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Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly believes that the club’s women’s team will be a hugely valuable asset in the coming years.
Thus far, the investment by Boehly and Clearlake Capital since acquiring the club two years ago has not paid dividends, with a transfer spend in excess of £1bn, three sacked managers and no Champions League football for a second successive season after another campaign of tumult.
On Tuesday, Mauricio Pochettino was the latest Chelsea manager to pay the price, with the Argentine and the club’s owners agreeing to a ‘mutual’ parting of the ways.
On-pitch success is an important part of the Boehly/Clearlake investment thesis, and they would have expected more in the way of such success since May 2022. But they are playing a longer-term game at the club, with plans for a revamped Stamford Bridge very much at the forefront of the thinking, as are plans to grow the club’s brand in the United States at a key time of ‘soccer’ growth across the Atlantic leading up to the 2026 World Cup in the country.
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What is happening in the US with regards to women’s football is starting to set the tone for the women’s game on a more macro level, with investors now seeing the growth potential that exists in not only women’s football, but a number of professional women’s sports which have been attracting an influx of new capital.
In the NWSL, the highest level of professional women’s football in America, valuations of teams have been on a sharp incline, with team sales having risen from the $35m paid for the Washington Spirit by Michele Kang in 2022, to the $113m paid for the San Diego Wave earlier this year. Angel City FC, the NWSL’s most globally recognised team, is currently up for sale and the price talk is around the $200m mark for a team that was founded just three years ago. To put that into some perspective, a $200m (£157m) sale would make it more valuable than five Premier League sides this season; Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Brentford, Luton Town, and Sheffield United, according to analysis from US sports business website Sportico.
According to a report in the Evening Standard earlier this month, Chelsea had received two expressions of interest in investing in the women’s team, which the report claimed was valued at £150m by the owners, with Boehly and Clearlake considering selling a portion of the equity in the team to raise funds for infrastructure investment around the women’s team, including a move away from its current home at Kingsmeadow.
Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum last week, Boehly stated his belief that the Chelsea women’s team would skyrocket in value in the coming years.
“One of the things we believe very much is that the Chelsea women’s team is a top, top women’s team in the world, and it’s going to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Boehly.
“We’re starting to see sponsors recognise that fact and they have got to get on board right now because it’s good for their brand.”
Chelsea’s women’s team were crowned WSL champions under the departing Emma Hayes this past season, also reaching the UEFA Women’s Champions League final before being beaten over two legs by Barcelona.
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