Spain’s Liga F cashed in this week. The top-flight women’s league approved a €55 million commercial investment deal with former NBA star Pau Gasol’s Gasol16 Ventures alongside Fortified Partners.
The sum weighs in as the largest private investment in women’s club soccer history. The funds will be distributed over the next four seasons in a targeted effort to build up the league’s commercial and operational structure.
Liga F is gaining speed, drawing 7.5 million viewers this past season — up 11.2% year-over-year. The league additionally closed out the fiscal year with €25.8 million in revenue.
“This is not an emotional investment in women’s sport,” Gasol said in this week's press release.
“It’s an investment decision driven by data, market trends, and the conviction that women’s football represents a tremendous growth opportunity.”
The PWHL is opening its books, welcoming first-ever outside PWHL investors Kilmer Sports Ventures and Ilitch Companies via a reported $100 million buy-in.
It marks Toronto-based Kilmer Sports’s second women’s sports stake, after Larry Tanenbaum’s multi-team operation backed the WNBA’s Tempo ahead of its 2026 debut.
Chris Ilitch’s Ilitch Companies — parent to Detroit’s Tigers (MLB) and Red Wings (NHL) — already manages Little Caesar’s Arena, home to Detroit’s incoming PWHL expansion team.
The league is gearing up to enter its fourth season amid record growth, surpassing one million fans and seeing a 28% jump in attendance. Alongside the new PWHL investors, it continues to operate under a single-entity model led by Mark and Kimbra Walter.
“Building world-class women’s sports organizations that inspire the next generation of athletes, fans, and leaders is how you create something that truly lasts,” Tanenbaum said in a league statement.
“We’re proud to deepen that commitment through this significant investment in the PWHL.”
Three women’s soccer greats are buying in, as retired USWNT stars Abby Wambach, Julie Foudy, and Leslie Osborne joined multi-club ownership group Crux Football’s new Player Investor Collective.
The initiative invites former athletes across all sports to invest in European women’s soccer clubs, building on a portfolio that includes France’s Montpellier HSC Féminines and Sweden’s FC Rosengård.
“We don’t necessarily need more investment in Lyon, Arsenal, or Barcelona,” said founder and CEO Bex Smith. “What we need are better teams throughout the leagues. We need more competitive environments, more stories for broadcasters to tell and more opportunities for players to develop.”
Crux focuses on smaller markets, aiming to promote parity and self-sustainability within teams while appealing to investors who might not have the capital to buy into big-name teams.
“We wanted to make ownership accessible,” she continued. “Not everyone can come in with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. There should be pathways for athletes to participate in building the future of the sport.”
The Sports Bra is expanding its reach, as Portland’s pioneering women’s sports bar launched a crowdfunding campaign inviting fans to buy in for as little as $250.
Founder Jenny Nguyen’s “Own a Piece of The Bra” initiative is looking to raise $1.2 million toward national expansion, targeting 40 locations by 2031.
“When we came onto the market in 2022, folks were doubtful of the concept,” Nguyen told The Athletic.
“Immediately we started to see other places opening up, because the proof of concept was there when The Sports Bra became successful.”
Backed by from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and other high-profile investors, the bar generated more than $1 million during its first eight months. The company projects annual revenue could exceed $75 million by 2030.
“Women’s sports is big business, and supporting through investment will yield returns,” said Atlanta Dream co-owner and The Sports Bra investor Renee Montgomery.
“If you’ve been paying attention, it’s easy to see how backing The Sports Bra is a winning move.”
Five new locations are in development in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Boston, and Maine. Required initial franchise investment ranges from $400,733 to $1,108,958.
Fans can learn more and purchase equity shares via Republic.
Cleveland is already stacking its WNBA roster, as the upcoming expansion team added women’s sports-focused investment firm Monarch Collective alongside business leaders with Ohio ties to its growing ownership group on Tuesday.
Monarch Collective, whose portfolio already includes the NWSL's Angel City, Boston Legacy, and San Diego Wave, chose Cleveland as its first-ever strategic WNBA investment — and its first foray into backing basketball in general.
Joining the firm in as fellow minority owners in the WNBA's 16th team are Liz Yee, Ted Coons, Steve and Lauren Spilman, Steve Demetriou, Michael Petras, John Morikis, Chris Hyland, and AJ Murphy.
"Our commitment to Ohio runs deep, and this strategic investment – along with partners who share our fervor for women's sports in this region – marks a powerful next step for our franchise," said Rock Entertainment group chairman and majority owner Dan Gilbert in Tuesday's press release.
Fans are already clamoring to catch the new team in action, with the franchise already securing more than 8,000 initial season ticket deposits ahead of its planned 2028 season debut — nearly 25 years after the folding of the city's original WNBA squad, the Cleveland Rockers.
"We believe in the present and future of women's sports," added Gilbert. "The ownership group we have assembled will help propel this franchise forward and support its mission to become a force for good in our community and across the sport."
How to buy WNBA Cleveland season tickets
WNBA fans looking for season tickets when Cleveland begins playing in 2028 can place an initial $28 deposit — which includes a time-stamped spot on the seat selection list — via the franchise's official ticketing partner, SeatGeek.
The WTGL is stocking up on golf stars, as TMRW Sports' newly announced offseason league begins to build its debut roster in partnership with the LPGA.
World No. 1 golfer Jeeno Thitikul (Thailand) signed on to participate in WTGL's inaugural season this week, alongside No. 5 Charley Hull (England), No. 6 Lydia Ko (New Zealand), No. 25 Brooke Henderson (Canada), and No. 79 Lexi Thompson (USA).
"WTGL will be a global stage to showcase LPGA stars, and this first wave of committed players represents that opportunity with some of the world's best," said TMRW Sports founder and CEO Mike McCarley in Monday's press release.
Set to launch next winter, the WTGL looks to build off the popular, second-year men's Tomorrow's Golf League (TGL), with the competition integrating both a physical and virtual golf environment inside Palm Beach Gardens at Florida's SoFi Center.
"These players will thrive in WTGL's competitive environment as fans will witness their skill and connect more deeply with their personalities through the unprecedented access the league delivers," said McCarley, noting that TGL golfers remain mic'd up throughout the team event.
The WTGL is also earning stamps of approval from several women's sports greats, as the Alex Morgan co-founded Trybe Ventures — an investment group that includes Morgan's fellow former USWNT stars Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach — became the new league's lead capital partner last week.
The Stars are investing in the future, with the Chicago NWSL team announcing on Tuesday that it's planning to build a club-owned training and performance center on a 10-acre site in suburban Bannockburn, Illinois.
"This facility will set the standard in women's professional soccer by providing the infrastructure our players need to develop to their highest level of performance," said executive chairperson Laura Ricketts in a club statement. "This new facility isn't just an investment in the Stars, it's an investment in the future of women's soccer."
Set to break ground in this spring, the Chicago Stars' private training ground will include two full pitches, a goalkeeper pitch, and a 45,000 square foot performance center as the founding NWSL club doubles down on its new identity after finishing the 2025 season in last place.
Along with a brand overhaul, the Stars announced last year that the club will relocate from Bridgeview's SeatGeek Stadium to Northwestern University's Martin Stadium in 2026.
"Providing our players with a private facility will be pivotal in their development and performance," said incoming head coach Martin Sjögren. "The environment will eliminate distractions to maximize the energy and focus our athletes are able to dedicate to their craft. This includes a focus on the whole person — optimizing both mental and physical health to drive results and help us continue to draw top level talent to Chicago."
The business of women's sports is booming, as Forbes confirmed this week in their Most Valuable Women's Sports Teams of 2025 rankings.
The publication reported that 25 women's sports organizations now boast valuations in the nine figures, with an estimated collective worth of $5.6 billion.
The WNBA's New York Liberty tops the list with an estimated value of $400 million, with women's basketball producing the inaugural rankings' five most valuable teams as the Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm, Las Vegas Aces, and Phoenix Mercury also punched at or above the $300 million mark.
Notably, all 12 long-established WNBA teams feature in the Top 25, with only 2025 expansion side Golden State still building into the top echelon of women's sports valuations — though the Valkyries seem a likely future addition to the list considering their record-breaking debut season.
Soccer standouts comprised the other 13 Most Valuable Women's Sports Teams of 2025, with eight NWSL franchises and five European football clubs scoring spots on the Forbes list.
No. 6 Angel City FC and No. 7 Kansas City Current lead the NWSL at $280 million and $275 million, respectively, while No. 8 Arsenal just edged Liga F side No. 7 Barcelona and fellow WSL club No. 8 Chelsea FC to top Europe's contingent with a valuation of $260 million.
Purpose-built arena and training facilities ultimately gave US teams a valuation edge, as many European clubs remain financially tied to their men's counterparts.
All in all, women's sports valuations reflect potential as much as they do current reality, as investors cash in on one of the sector's fastest-growing markets.
The WTA scored a major victory this week, entering into a multi-year partnership with luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz that has the potential to become the largest deal in women's sports history.
Mercedes-Benz signed on as the pro tennis association's premier partner on Wednesday, committing $50 million per year to the WTA for up to 10 years — a possible lifetime value of half a billion dollars.
What's more, the deal's intention is to help the WTA Tour reach its goal of achieving equal prize money across all men's and women's tournaments and standalone tennis competitions by 2031.
While the four Grand Slams already achieved equal purses nearly two decades ago, this week's partnership allowing the WTA to recommit to adopting that prize money parity across all its events.
The move also reflects the growing global investment in women's sports, building on the WTA's expiring four-year, $20 million-per-year contract with Hologic.
"From the day we founded the WTA, our mission was to ensure that every girl, every woman, could have a place to compete... and make a living playing the sport she loves," legend Billie Jean King said in a press release. "Seeing a global brand like Mercedes-Benz stand with us sends a message that echoes far beyond tennis. It says women's sport matters."
US Soccer officially launched the Kang Women's Institute on Tuesday, creating a new platform dedicated to "advancing health, performance, and development for women and girls across the sport" funded by $55 million from multi-team owner Michele Kang.
"For far too long, women and girls have trained under systems and standards built for men, and the Kang Women's Institute is an essential first step in changing that," US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a federation statement. "By grounding our work in real research and evidence, we can finally give female players the support, care, and understanding they deserve.
"This is the beginning of a much larger effort, and Michele has helped us take a huge leap forward in reshaping the future of the women's game for generations to come."
After adding a $25 million investment last April to her original $30 million pledge to US Soccer in 2024, Kang is going all in on addressing the stark lack of sports medicine and exercise science research into women athletes — and female physiology at-large.
"This Institute will put female athletes at the center of US Soccer's scientific research and build the evidence, systems, and standards that will allow women and girls to reach their full potential," promised Kang.
The Institute also outlined its early initiatives in Tuesday's press release, with injury prevention and workload management, developmental best practices, and physical and mental player well-being headlining the projects.
"This is not just about closing a research gap," said Kang. "It's about creating a future where every player has the knowledge, care, and opportunity to thrive."