[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, Columbus, Ohio, will be home to the next expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the league and the team’s ownership group announced on Tuesday. As the 18th club in the top professional women’s soccer league in the United States, the team will be owned by the same ownership group that operates the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. The ownership group is led by Haslam Sports Group (HSG), which also owns the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League and holds a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. The team will begin play in 2028, the same year as the new Atlanta franchise owned by Arthur Blank, who also owns MLS side Atlanta United and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. The yet-to-be-named Columbus team will play at the Crew’s home stadium, which has a capacity of 20,000 spectators.
The editor believes that the NWSL is currently in a determined expansion mode, with eight teams having launched their operations since 2020. The two most recent additions began playing this year. Among them, Denver drew more than 63,000 fans to its season home opener in March, breaking the league’s attendance record in one fell swoop.