Angel City FC and the rise of women’s pro soccer

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

News, Business

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The National Women’s Soccer League’s regular season kicks off next week. And thanks in part to a record-breaking media rights agreement and the growth of women’s professional sports across the board, the league is gaining more attention — and investment — than ever. Angel City Football Club became the highest-valued women’s sports team in the world last year when Willow Bay and Bob Iger acquired a controlling stake in the franchise for $250 million. Julie Uhrman, the team’s CEO and co-founder, says Angel City is just the beginning. On the show today, Uhrman explains how she and her co-founders got investors to see their vision, why a game day experience that leaves you with FOMO is key to Angel City’s growth, and how to watch the NWSL’s season.

Later, how proposed funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health could leave a generational impact on the United States’ reputation as a science leader. And Adam Grant, host of the “Re:Thinking” podcast, answers the Make Me Smart question.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“How Angel City became ‘the most valuable women’s sports team in the world’ with new owners” from The Athletic
“Ranking new 2025 NWSL team jerseys: Which kits hit?” from ESPN
“Without the Draft, NWSL Clubs Are Navigating a Changing Landscape in College Recruitment” from Sports Illustrated
“NWSL announces landmark media partnerships with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports” from NWSL
“National Women’s Soccer League Playoffs Docuseries Gets Premiere Date At Prime Video” from Deadline
Listen: Adam Grant’s interview with Sabri Ben-Achour on Marketplace Morning Report

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.
0:11.8	I'm Kyle Risdahl, Tuesday, the 4th of March, and you know what we're not going to do today?
0:15.9	We're not going to do any news, man, because come on. Everybody needs a break. Everybody needs a break.
0:23.4	So we're going to talk women's soccer. The NWSL season starts next week. And it just keeps getting
0:29.7	better and better and better. I am a fan in case nobody knew that. Yeah. And we wanted to know more
0:35.6	about the business behind women's professional soccer.
0:39.0	What's been fueling this momentum and what that means for the players, the investors, and the fans, of course.
0:46.8	And here to make us smart is Julie Irman.
0:48.9	She is CEO and co-founder of Angel City Football Club, which is one of the fastest growing sports franchises in American history right now.
0:58.5	Welcome to the show, Julie.
1:00.2	Hi, thanks for having me.
1:01.9	So the league's regular season kicks off next week.
1:05.1	How are you feeling?
1:06.6	I'm nervous.
1:08.3	Any owner or CEO, you have high expectations, you want to perform well.
1:15.1	But most importantly, I'm just itching to see my players on the pitch again.
1:19.4	There's nothing better than having a team that he loved and love to support.
1:23.7	What did you see back in 2020 when you and Karen Nortman and Natalie Portman founded this team?
1:30.7	What was the landscape like?
1:34.1	Yeah, it was really interesting and not obvious.
1:36.7	I mean, the general narrative around women's sports in 2019 was people don't watch women's sports.
1:43.0	They don't invest in women's sports, they don't
	...

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