acquired a majority stake<\/a> in it for $250 million, making it the most valuable women\u2019s sports franchise in the world.<\/p>\nFor Nortman, who left Upfront Ventures and more traditional venture capital to focus full-time on women\u2019s sports, Angel City\u2019s commercial achievements have continued to validate Monarch\u2019s thesis. Though there\u2019s current tension \u2013 certainly in the sports press, at least \u2013 between Angel City\u2019s business success and its on-field performance, the team has inarguably proven that women\u2019s sports can generate serious revenue with the right pieces in place.<\/p>\n
Now, as with any successful new endeavor, the question is: can the momentum last? Nortman is acutely aware that women\u2019s sports has seen promising moments evaporate before. She frequently references a striking historical parallel from 1920, when 60,000 people showed up in Liverpool, England, to watch the Dick, Kerr Ladies play football, which is a bigger crowd than most Premier League games draw today. The next year, the English Football Association banned women from playing, and the sport essentially disappeared for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone gets to wake up and become the discoverer of women\u2019s sports when they do,\u201d Nortman says. \u201cBut it takes consistent, hard work to get that to play out into consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
That hard work, she argues, requires more than just riding waves of attention from breakout stars like Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese. It demands systematic investment in infrastructure, governance, and operations \u2013 the unglamorous work of building sustainable businesses.<\/p>\n
This is where Monarch\u2019s approach diverges from typical venture capital. Rather than making passive bets on dozens of startups, Monarch is taking concentrated positions in a handful of teams and leagues, then getting deeply involved in operations. The fund describes its strategy as \u201cventure-like markets\u201d with \u201cgrowth equity or private equity-like\u201d risk management.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe show up alongside control owners and add a lot of operational value,\u201d Nortman explains. The goal is to help teams reach breakeven or profitability on their core operations, positioning them to benefit as higher-margin media revenue grows.<\/p>\n
Monarch\u2019s investment interest extend beyond soccer. The fund is more broadly focused on what Nortman calls sports with \u201cno product-market risk,\u201d meaning established formats with proven audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this a sport people like to watch on their computer or television?\u201d she asks. \u201cThere are participatory sports, like pickleball, but are people going to sit home and create an event out of watching it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, while Monarch has stakes right now in four \u201cfootball\u201d clubs, it\u2019s interested, too, in women\u2019s basketball, golf, and tennis \u2013 sports with substantial media revenue potential, along with existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The firm\u2019s current limited partners include Melinda French Gates, former Netflix executives, and other wealthy individuals, and interest in its mission seems to be growing. For one thing, Monarch\u2019s debut fund of $250 million is substantially more than the $100 million that Nortman and her co-founder \u2013 Jasmine Robinson, a former investor with the sports-, media-, gaming-, and fitness-focused growth stage firm Causeway \u2013 initially planned to raise. She says the increased size reflects the market\u2019s rapid maturation during Monarch\u2019s fundraising period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started raising the fund, nine out of 10 conversations were, \u2018Yeah, we don\u2019t think [women\u2019s] basketball is really a thing,\u2019\u201d Nortman says, recalling a \u201clot of skepticism around it.\u201d Then came Caitlin Clark\u2019s meteoric rise, the WNBA\u2019s record-breaking viewership, and suddenly basketball became the hottest sector in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n
That growing interest validates Nortman\u2019s thesis that women\u2019s sports investment isn\u2019t about finding the single perfect team but about supporting an ecosystem where multiple franchises can thrive. Some will win championships. Some will struggle competitively but succeed commercially. The key is having enough capital and operational expertise distributed across the market to weather individual setbacks.<\/p>\n
Already, Angel City appears to be inspiring other ownership groups. \u201cYou started having other teams \u2013 Kansas City, Bay FC, Washington D.C. Spirit \u2013 with female-led ownership groups come in and show they could build a real P&L,\u201d Nortman notes. Whether intentionally or not, Angel City became a template.<\/p>\n
As women\u2019s sports enters what feels like a sustained boom period \u2014 the Golden State Valkyries just played their first WNBA next season, the NWSL is expanding, media rights deals are growing \u2014 Nortman remains cautiously optimistic about whether this moment will prove different from past surges in interest.<\/p>\n
The key, she argues, lies in the fundamentals: strong league governance, owner commitment, infrastructure investment, and building genuine community connections. Media attention creates opportunity; operational excellence makes it sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery spike is an opportunity to create a consistent experience around it,\u201d Nortman says. \u201cYou have to look at all the underlying criteria to see where it\u2019s likely to stick around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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