West Ham looking to sell stake in women’s team to US equity fund who are largest women’s-dedicated sports fund.
West Ham in talks over selling stake in women’s team to US private equity fund.
An American private equity fund that specialises in funding women’s sports is interested in purchasing a portion of West Ham’s women’s team.
In a planned deal worth approximately £55 million, Monarch Collective, whose co-founder founded Angel City FC before investing in the NWSL teams in Boston and San Diego, seeks to purchase up to 49% of the Women’s Super League squad.
It is anticipated that the current West Ham ownership group, which consists of Daniel Kretinsky, David Sullivan, and the David Gold family, will continue to have a majority stake. The club chose not to respond.
West Ham would be the second WSL team to sell shares to American investors this year, continuing a pattern that highlights the competition’s increasing attractiveness on a global scale. The commercial advantages of England’s second consecutive European Championship victory this summer are sure to bolster this position.
The WSL champions were valued at £245 million after Chelsea sold 10% of their women’s team to Alexis Ohanian, an American businessman who co-founded the social media site Reddit and is married to tennis legend Serena Williams, for £20 million in May.
The only top-flight team associated with a men’s squad that hasn’t played at its men’s stadium in the last six years is West Ham, who have been in the WSL since 2018 but have never placed in the top five. West Ham, who play at Dagenham & Redbridge’s 6,000-seat Chigwell Construction Stadium, is frustrated by the cost of renting the venue for a WSL match, and they are at odds with the London Stadium’s landlord, E20.
Monarch, the biggest women’s sports fund globally, would contribute more capital, including for the team, and experience. It would try to work out a solution with E20.
The venture capitalists Jasmine Robinson and Kara Nortman formed Monarch after raising $150 million in a funding round two years prior. They have since secured an additional $100 million to invest in women’s sports. The philanthropist Melinda French Gates and former Netflix executives Cindy Holland and Annie Imhoff are among the company’s all-female investors.