Seattle Reign FC, the three-time NWSL Defend winner, has acquired investments from the Possession Group of Sounders FC and the esteemed international funding agency, Carlyle.
After finalizing the Buy and Sale Settlement, the Possession Group of Seattle Sounders FC and international funding agency Carlyle have joined forces to spend money on and handle Seattle Reign FC, a outstanding membership within the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League (NWSL). Reign FC, which has been owned and operated by France’s OL Groupe since 2019, is acknowledged as one of many prime golf equipment within the extremely aggressive NWSL, often known as the premier girls’s soccer league in worldwide soccer.
Latham & Watkins LLP represented Carlyle within the transaction with a company deal staff led by New York companions Frank Saviano, Stelios Saffos, and Peter Sluka, with associates Adam Rosenthal, Omeed Anvar, Rachel Klein, Kaitlin Ray, and Sam Shropshire.
As a part of this new construction, Sounders FC Proprietor Adrian Hanauer is serving as Governor of Reign FC on the NWSL Board of Governors. Carlyle’s Head of Non-public Credit score, Alex Popov, will function Alternate Governor.
“At the moment is a milestone day for soccer in our metropolis and I’m humbled to be part of it,” stated Hanauer. “This announcement is about holding one of many prime girls’s groups on the planet regionally rooted in our group for generations of followers to take pleasure in. I’m a deep admirer of the Reign group, and alongside our new companions at Carlyle, we’re excited to steward this unimaginable membership. Our purpose is to be a standard-bearer in international soccer. This implies making a first-class atmosphere for gamers, workers and followers, whereas staying genuine to our group. For anybody that loves the game of soccer and its place in Seattle, at this time’s information brings everybody collectively and permits us all to run towards an unimaginable future.”
Hanauer continues, “I’d additionally wish to take this chance to thank the NWSL Board of Governors and Commissioner Berman for his or her partnership on this course of and their perception in our bid, along with John Textor and his counterparts at Eagle Soccer Holdings and OL Groupe.”
Carlyle is united with Sounders FC Possession in a imaginative and prescient for the ascendancy of girls’s soccer, the NWSL and Seattle Reign FC. From connecting with strategic companions, to creating the best capital investments, to making sure high-quality experiences for followers and gamers, Carlyle brings the dedication and assets to this partnership to drive future development for the Seattle Reign FC. Since 2018, Carlyle’s World Credit score enterprise has deployed greater than $4 billion into the sports activities, media and leisure sectors, together with investments into Atalanta Bergamo FC, Infront, a worldwide sports activities advertising and marketing firm, and Deltatre, a expertise and media options supplier to the sports activities and leisure industries.
“At the moment marks a big event for skilled girls’s soccer in the USA and the better Seattle sports activities group,” stated Popov. “It is usually an thrilling second for the Carlyle group as we lengthen our funding experience into girls’s sports activities. We consider there’s a huge disconnect between the joy and engagement round girls’s soccer and the extent of funding into the leagues, groups and gamers that drive this fandom. In partnership with Adrian Hanauer, Hugh Weber, Maya Mendoza-Exstrom and the remainder of the skilled possession of Seattle Sounders FC, we’re excited to drive funding and development for Reign FC whereas participating meaningfully with the Seattle group. Reign FC is a storied membership that has seen large on-field and off-field success, and we’re dedicated to being a steward of that success for the staff. We’d wish to thank Commissioner Berman and the NWSL Board for his or her help and partnership throughout this course of.”
“On behalf of the NWSL and its Board of Governors, we’re thrilled to welcome this new possession group into the NWSL,” stated NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. “Combining the operational experience and long-term group management of the group led by Adrian Hanauer, with the monetary funding of one of many world’s main funding companies in Carlyle, this group positions Seattle Reign FC for achievement. We look ahead to the continued development of the Membership.”
Reign FC’s women-led management staff is being helmed by Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, who steps into the function of Chief Enterprise Officer following 10 years with Sounders FC in Main League Soccer. Partnering with Basic Supervisor Lesle Gallimore and Head Coach Laura Harvey, Mendoza-Exstrom is main the membership’s enterprise operations, strategic development and off-field influence. She most not too long ago served as Chief Working Officer for Sounders FC, the place she was charged with management of membership operations in strategic initiatives, authorized and exterior affairs, individuals and tradition, social justice and philanthropy, authorities affairs and civic relations, development and the group’s influence. Beforehand she served because the membership’s first Basic Counsel and has been an energetic group chief and board member supporting a number of native organizations, together with serving on the board of RAVE Basis.
A product of Washington Youth Soccer, Mendoza-Exstrom is a Seattle native and has in depth expertise throughout the youth, collegiate {and professional} soccer panorama. She has been a principal stakeholder in key civic issues, together with Seattle’s profitable bid to turn into an official host metropolis for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, working in a management function on Seattle’s native organizing committee. An All-American soccer participant on the College of Puget Sound, Mendoza-Exstrom can be a graduate of the College of Washington Faculty of Legislation.
“I’m excited and deeply honored to step into a task of management for Seattle Reign FC,” stated Mendoza-Exstrom. “This recreation has been part of my life since I used to be 4 years outdated. The chance to guide this membership – my membership – at this vital second the place the distinctive worth of girls’s sports activities and athletes is being met with funding, curiosity and visibility is humbling. My dedication and one I make alongside two unimaginable teammates in Lesle Gallimore and Laura Harvey, is straightforward: to speed up the expansion of our enterprise and construct our model and fanbase to fulfill the chance of this international motion in girls’s sports activities. I consider on this membership, its model, and within the profound skill for soccer to influence our group off the pitch. I look ahead to working exhausting together with our gamers, workers, companions and followers to construct upon the robust basis that has been laid. Collectively we try to develop Reign FC right into a globally famend membership that wins championships and leaves our sport higher than we discovered it for the following era.”
Mendoza-Exstrom continues, “I’d additionally wish to thank outgoing CEO Vincent Berthillot for his years of service main Reign FC right here in our market.”