{"id":542273,"date":"2026-03-24T12:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542273\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:06:12","slug":"monarch-collective-others-invest-in-cleveland-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542273\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarch Collective, others invest in Cleveland WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Gilbert\u2019s Rock Entertainment Group has brought on minority investors in Cleveland WNBA, the expansion team set to begin play in 2028. The group of new investors is headlined by Monarch Collective, the <\/a>private equity firm focused on women\u2019s sports<\/a>, and features individual investors and business leaders with local ties including Steve Demetriou; Chris Hyland; John Morikis; A.J. and Sean Murphy; Michael Petras; and Liz Yee and Ted Coons.<\/p>\n

Allison Howard, REG\u2019s chief commercial officer and president of the WNBA expansion team, told SBJ that the goal was to bring on strategic partners for the new franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what our strengths are, and we want a really deep bench of experience and strengths. It\u2019s already been collaborative,\u201d said Howard, who noted she has a long relationship with Monarch\u2019s Kara Nortman, also a co-founder of Angel City FC. \u201cThe breadth and depth of her experience, especially in the NWSL, have been huge. And it\u2019s very helpful for us as we\u2019re already going out with partnership opportunities, we already have almost 8,500 initial [membership] deposits. She has exact experience specifically in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial details were not disclosed. Howard declined to comment on transaction value or how much equity the new investors have acquired. Kirkland & Ellis was the team\u2019s legal adviser.<\/p>\n

Cleveland is the first of three upcoming expansion teams the WNBA selected last year<\/a>, with Detroit following in 2029<\/a> and Philadelphia in 2030<\/a>. The league secured a record $250M expansion fee for each. Detroit\u2019s ownership group is led by Tom Gores, while Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment will own and operate the Philadelphia team.<\/p>\n

In acquiring its Cleveland minority stake, Monarch Collective becomes the first private equity firm approved to invest in WNBA teams. Monarch previously acquired stakes in NWSL teams Angel City, San Diego Wave and the upcoming Boston Legacy, as well as Germany\u2019s Viktoria Berlin<\/a>. The firm closed its $250M debut fund<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Nortman, who launched Monarch in 2023 alongside Jasmine Robinson, said basketball has been a focus for the investment firm from the start and that Monarch spent the last few years circling opportunities in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cCleveland hits all the marks, and it\u2019s both quantitative and qualitative,\u201d said Nortman, pointing to the Cavaliers receiving the NBA\u2019s Team of the Year and Inclusion Leadership Award honors<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cFrom the first seconds we started talking to the team, it was the nuance of how everyone showed up and was curious. \u2018Here\u2019s what works on the men\u2019s side, let\u2019s debate what could work on the women\u2019s side.\u2019 That\u2019s not something you find everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yee, the Rockefeller Foundation\u2019s EVP of programs, is a Monarch limited partner and previously backed Cleveland\u2019s bid for an NWSL expansion team<\/a>. She told SBJ that she has local ties through her husband Coons, a Columbus native, and sees an opportunity to support more than just a new basketball team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire career working to try to drive greater gender equality for women and girls. The thesis that underlies Ted\u2019s and my interest in the WNBA and in the NWSL is that when you invest in women and girls, you\u2019re building stronger communities,\u201d said Yee, who also highlighted a recent Bank of America report projecting women\u2019s sports revenue could grow 250% by 2030. \u201cThe capital is just catching up to what\u2019s been an incredible growth asset that\u2019s been entirely overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard noted Cleveland WNBA has already met with around 100 potential brand sponsors, and that the expansion team will reveal its branding and first sponsorship deals later this year. She expects the team\u2019s commercial roster will look quite a bit different than its NBA counterpart\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women\u2019s team is going to be very different than the Cavs. It is a different demographic, it\u2019s a different look,\u201d Howard said. \u201cThat is, in a very positive way, bringing new brands to us that frankly are not interested in being a partners on the Cavs side or [other REG businesses]. The interest we\u2019ve received already from national and global brands that had not reached out to us before has been very, very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Gilbert\u2019s Rock Entertainment Group has brought on minority investors in Cleveland WNBA, the expansion team set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,52468,99,434,1765],"class_list":["post-542273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}