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Angel City Football Club, a Los Angeles-based women’s football team, will join the National Women’s Football League in 2022. Digital media entrepreneur Julie Uhrman is the group’s chairman and one of its founders. He spoke with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal at the Banc of California Stadium, where ACFC play home games.
The team’s announcement in July produced news, in part because of its origins story involving actress Natalie Portman and former U.S. women’s national team player Abby Wambach.
“Natalie listened to Abby Wambach talk about how the retirement of female athletes is so different from that of male athletes,” Uhrman said. “Abby received the Icon Award at ESPY at the same time as Kobe [Bryant] and Peyton Manning, and they talked about where to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. And Abby tried to figure out how to make a mortgage. ”
Uhrman said that in men’s and women’s athletics, pay levels got stuck in Portman, who then decided to start the Angel City Football Club. Wambach and more than a dozen former U.S. national team members joined the founding shareholders, who are mostly women.
Uhrman wants Angel City to become a global brand, similar to New York Yankees in baseball and FC Barcelona in football.
“As an entrepreneur, a media person, a game manager, I know how to build communities and products, and I know how to entertain,” he said. “And that’s really what sports are.”
He sees Angel City as a platform for equality and impact, and Angel City Football Club is “the platform’s first expression.” His goal is to bring other products under the brand that match the team’s story and values.
“We aim to set higher expectations on and off the field,” Uhrman said. “We want to elevate women’s sports, and women’s soccer in particular, and show that it’s as good, if not better, than any other professional team here, and it deserves the attention and revenue that men’s teams get just without trying.”
Angel City has several corporate sponsors, including DoorDash and footwear brand Birdies, who, according to Uhrman, drew to the team because of their mission. Ten percent of the value of these contracts goes to local causes. Birdies sponsorship has led to a women’s mentoring program where trainees learn about women in sports.
The team has made three football rentals so far and will soon announce its coach. Angel City’s first game is scheduled for April.
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