![Seattle Reign Sale Sounders Carlyle Million](https://www.sportico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/reignphot.webp?w=1280&h=720&crop=1)
The Seattle Sounders and investment firm Carlyle have closed on their purchase of the Seattle Reign from OL Groupe, a deal that values the NWSL club at $58 million.
Under the agreement, announced Monday morning, Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer will serve as the Reign’s governor, representing the team at board meetings and in league votes. Alex Popov, Carlyle’s head of private credit, will serve as alternate governor. Both groups will hold equity as part of the agreement—the Sounders as managing partner and Carlyle as majority partner.
The deal covers 100% of the Reign equity. OL Groupe previously said that it had agreed to sell 97% of the team (the other 3% was reportedly owned by former NBA star Tony Parker). Both sides declined to share financial specifics of the acquisition.
The deal will create shared ownership between the city’s two biggest soccer teams. That MLS/NWSL overlap exists in a number of markets (like Orlando and Houston), but not elsewhere (like Washington D.C. or New York). It’s also a significant step deeper into franchise ownership for Carlyle, which has been looking to grow its presence in sports and has typically done so via credit financing.
Carlyle was part of early conversations around last year’s Manchester United sale, and more recently was in talks to provide capital to the group led by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore looking to acquire a control stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves. Carlyle and the NBA were unable to find a structure that worked for both sides, and the firm eventually left the group. A representative for Carlyle declined to comment on the difference between the conversations with the NBA and the NWSL.
That said, the two leagues do have different rules regarding institutional capital and ownership. The NWSL recently codified its private equity rules, which restrict funds that invest in multiple teams but allow firms to hold significant chunks of equity as long as they don’t invest in a second team (there are other safeguards, too). It’s under that carveout that Sixth Street became the primary backer of the Bay Area expansion team. The NBA, by contrast, does not allow private capital to hold more than 30% of any one team, restricts the amount a single fund can own to 20%, and demands that their involvement be passive.
“We believe there is a massive disconnect between the excitement and engagement around women’s soccer and the level of investment into the leagues, teams and players that drive this fandom,” Popov said in a statement.
Carlyle’s global credit business has deployed more than $4 billion into sports, media and entertainment in the last six years. The sports deals include financing a debt package for Italian soccer club Atalanta and an investment into sports streaming platform Deltatre.
The Reign, previously called OL Reign, were valued at $49 million when Sportico published its first NWSL valuations last October. The Sounders—whose ownership group includes a number of celebrities and high-profile local businesspeople—are valued at $795 million.
The Reign were previously owned by John Textor’s Eagle Football, which bought the French soccer holding company OL Groupe in December 2022. (OL Groupe, best known for the Lyon teams, purchased the Reign back in 2019 for around $3 million.) The NWSL team was put on the market last year shortly after Michele Kang, owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, bought the Lyon women’s team.
The sale comes amid a slew of NWSL transactions, with some teams fetching record valuations. Last August, a group led by Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts bought the Chicago Red Stars for $35.5 million. In January, the Portland Thorns sold for $63 million, then the highest price ever paid for control of an NWSL team.
That record lasted less than two months, as billionaire Ron Burkle agreed to sell the San Diego Wave in a two-part, $113 million deal. Sportico reported in March that the board of Angel City FC, the league’s most valuable team, had hired a bank to explore selling a control stake in the franchise. In all, almost every franchise in the 14-team league has new control owners in the past half decade. More expansion talks are also underway.
As part of Monday’s announcement, the buyers announced that long-time Sounders executive Maya Mendoza-Exstrom will serve as the Reign’s new chief business officer. Mendoza-Extstrom was previously the COO of the Sounders, and she joins a female leadership team that includes general manager Lesle Gallimore and head coach Laura Harvey.
The Raine Group served as OL Groupe’s exclusive financial advisor on the deal. Proskauer was its legal advisor.