February 6 – Chicago-based investment firm Ariel Investments has raised its first women’s sports fund, announcing $250 million in committed capital for its Project Level, fund which invest in women’s sports.
Ariel President and co-CEO Mellody Hobson said: “Reaching $250 million is a meaningful start, not a finish line. Our ambition remains clear: bringing scale, operational excellence and a discerning investment lens to elevate women’s sports while delivering compelling returns for our limited partners.”
The fund has made one if its first investments in the National Women’s Soccer League’s newest debutant, the Denver Summit, being the latest target in what Ariel calls “one of the most compelling, underappreciated growth opportunities in the global sports economy.”
NWSL team expansion fees have exploded over the last 12 months, rising 50% from $110 million to $165 million.
Owning a team was once dismissed as a vanity investment, but now ownership is increasingly judged on fundamentals, scale, and return, and women’s sport sits squarely at the centre of that recalibration.
Since the acquisition of Denver Summit last January, demand followed swiftly with 8,500 season tickets sold within weeks of launch, exceeding expectations and immediately positioning the Summit to become one of the league’s top revenue generators.
Alongside the Summit, Ariel is also investing in League One Volleyball (LOVB) and has seen participation surge. Seven thousand more girls are now playing in its youth system, with total junior numbers hitting 25,000 by last year’s end.
“The vast majority of money that we’ve seen go into sports has gone into major league men or men’s sports specifically, which is why I keep calling women’s sports ‘the small caps of sports,’ perfectly aligned to what we do at Ariel, being misunderstood, ignored and mostly under followed,” Hobson said.
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