THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — On a sometimes heat, sunny spring day in Southern California, Angel Metropolis FC sporting director Mark Parsons made it clear that he wasn’t focused on doing issues usually. Why? As a result of Angel Metropolis FC isn’t just one other membership.
Parsons requested to maneuver his interview with ESPN from the staff’s information convention room to his workplace down the corridor, the place a slideshow presentation being projected onto the wall answered most conceivable questions on Angel Metropolis’s future. The interviewee had develop into the host, a refined metaphor for a way one of many world’s most well-known ladies’s soccer groups is attempting to take management of its personal narrative on the sector.
The presentation to ESPN was the identical one, minus a couple of confidential pages, that Parsons had just lately given to gamers and workers upon taking the job in January. His mission — and the explanation the membership employed him — is comparatively merely specified by the primary slide: “Be world leaders in ladies’s soccer on and off the sector.”
Indisputably, Angel Metropolis has shortly constructed a recognizable model with its off-field strikes since launching 5 years in the past.
The Los Angeles-based NWSL franchise made a splash with a celeb possession group that features Hollywood actress Natalie Portman, tennis icon Serena Williams, and pop star Becky G. The staff broke ticket and sponsorship information earlier than gamers kicked a ball in a aggressive match. The staff made headlines by mandating that each one sponsors dedicate 10% of their offers to native philanthropy. Final yr’s sale of the staff at a $250 million valuation made it essentially the most priceless ladies’s sports activities franchise on the earth.
Success on the soccer area, nevertheless, is but to comply with. The staff has by no means received a playoff recreation and has made it to the postseason solely as soon as in three makes an attempt. Final yr’s Twelfth-place end was additional marred by the primary factors deduction in NWSL historical past as punishment for wage cap violations. The staff’s common supervisor and head coach exited 4 days aside within the offseason.
Probably the most constant on-field attribute of Angel Metropolis in its early years was the inconsistency of the staff’s performances. It is a putting juxtaposition: The staff with essentially the most outlined off-field model in ladies’s soccer lacked any distinguishable identification on the sector.
Parsons, a 38-year-old NWSL championship-winning coach, should discover options to that downside. He’s additionally just one new character in a wider Hollywood reboot.
New head coach Alexander Straus will arrive in L.A. subsequent month after successful three straight Frauen-Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich. U.S. ladies’s nationwide staff ahead Alyssa Thompson is enjoying at MVP ranges to steer a younger, rejuvenated roster. And new majority homeowners Willow Bay and Bob Iger (CEO of Disney, which owns ESPN) have injected each historic money and refreshing optimism into your complete operation, in line with these all through the constructing.
Early-season outcomes have begun to comply with. Angel Metropolis’s 4-3 highway victory on Might 2 over the Washington Spirit, final yr’s championship runners-up, was one of many franchise’s signature victories. A purpose deep in stoppage time by ahead Riley Tiernan — a non-roster invitee who ranks second within the league in targets — embodied the creating grittiness of the staff, a trait that had too usually been missing throughout late-game collapses of yesteryear.
Nonetheless, Angel Metropolis hasn’t received something but — and there lies the problem. Los Angeles is a metropolis outlined by winners, just like the NBA’s Lakers and MLB’s Dodgers. All the nice work being carried out off the sector solely goes thus far if Angel Metropolis is only a mid-table staff yearly.
“When issues occur [here], it ripples,” Parsons advised ESPN. “We have not even received trophies but. Think about what is going on to occur once we win trophies.
“I believe we’ve got a accountability to win as a result of individuals copy sports activities groups that win. [NBA star] Steph Curry begins capturing from wherever, everybody begins capturing from wherever. Angel Metropolis wins, what’s everybody going to begin doing? They are going to empower feminine athletes. They are going to be rooted locally and make a distinction of their cities.”
Parsons stated he has “little question we’ve got the power to be successful trophies inside the subsequent three years,” however the margins are skinny between success and failure within the ultra-competitive NWSL.
On and off the sector, Angel Metropolis is at an inflection level — and the enterprise is inherently interwoven with soccer. Each elements of the staff just lately hit the reset button.
A serious shake-up in possession, and a brand new route
Angel Metropolis redefined requirements inside the NWSL and drew world media reward for being an progressive, progressive model.
However completely different did not imply excellent. The possession group had no background in sports activities. The staff was arrange extra like a startup tech firm, a construction that created battle behind the scenes because the staff spent more cash than any competitor.
Julie Uhrman, now the staff’s CEO, co-founded Angel Metropolis alongside Portman and enterprise capitalist Kara Nortman. After receiving over 100 rejections from conventional traders (in line with Uhrman), the group linked with Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of Serena Williams. Ohanian had attended the 2019 Girls’s World Cup in France and grew focused on proudly owning an NWSL staff.
Ohanian invested thousands and thousands and have become Angel Metropolis’s principal proprietor, however he didn’t construction the deal to present himself management of the staff’s board. The setup created a clumsy energy vacuum — at one level, he was a consultant on the NWSL’s board of governors, however needed to fund selections with which he didn’t essentially agree. In a put up on X final yr across the time of Angel Metropolis’s sale, Ohanian known as the error “one of many many arduous classes I realized as a first-time sports activities staff proprietor.”
Turmoil spilled into the general public eye final yr as reviews from the Los Angeles Instances and Wall Road Journal detailed infighting on the membership. The mixture of disagreements and rising monetary wants in the end led Angel Metropolis to search for a brand new management proprietor in a course of that intensified in early 2024, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Uhrman argues that the stress was overplayed. “I believe the largest misnomer is there was much more alignment inside Angel Metropolis than what was reported,” Uhrman advised ESPN in April, however the want for change was clear because the staff sought more cash to proceed on its bold path. “Angel Metropolis was constructed in another way. We have been constructed like a startup,” Uhrman stated.
Prior to now, Angel Metropolis made money calls or sought exterior funding to maintain up with their wants, however Uhrman stated “the dialog modified” within the final spherical of discussions as traders expressed curiosity in changing into extra concerned and acquiring extra fairness.
Uhrman stated one among her greatest classes from the staff’s first season was “the immense quantity of labor” and element that goes into creating a enjoying type and philosophy. “These are issues that we may have carried out upfront, that we had the time to do, that we simply did not do,” she stated.
“The opposite factor that was a extremely large studying was the true quantity of funding wanted to construct a high-performance tradition, workers and staff is considerably greater than was ever invested in any membership inside the NWSL once we joined,” she stated. “Once we joined, we had the most important sporting workers on the time. We have been the one workers with a devoted participant care consultant. So, we felt like we went above and past what the opposite golf equipment had carried out. However the actuality was that, really, it wasn’t sufficient nonetheless.”
All of which set the desk for Bay and Iger to take over controlling curiosity of the staff — and, crucially, for Bay to have full management of Angel Metropolis’s board of administrators.
Uhrman just lately shifted to her CEO position from president, and Carmen Bona was employed to develop into the staff’s president of enterprise operations, a newly created position.
Ohanian stated a number of occasions final yr that he was not promoting any shares within the staff. His share of possession decreased by dilution after Bay and Iger took over shares of the staff from others in Angel Metropolis’s horde of preliminary traders, a supply with information of the state of affairs confirmed.
The drama performed out extra publicly than Angel Metropolis executives would have appreciated, however by all accounts, from personnel and sources throughout the membership, there’s an optimistic feeling that Angel Metropolis is in its finest place to this point, which has allowed the staff to focus extra intensely on easy methods to begin successful on the sector.
A brand new coaching facility is essentially the most tangible current proof of change. The staff ditched the momentary trailers it had used since its inaugural season to maneuver throughout the parking zone at Cal Lutheran College and take over a constructing beforehand occupied by the L.A. Rams.
Even that may be a momentary resolution — it is a four-year settlement, though Uhrman stated discussions are underway to remain there — however it’s also a significant step ahead. The 50,000-square-foot area is the most important coaching facility within the NWSL. Plans for the transfer have been already in movement, however they wanted funding from Bay and Iger, who dedicated to spending one other preliminary $50 million post-acquisition.
“The fact is, the second the gamers noticed this efficiency heart and realized that Angel Metropolis had delivered on its guarantees — really overdelivered and supplied them one thing that they really feel that they deserved and is above and past what they’ve skilled wherever else — it did really feel like a web page flip for us,” Uhrman advised ESPN.
Uhrman conceded that the off-field model and on-field product should co-exist. There are early indicators of progress.
Early indicators of Angel Metropolis’s progress on the sector
Almost eight minutes of stoppage time had passed by at Audi Area in Washington, D.C., on Might 2 when Tiernan smashed the ball into the again of the online for the dramatic game-winning purpose towards the Spirit.
Tiernan is arguably one of the best story within the NWSL proper now. She was a non-roster invitee who earned a contract and the beginning ahead position for Angel Metropolis. Tiernan’s late purpose at Audi Area was her second of the sport and fifth in 5 video games, bringing her to second within the league scoring desk on the time.
Parsons pointed at Tiernan as proof of what is being inbuilt L.A.: a staff targeted on successful. “The largest driver of tradition is the way you choose a staff,” stated Parsons, who received an NWSL championship and two NWSL Shields as head coach of the Portland Thorns.
“When you do not do this [choose players on merit], and also you choose individuals since you suppose they will be good, that is the largest factor that can rip a tradition aside.”
Parsons’ level is implicit however necessary: L.A. is a metropolis obsessive about stars, however making selections primarily based solely on exterior expectations is a recipe for catastrophe. Angel Metropolis realized the arduous means in 2021 when it went to rent its first coach.
The staff’s earlier technical leaders recognized North Carolina Braveness head coach Sean Nahas as one of the best accessible candidate for his or her wants, however after that information leaked, followers expressed outrage that Angel Metropolis, whose model was constructed round fairness for ladies, would rent a person for the job. Angel Metropolis modified course, and whereas it’s unimaginable to say what may have been if the staff caught to its course of, the incident was an early instance of each the exterior model conflicting with the soccer product, and the staff permitting its identification to be formed by another person.
Each resolution made by interim head coach Sam Laity and the technical workers, which Parsons leads, shapes the brand new identification they’re making an attempt to construct.
Angel Metropolis nonetheless has star energy, together with two-time World Cup winner Christen Press, who at 36 and post-ACL restoration has been restricted to restricted reserve alternatives to date this yr. Tiernan was a no one, however she earned the beginning No. 9 job and the proper to maintain it by her play. Others, like fellow rookie midfielder Macey Hodge, have carried out the identical.
In his presentation to ESPN, Parsons shared 5 attacking metrics and 6 defensive metrics that he feels, in his decade-plus concerned within the NWSL, result in success within the league. Every profitable staff thrives in these metrics by completely different enjoying kinds, he stated, however the finish purpose have to be to win these key areas that vary from non-penalty anticipated targets, to distance of defensive strain from purpose and “broad field space” targets, that are a development within the ladies’s recreation currently.
“I imagine that to construct a membership it’s a must to be very clear on identification — very clear,” Parsons advised ESPN. “That identification additionally has to match your tradition and the group of the realm that you simply’re in. Your identification additionally has to steer you to the issues that it’s good to do to win on this aggressive league.”
He confirmed what he already suspected from afar about Angel Metropolis and the L.A. tradition by asking individuals like Bay and Uhrman — who are usually not “soccer individuals” however are a snapshot of the fan base — what they wish to see from the staff.
“This metropolis is about pleasure, power, successful, scoring,” he stated in abstract. A staff in L.A. must win, but it surely wants to take action in type. Meaning out-possessing the opponent and making use of strain increased up the sector.
Angel Metropolis has carried out that at occasions this season, together with in that necessary victory over Washington. Nonetheless, the telltale indicators of a venture in its infancy stay. Nearly as good as Angel Metropolis has checked out occasions, the staff has nonetheless collapsed in video games and conceded 16 targets, tied for second worst within the league. The win over the Spirit was preceded by a 3-2 loss to the Orlando Pleasure that noticed Angel Metropolis blow a 2-0 lead late, and getting thrashed 4-0 by NJ/NY Gotham FC in LA.
Parsons factors to these three groups and the Kansas Metropolis Present — final yr’s high 4 finishers — because the mannequin for Angel Metropolis’s arc. All 4 have been at or close to the underside of the desk lately earlier than rebuilding to develop into champions or contenders.
Uhrman stated she needs a house playoff recreation this yr. Parsons would love that too, he stated, but additionally is aware of that successful a trophy in 2025, at this stage of the staff’s improvement “isn’t logical” in case you have a look at these 4 groups for example.
“We wish to be a legacy off the pitch and a dynasty on the pitch,” Uhrman advised ESPN. “That is not one championship — that is many. I imagine we’re laying the muse at the moment with our workers and our amenities, our teaching selections, our participant selections.”
Change remains to be in progress. Straus will not arrive as head coach till June, that means he can have solely about half the season to work with the staff. Straus can be tasked with displaying the gamers how they get to the purpose of reaching these desires. “My job is to make us dream just a little bit,” Parsons stated of setting the high-level targets as sporting director.
Angel Metropolis remains to be in that dream stage, a startup wading its means out of some arduous early classes. Which route it heads subsequent will decide whether or not it inserts itself into LA lure, or dangers being simply one other membership.
