Emergency Financial Situation Threatens LeBron James and Tom Brady Backed $75 Million League’s Global Fallout

Denver will soon have a professional women’s soccer team in the National Women’s Soccer League, since the ownership group made the first payment to the league required to start the team on December 31, 2024.According to a report from Sportico , the group will pay $110 million to the NWSL as an expansion fee to establish the team. Supporters have called for a professional women’s soccer team in Denver for years, formalizing that demand with the For Denver FC effort that began in June 2023 and used the excitement around the World Cup to show evidence that Denver’s soccer fans were ready for a team.Now it appears that the effort was successful. The controlling owner of the new team will reportedly be Robert Cohen, CEO of IMA Financial Group, a financial services company and longtime sports booster in the metro area. Cohen will be joined by Lakewood-born Jordan Angeli, a Major League Soccer and NWSL analyst based in Denver who played professionally herself. Parsyl insurance company founder Ben Hubbard; Ton Dunmore, a former member of the Obama administration who has a background in sports marketing; and venture capitalist Nicole Glaros are also members of the ownership team.As Sportico reported, the group is still onboarding other investors, as well.When Angeli, Hubbard and Dunmore started For Denver FC, they told Westword that the lack of a pro women’s soccer team in Denver was shocking.Colorado has produced plenty of professional women’s soccer players over the years, including United States Women’s National Soccer Team stars Lindsey Horan, who hails from Golden; Sophia Smith, who is from Windsor; and Mallory Swanson, who grew up in Highlands Ranch.“[They] grew up here and played in these club systems and got the competition that they needed to develop into really good players, and it’s not being tapped into,” Angeli said at the time. “We just don’t have the path to pro, and that is one of the big reasons why we’re pushing for Colorado, because the richness of soccer culture, the richness of soccer athletes here, is just something special, and I feel like it’s about time we engage in a way that allows them to have that endpoint.”Now homegrown players will have the chance to play professionally in Colorado. Although the NWSL hasn’t yet set a date for the Denver team to debut, 2026 seems to be an option, as an expansion team from Boston is already set to join the league that year. With the addition of Denver and Boston, there would be sixteen NWSL teams.A PR firm representing For Denver FC, the original backing coalition, declined comment.