- Kang believes investing in clubs around the world will elevate scale and accelerate growth in women’s soccer
- US businesswoman wants to develop a playbook before adding more teams to her investment portfolio
Michele Kang, the owner of the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) Washington Spirit, the French Première Ligue’s Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and the English Women’s Championship’s London City Lionesses, said she wants to own “at least one club in each continent”.
The US businesswoman formed Kynisca Sports International, the industry’s first women’s multi-club soccer ownership group, last year to house her investments and has invested a total of US$55 million into US Soccer to help develop the women’s game in the US.
Now Kang has set her sights on expanding her multi-club model, which spans the US, France and the UK, to other regions in the world.
“I do want at least one team in each continent, because I want to accelerate the advancement of women’s football,” Kang told SportsPro after her appearance on day one of SportsPro Live at London’s Kia Oval
“I also want all the girls all around the world to know that all the resources, the best technology and the best methodology are within their reach.
“It’s not because I want to say I own a team everywhere, but I believe this will help build scale and the acceleration [of the women’s game].”
Kang also spoke to the importance of investing in high-quality players, staff and infrastructure to build each team’s respective brand, as well as developing a distinctive character and playing style for each club within a multi-team structure.
As for what her women’s soccer investment portfolio could look like going forward, Kang reaffirmed her focus is to invest in more teams, rather than directly investing in leagues.
“I guess I could invest in leagues, but right now, my focus is teams, because I want to advance women’s football and that initial level of investment has to happen at the teams level,” Kang continued.
“Absolutely, we will expand in the future, which I’m trying to figure out. We’re opportunistically looking at other possibilities, but I want to have a sort of post-merger integration process.
“I’m in the process of developing a playbook, based upon our experience with three teams. Once we have that, then we will be able to do it, but we don’t want to buy another team and struggle through.”
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