Michele Kang stays busy.

When she’s not acquiring women’s soccer clubs for her portfolio, she speaks at summits about the global game and hosts international clubs at the Washington Spirit. Kang has brought leagues in several countries into conversation, from the Spirit to the London City Lionesses to the venerable Lyon in France. She has read the signs of the times and says to invest now before it’s too late – and be prepared to think globally, as demonstrated by Arsenal and Chelsea’s recent US tours, which included a stop in Washington DC.

When Kang entered the NWSL as majority owner, her $35 million (£26.5 million) acquisition of the Spirit was seen as a financial splurge, compared to the $5 million purchase of the Kansas City Current and the Utah Royals’ original entry fee of around $2 million. The price was not necessarily an objective assessment, as it came after months of increasingly acrimonious negotiations with former co-owners Steve Baldwin and Bill Lynch, which drove up the original asking price of $21 million.

Still, it was a turning point in the valuation of NWSL teams, a Rubicon from which there is no turning back unless unforeseen disasters strike. The NWSL is part of a booming global women’s soccer market as multiple leagues build viewership and each Women’s World Cup outsells the previous one. The NWSL’s latest collective bargaining agreement strengthens teams’ ability to participate in that market by eliminating restrictive practices such as limiting free agency or teams’ ability to assert player rights through disclosure claims.

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It was all the more exciting that Spirit and Gotham FC hosted two of the most famous and successful English women’s teams this summer. Arsenal and Chelsea played one game each against Spirit and Gotham and then played a warm-up game at Audi Field as part of a doubleheader in which Spirit played Kansas City Current. The 20,000-seat stadium had a total of 17,130 spectators.

Before the game, the coaches of both teams, Jonas Eidevall of Arsenal and Sonia Bompastor of Chelsea, spoke about the importance of building their fanbases and experiencing what women’s sport is like in other markets. While these games were an opportunity for Arsenal and Chelsea to play mid-season teams as part of their preparation for the 2024-25 season, building the fanbase seemed to be at the forefront for all involved.

Arsenal, Spirit and Chelsea held a joint press conference ahead of friendly matches. (Photo by Harriet Lande, Getty Images)

“It was very good for us to see how things are going here in the U.S.,” Bompastor said. “I know how important sports are here in the U.S., and to be able to go to a (New York Liberty) game was very special.”

“I think it’s really important to continue to grow an already large fan base,” Eidevall said. “It’s great to connect with the fans here in North America. And of course, it strengthens the bond when we give them the opportunity to see us play live and meet the players. And I think that bond between the team and the fans is really important.”

The matches were also good tests for the NWSL teams returning to the regular season after the Olympics, allowing players to adapt to different tactics and get to know opponents with different playing styles.

“I think it’s good for us and for the NWSL teams like Spirit to experience what it’s like to play against other teams, the best teams in Europe, so we can learn from each other,” Kang said. The athlete.

“But equally important are our fans. I want them to see Chelsea and Arsenal in real time right in front of their eyes. Even if you live in London, it’s very difficult to watch this particular game. But I’m bringing them here because I want to show (the fans) what they have – especially with England being one of the biggest football leagues and countries? How they play a game? So it’s really about developing the sport and the fan engagement and experience.”

For Chelsea and Arsenal, it was clear that they saw the US as a key growth market. They have prominent American players in their squads – Catarina Macario, Mia Fishel, Emily Fox – but also popular international players such as Leah Williamson, Alessia Russo, Lucy Bronze and Lauren James, all of whom have their own growing American fan bases.

In addition to the friendlies against Gotham and the Spirit, both teams took blitz tours of New York and DC. Chelsea was on the sidelines at the Liberty game to get a stomp from the team’s mascot Ellie and to open the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, Arsenal hung out at the Washington Mystics’ practice, swapped jerseys at a Washington Nationals baseball game and stopped by local charity DC Scores.

Leah Williamson and Kim Little of Arsenal swap shirts with Jose Ferrer of the Washington Nationals. (Photo by David Price, Getty Images)

“Our women’s team’s first pre-season tour here in the United States is another step forward for our club, the next chapter in our 37-year history,” Arsenal Chief Commercial Officer Juliet Slot said in a team statement.

“We have experienced exceptional growth across football in recent years. Last season, our average attendance at all our home games increased by 93% compared to 2022/23 and by 11% at our Emirates games… We are here in Washington to continue that journey, connect with more supporters of women’s football around the world and prepare ourselves as best we can for another season of progress with Emirates Stadium as our team’s new primary home.”

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Kang hopes to do future joint tours, taking the Spirit on the road to showcase their style of football to European audiences and increase international brand awareness. It helps that she owns a few teams overseas, including the hugely popular Lyon. For now, that’s just a hope for next season, but it was certainly part of her thinking when she helped organize the visit to Arsenal and Chelsea in the first place.

“I also talked to other teams, but with those teams we couldn’t keep the schedule because of the Olympics, especially with the countries that participated in the Olympics,” Kang said.

“Player availability has been a challenge. And the NWSL regular season starts again on August 19th and the Olympics ended on the 10th, so that’s been a challenge. But we’ve definitely had conversations about mutual visits. One year they’ll come and play in DC, and the next year we might go to another country, England or France or other countries.”

The friendlies are not enough to achieve Kang’s goal of leveraging communication between clubs or their international influence. In July, she announced the creation of the Kynisca Innovation Hub alongside Kynisca itself. That’s what Kang calls the umbrella organization under which she now owns several clubs. The hub will collect data on female athletes – not just footballers – and advance research into training in women’s sports through partnerships with various universities. Eventually, she hopes to make this data – properly anonymized – available to anyone who wants to use it, from coaches to companies that make sports equipment.

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Again, this is related to the growth of the market while also reflecting the current reality of most women’s soccer teams. There is a massive lack of research specifically looking at female athletes and their training. A 2023 report in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that of 669 studies over four years from six leading sports medicine journals, only 8.8% focused exclusively on female athletes.

While wealthy and established men’s teams can afford to do all the necessary training and research in-house, Kang believes it is necessary for women’s teams to currently share resources and pool information.

“It’s not a luxury, nor is it greed,” she said of buying multiple clubs. “It’s a necessity, because every team cannot invest in research and development if it’s just one team.”

“How will you invest? That’s the chicken-and-egg question. It’s no different than companies in Silicon Valley that have to invest a lot of money before they know where the first customer is coming from.”

That’s why it’s even smarter to build diplomatic relations with other top clubs. For now, Kang has a foothold in France and England; in the future, she has her sights set on all football regions, including South American and African leagues. The era in which a potential owner could come in for relatively little money and come out the other end with a huge return on investment is coming to an end. Kang pointed to the NWSL’s exploding valuation, which has risen from $5 million to $250 million in just a few years.

“I hope I can be a catalyst that encourages more people, especially more women, to invest in women’s football. I will be very happy to take on that role,” she said of other potential investors. But she also had a simple piece of advice: “Don’t wait too long.”

(Top photo: Geoff Burke, Jessica Rapfogel/USA TODAY Sports)