Angel City

Los Angeles hadn't had a women's professional team since the LA Sol folded in 2010. Then came 2019. In April, 20,941 people filled Banc of California Stadium to watch the US women beat Belgium 6–0, with several of Angel City's future owners in the crowd. That summer the team won the World Cup while fans chanted for equal pay, and 37,040 came to the Rose Bowl for the victory tour.

The fans had already started organizing. "Bring NWSL to LA," a grassroots campaign led by supporters Lindsay and Mark Rojas, took its banner to matches, printed its own stickers and shirts, and petitioned the league for a team. When the league awarded Los Angeles in July 2020, the founding group reached out to the supporters who had been campaigning for one.

We didn't need to invent demand. We needed to build on it. Our strategy turned that campaign into a case for women's sport in Los Angeles: proof for investors and partners that the city would show up, and a promise to supporters that the club would be theirs. The campaign itself became Rebellion 99, a supporters group named for the 1999 World Cup players in the ownership group. Before it had played a game or signed a player, the club held dozens of events and a community listening tour.

The club introduced itself with a film, not a press release. On July 21, 2020, the day the league awarded Los Angeles its team, Angel City released "We Are Angel City: Welcome to the Beginning," a one-minute manifesto I scripted and directed.

The launch kept going from there, carried by a small team. Kayla Green led marketing, Stephanie Rudnick ran PR and communications, and John Aguon and Hayley Graves, the club's original content team, kept a club with no players and no games yet showing up in people's feeds. Together we rolled out the wordmark and the first merchandise, a membership program, season-ticket deposits under "Claim your seat," and a home at Banc of California Stadium, announced as "Our home. Nuestra casa."

The founding ownership group was the pitch made visible: Serena Williams, Uzo Aduba, America Ferrera, Jennifer Garner, Eva Longoria, Lilly Singh and Casey Neistat alongside former national team players including Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy. By April 2021 the club had nearly a hundred owners and a valuation above $100 million, a record for the league.

The sales strategy put the community inside every deal. Each partnership sends a tenth of its value to local organizations, which turned sponsors into partners in what the club does for Los Angeles. Jess Smith, who led revenue from the start and is now president of the Golden State Valkyries, built the partnerships and ticketing business on that model.

Angel City is named for Los Angeles. Working with Matthew Wolff, who led the visual design, we set the wordmark and the colors: Asphalt, Armour and Sol Rosa, a pink for LA sunsets and a nod to the LA Sol. The wordmark and the first merchandise launched with the club in October 2020, a year and a half before its first match, so supporters could carry it around the city long before there was a game to go to.

The crest, designed by Amedea Tassinari, followed in June 2021: an angel with wings drawn from a red-tailed hawk and shaped like palm fronds. By the end of the first season, merchandise had sold in all fifty states and 46 other countries.

I left in 2021, before a ball was kicked. On April 29, 2022, Angel City played its first regular-season match in front of about 22,000 people, and won.

The club kept building on that night. In May 2023 HBO released Angel City, a three-part documentary series on the first season. That year Sportico valued the club at $180 million, the most in the league, and in 2024 Willow Bay and Bob Iger took a majority stake at a $250 million valuation. In October 2026 Angel City clinched a playoff place, and the supporters who once campaigned for a team now travel to watch it.