Kay Cossington joined the firm as head of global women\u2019s soccer strategy earlier this year and is now the CEO of Bay Collective, its new multi-club platform. She was put in charge of Bay\u2019s sporting operations in September and tasked with finding Montoya\u2019s replacement. A former architect of England\u2019s 2022 European Championship-winning Lionesses, Cossington is in charge of steering Bay\u2019s future and Sixth Street\u2019s ambitions in women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n
The moves are hardly surprising if you have been paying attention to the NWSL\u2019s rapid growth over the past three years and its recent overhaul of private equity investment rules.<\/p>\n
Unlike the NBA, MLS, MLB, or NHL, which have cautiously let private equity nibble around the edges with small, passive stakes, the NWSL changed its rules in 2024 to allow private equity firms to take majority control of teams. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman backed the move in a 2024 CNBC interview,\u00a0saying private equity was a way to increase the league\u2019s value<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was a radical departure from the old-guard model and one the league saw as key to fueling its next growth spurt. They were right.<\/p>\n As of 2025, including two new franchises joining the league next year, at least eight NWSL teams have institutional investors.<\/p>\n Private equity (PE) investments are a form of institutional investment where the firm typically pools capital from heavyweight investors like pension funds and ultra-wealthy individuals, then uses that money to take significant stakes in businesses. Once in, they roll up their sleeves, shake up operations (including a reputation for budget-slashing and associated job cuts), fuel growth (hopefully), and aim to boost the company\u2019s value over a period of time (three to seven years) before cashing out for a profit.<\/p>\n Sixth Street was the first PE firm to jump fully in after the rule change, paying a record $53 million to launch Bay FC, the league\u2019s 14th franchise.<\/p>\n For Sixth Street, which invested in Real Madrid, San Antonio Spurs and most recently the Boston Celtics and the New England Patriots, Bay FC wasn\u2019t just another team purchase; it was a statement that the money now backing women\u2019s soccer would not sit quietly in the corner.<\/p>\n \n Sixth Street was the first private equity to buy controlling stake of an NWSL team with Bay FC (Thearon W. Henderson \/ NWSL via Getty Images)<\/p>\n CEO Alan Waxman, who represents Bay FC on the NWSL board of governors, made their intentions very clear at the time. They were in for the long haul.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re witnessing a typical pattern for growth companies at the beginning of an inflection point,\u201d Waxman said in a\u00a0LinkedIn post<\/a>\u00a0at the time of the announcement. \u201cAll you have to believe is that economic reality eventually catches up to the data. And as it does, similar to the global men\u2019s soccer franchises, we will start to see professional women\u2019s teams become national and global consumer brands.\u201d<\/p>\n When NWSL loosened the rules around private equity, it made sure there were guardrails. A single PE fund can hold passive stakes (i.e., no decision-making power) in up to three teams, and those stakes must be at least five percent and no more than 20 percent of a club\u2019s equity, according to NWSL\u2019s policy reviewed by\u00a0The Athletic. No more than 30 percent of any team can be owned by PE firms in total.<\/p>\n That means up to six firms can hold minority stakes in a team, but funds investing in multiple teams must manage at least $100 million in capital. The league policy requires funds to have the legal authority to hold their investments for a period of at least five years from the date the investment closes. No NWSL owner may have an investment in the fund, excluding passive investments of five percent or less of the fund\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n However, the league made one big exception. If a fund invests in only one team, it can own up to 100 percent and therefore be active in decision-making. To secure long-term commitment, the NWSL requires that investment to come from an evergreen fund with no set end date, as in Sixth Street\u2019s case, which is rare in private equity.<\/p>\n Most traditional PE funds have a fixed expiration period, typically lasting 10 to 12 years. Unlike evergreen or open-ended funds, which have an indefinite life, these standard closed-ended funds are structured to invest, manage and exit their assets within a predetermined timeframe. Despite opening the gates to private equity, the NWSL has drawn some lines. Sovereign wealth funds, state-run investment vehicles and pension funds are off the table, for now.<\/p>\n \u201cThe league is not looking for traders. They\u2019re not looking for people to come in and make a quick buck. They\u2019re looking for somebody to invest in the long-term success of the sport in America,\u201d said Alexander Popov, the head of private credit opportunities at Carlyle, one of the most influential private equity firms in the world.<\/p>\n Carlyle invested in the Seattle Reign in 2024 as part of a joint venture with the Seattle Sounders FC ownership to purchase the team from OL Groupe<\/a>, previously the Eagle Football Group, a holding company that is primarily known for its ownership of eight-time UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League winners Olympique Lyonnais.<\/p>\n \n Alexander Popov (right) is the head of private credit opportunities at Carlyle and the alternative representative for the Seattle Reign on the NWSL board of governors (Seattle Reign)<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Carlyle holds a controlling stake in the club, as neither Carlyle nor the NWSL commented on the extent of its ownership. However, once the deal was closed, Popov came on as the alternate governor of the Reign and still holds this position.<\/p>\n With many teams around the league exploring improvements to training facilities and building dedicated or semi-dedicated stadiums, what the NWSL needs now for its long-term growth is institutional capital, Popov said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to come into this league with the focus on the value that\u2019s created over the next 5-10 years, not necessarily the value that\u2019s tomorrow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite what Sixth Street and Carlyle say \u2014 that they\u2019re in this for the long haul \u2014 private equity isn\u2019t exactly known for its patience.<\/p>\n The model is simple: buy significant stakes in companies you can\u2019t find on the stock market (or take public ones private), supercharge their growth and sell them for a profit, as three American funds, Colony Capital, Butler Capital and Morgan Stanley did back in 2006.<\/p>\n These three funds,\u00a0bought the majority stake of Paris Saint-Germain\u00a0from French media company Canal+ for \u20ac41 million ($47.86 million) and five years later, sold the team to Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) for approximately \u20ac100 million ($116.7 million). Not bad for a team, which at the time did not show potential on the field. The French team, which won the UEFA men\u2019s Champions League last season, is now worth $4.26 billion, according to\u00a0Sportico\u2019s\u00a0May 2025 ranking.<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u201cWhat (private equity) does best as an industry, whether it\u2019s in sports, media and entertainment or other industries, where we and our investors win, is when we invest in good, transformational, transitional capital for growth in that industry,\u201d Popov explained. \u201cIn the past, by and large, this is not something that private equity has done in the world of sports, and that is really changing. We\u2019re bringing the same alignment of interest to the world of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2237797057-scaled.jpg\")
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