{"id":239667,"date":"2026-04-21T19:54:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/columbus-awarded-18th-nwsl-franchise-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:54:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:54:33","slug":"columbus-awarded-18th-nwsl-franchise-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/columbus-awarded-18th-nwsl-franchise-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus awarded 18th NWSL franchise \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto credit: Barbara J. Perenic-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Women\u2019s Soccer League<\/strong><\/a> awarded Columbus the league\u2019s 18th franchise Tuesday for a record expansion fee of $205 million, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n

Along with an expansion side in Atlanta, the club is set to debut in 2028.<\/p>\n

The team will play at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, the current venue of Major League Soccer\u2019s Columbus Crew SC. Haslam Sports Group, which owns the Crew, leads the expansion side\u2019s ownership group.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN<\/a>, the ownership group will pay a record expansion fee of $205 million. Furthermore, according to ESPN<\/a>, the stadium will be renovated to \u201cadd a custom locker room for the NWSL team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s announcement comes one day after Columbus City Council approved a proposal for a professional women\u2019s soccer team to come to the city, including $25 million to fund a new nearby training facility. <\/p>\n

Denver Summit and Boston Legacy both debuted as NWSL expansion sides in 2026. Denver broke the league\u2019s single-match attendance record in its inaugural home opener March 29.<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: Barbara J. Perenic-Imagn Images The National Women\u2019s Soccer League awarded Columbus the league\u2019s 18th franchise Tuesday for a record expansion fee of $205 million, according to multiple reports. Along with an expansion side in Atlanta, the club is set to debut in 2028. The team will play at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, the current venue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":239668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-239667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}