![Maya Mendoza Exstrom stands next to Adrian Hanaeur, Lesle Gallimore, and Alex Popov.](https://equalizersoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mendoza-Exstrom-Hanauer-Gallimore-Popov-16x9-1.jpg)
New Seattle Reign FC possession and management pose collectively. From left to proper, Chief Enterprise Officer Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, Proprietor Adrian Hanaeuer, Normal Supervisor Lesle Gallimore, and Carlyle Head of Non-public Credit score Alex Popox. (Photograph supplied by Seattle Sounders FC)
SEATTLE — The sale of Seattle Reign FC transferring possession from Eagle Soccer Group (previously OL Groupe) to the Possession Group of Seattle Sounders FC and international funding agency Carlyle is lastly full. The completion of a closing Buy and Sale Settlement that unites Seattle’s top-flight males’s and ladies’s skilled soccer groups for the primary time within the metropolis’s historical past was introduced Monday morning.
“This announcement is about holding one of many prime ladies’s groups on the planet regionally rooted in our neighborhood for generations of followers to get pleasure from. I’m a deep admirer of the Reign group, and alongside our new companions at Carlyle, we’re excited to steward this unbelievable membership,” Sounders FC Proprietor Adrian Hanaeuer stated in a press launch. “Our objective is to be a standard-bearer in international soccer. This implies making a first-class setting for gamers, employees and followers, whereas staying genuine to our neighborhood. For anybody that loves the game of soccer and its place in Seattle, immediately’s information brings everybody collectively and permits us all to run towards an unbelievable future.”
Seattle Reign was owned and operated by OL Groupe since 2019 after they bought the membership for $3.5 million. In April of 2023, Washington Spirit proprietor Michele Kang took over the Lyon ladies’s staff from OL Groupe, requiring then OL Reign to be put up on the market. Practically a 12 months later, on March 18, 2024, it was introduced that this sale was close to completion and anticipated to shut after approval by each the NWSL and MLS Board of Governors. Three months later the promised sale has lastly come to fruition with a $58 million price ticket.
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Hanaeuer will function Reign FC governor on the NWSL Board of Governors whereas Alex Popov, Carlyle’s Head of Non-public Credit score, will function Alternate Governor.
“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 neighborhood 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 fulfillment.”
Carlyle brings important sources to the possession partnership, having underneath $425 billion of belongings underneath administration as of March 31, 2024. Since 2018, Carlyle’s World Credit score enterprise “has deployed greater than $4 billion into the sports activities, media and leisure sectors.” Popov known as the transfer “an thrilling second for the Carlyle group as we prolong our funding experience into ladies’s sports activities.”
“We imagine there’s a large disconnect between the joy and engagement round ladies’s soccer and the extent of funding into the leagues, groups and gamers that drive this fandom,” Popov stated in a press launch. “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 neighborhood.”
Although possession is generally male the management staff is women-led. Seattle-native Maya Mendoza-Exstrom will change into Reign FC’s Chief Enterprise Officer after 10 years working with the Sounders. She companions with Normal Supervisor Lesle Gallimore and Head Coach Laura Harvey to steer this new period of Seattle Reign soccer.
“I’m excited and deeply honored to step into a job of management for Seattle ReignFC,” stated Mendoza-Exstrom. “This sport has been part of my life since I used to be 4 years outdated. The chance to steer this membership – my membership – at this essential second the place the distinctive worth of girls’s sports activities and athletes is being met with funding, curiosity and visibility is humbling.”
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Mendoza-Exstrom most lately served as Chief Working Officer for Sounders FC however beforehand served because the membership’s first Normal Counsel after graduating from the College of Washington Faculty of Legislation. She is a product of Washington Youth Soccer with in depth expertise throughout youth, collegiate, {and professional} ranges of soccer.
As COO of Sounders FC she led “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 affect.” Reign’s new CBO has additionally been a key stakeholder in native civic issues, together with Seattle’s profitable bid to change into an official host metropolis for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
As CBO of Reign FC, Mendoza-Exstrom commits “to speed up the expansion of our enterprise and construct our model and fanbase to fulfill the chance of this international motion in ladies’s sports activities.”
An important side of this announcement is that the sale is lastly full. Although there was hesitancy on the finish of the 2023 season to say the continued sale would have an effect on the offseason, it turned a giant barrier. Gallimore famous earlier this week that the impact of the unfinished deal could possibly be seen clearest within the roster’s building.
Throughout that dialog, Gallimore informed The Equalizer that the membership is ready to make roster strikes this summer season as soon as the sale is full. The switch window formally opens on August 1 however offers can technically occur ahead of gamers can formally be part of the staff. So it’s unknown what strikes the Reign will make or precisely when however do anticipate them, backed by official, long-term possession, to search for affect signings this summer season.
Seattle Reign FC at the moment sits thirteenth within the 14-team league standings however technically solely seven factors out of playoff place. Followers might not see the total impact of recent possession till this upcoming offseason however don’t write off this 12 months’s staff buoyed by excellent news simply but.
“I look ahead to working laborious together with our gamers, employees, companions and followers to construct upon the robust basis that has been laid,” CBO Mendoza-Exstrom stated. “Collectively we attempt 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.”
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