The wheels of a future professional women’s soccer team in Denver are churning, and there are no signs of slowing down.
The National Women’s Soccer League expanded again Tuesday when Boston was announced as the 15th team, and will begin play in 2026. With the news, it kicked off a new wave of anticipation, rumors and clamor about which city should be team No. 16.
Denver is in the running as the group “For Denver FC” launched in July ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Mile High City is one of the largest markets in the country without a professional women’s sports team.
The NWSL will return to two prior markets in Boston and Salt Lake City with the Utah Royals set for play in 2024. The third team, Bay FC, will also start play in 2024 in San Jose, Calif.
The Post reached out to the For Denver FC group this week to see where things stand. For Denver FC is publicly led by Lakewood native Jordan Angeli, a former NWSL player and current Colorado Rapids matchday host. Other entrepreneurs on the project include Ben Hubbard, a CEO of insurer Parsyl, and Tom Dunmore of Major League Cricket.
On Friday, the group issued the following statement:
“FDFC is making tremendous progress towards bringing professional women’s soccer to Denver. This includes finalizing an investor group with deep resources to build a world class soccer club, developing short-term and long-term stadium and training facility solutions and engaging key civic and community stakeholders to support the project.
“We’ve received incredibly positive feedback from across Colorado since our effort was announced, reinforcing that Denver has the potential to be home to one of the best-supported professional soccer teams in the country — fueled by outstanding local talent from Colorado’s remarkable development pipeline.
“FDFC is working to ensure we have the resources, plans and vision in place for this team to deliver on that opportunity when it launches, ready to compete for championships for Denver and build a club and community for Colorado to proudly support.”
The group is expected to submit a formal a bid to the league by the end of 2023. That bid must meet or exceed a number of financial, infrastructural and operating hurdles. In Boston, that team’s group of investors, Monarch Collective, reportedly paid $53 million in expansion fees and will spend “in excess of” $100 million on getting the organization ready for play.
With the timeline becoming clearer, it’s expected the 16th team will be revealed in 2024. Currently, 19 Coloradans play in the NWSL, and players have expressed overwhelming support for a team.
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