s, my multi-club model is very different than the men’s multi-club,” Kang said. “My model is really respecting each club’s legacy.”[s]
Kang views multi-club ownership not as a luxury but as a structural requirement for sustainability. “You can’t do those things if you only have one club,” Rebecca Smith, founder of another ownership group, Crux Football, explained on the Business of Sport podcast. “But if you spread those costs over five teams, that becomes quite a financially sustainable model.”[s]
The NWSL expansion boom makes these cross-border structures economically viable. With expansion fees climbing past $200 million, the capital requirements for competitive operations demand either deep-pocketed individual owners or shared infrastructure across multiple properties.
Kang’s investments extend beyond team ownership. In 2024, she pledged a $30 million gift to U.S. Soccer, which the federation later described as one of the largest philanthropic commitments in its history.[s] The gift was aimed at scaling competitive opportunities, expanding talent identification, and supporting professional development for female players, coaches, and referees.
UEFA’s Warning Shot
The multi-club model faces regulatory friction in Europe. Days before the Spirit played América, UEFA’s women’s football director, Nadine Kessler, issued a pointed statement about ownership rules in the Women’s Champions League.
“There is an evolution of multi-club owners in women’s football and they invest a lot into the game, which is important,” Kessler said. “But at the same time, when it comes to playing in one football competition, there will be no different approach and no exceptions when it comes to the women’s game. This is being closely monitored.”[s]
The statement arrived as Kang’s OL Lyonnes prepared for the Women’s Champions League final, while her London City Lionesses publicly stated ambitions to compete for the WSL title next season.
“Why would we want to preserve the sporting integrity of men’s football, but not of women’s football? It’s out of [the] question,” Kessler added.[s]
The tension highlights a fundamental question in NWSL expansion economics: how will European regulators respond as multi-club groups add top-tier European women’s clubs? The examples cited by UEFA sit uneasily with European ownership norms because several groups span multiple clubs that could qualify for the same competition.
What the Final Revealed
Saturday’s match showcased the competitive strength of both models. Club América entered the final having won the Liga MX Femenil championship six days earlier, defeating Monterrey 3-0 in front of 26,670 fans.[s] The Spirit fought back from 2-0 down to tie the match at 3-3 before conceding twice late.[s]
“Obviously, the result stings a little bit, but incredible effort from the team, to be two goals down and come back and tie it up,” said Spirit defender Kate Wiesner. “I think we showed a lot of resilience today, which is what we want to be part of our DNA as the Spirit.”[s]
Scarlett Camberos, Club América’s captain, finished with a goal and two assists to earn best player honors.[s] The victory sends América to the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in 2027 and advances the club along Concacaf’s pathway toward the inaugural 2028 FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.[s]
The Broader Market
The NWSL’s expansion surge reflects broader shifts in women’s sports economics. The league signed a $240 million broadcast deal in 2023.[s] Nielsen projects the global women’s football fanbase to grow from 500 million to over 800 million by 2030, while sponsorship deals for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tripled compared to 2019.[s]
Mexican women’s football has its own deep history. The 1971 unofficial Women’s World Cup final at Estadio Azteca drew 110,000 fans to watch Denmark defeat Mexico.[s] Club América’s continental victory puts a Mexican club directly into FIFA’s developing global club pathway.
The NWSL expansion model and Liga MX’s established infrastructure represent two paths to the same destination: a global women’s club competition ecosystem with real financial stakes. FIFA’s new tournaments create incentives for investment that did not exist five years ago. The question is whether the regulatory frameworks in Europe, North America, and Latin America can accommodate the capital structures required to sustain elite competition across borders.
The money keeps flowing. NWSL expansion fees have climbed from $2 million in 2020 to $205 million in 2026, while FIFA’s new club pathway gives continental results a larger commercial context. Whether the multi-club ownership model or the traditional single-market approach proves more durable will depend on regulatory decisions still being made, and on which structure produces the better product on the pitch.
