Breaking: National Women's Soccer League brings 16th team to Denver

At $110 million it’s the highest bid ever submitted for a women’s sports team.

(Photo courtesy of National Women’s Soccer Leave)

The sixteenth expansion team of the National Women's Soccer League is coming to Denver, Colorado.

IMA Financial Group’s CEO Robert Cohan submitted his bid for the team at $110 million. That well broke the record for the highest expansion fee ever in women’s sports. Second in NWSL are Bay FC and Boston who both paid $53,000,000.

Denver’s club will be the sixteenth team in the growing NWSL, whose added six teams since 2020 alone. In those last six teams, this payment from Cohan more than doubles any other price. Angel City FC, San Diego Wave FC and the Utah Royals combined for around six million dollars as expansion teams.

Colorado has proven to be a great manufacturer for female soccer competitors, calling home to three different players on the United States Women's National Team that played in the 2024 Paris Olympics last summer. Those three are Mallory Swanson, Lindsey Horan and 24-year-old Sophia Smith.

It is not yet announced where the club will play, but the plan is for the team to compete in the 2026 season, beginning next March.