ArentFox Schiff Advises NWSL on a Transaction Awarding Latest Franchise to Columbus

The ownership group is led by the Haslam family (owners of the Cleveland Browns, the Columbus Crew, and the Milwaukee Bucks) and includes Drs. Christine and Pete Edwards (co-owners of the Columbus Crew) and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. 

Columbus is the sixth franchise to be granted expansion rights since 2023, joining Atlanta, Utah Royals FC, Bay FC, Boston Legacy, and Denver Summit.

The AFS Team included Stephen Hanson, Michael Ragan, Kendall Murphy, and Brian Janowsky. 

ArentFox Schiff, which was recently recognized as a “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360, has one of the most experienced and diverse sports law practices in the country. The Sports Group regularly advises leagues, teams, venues, operators, sponsors, and brands across all major professional and collegiate sports throughout the United States and internationally, as well as purchasers and sellers of professional franchises and other sports properties. The group also represents some of the most well-known athletes, media companies, private equity firms, and sports agencies, on a broad array of sports-related engagements, encompassing both transactional and litigation matters.

The group’s experience covers nearly every type of commercial transaction in the sports industry, including the purchase and sale of professional sports properties, stadium and arena development, naming rights and founding partnerships, sponsorship agreements, and key foundational operational agreements such as management agreements, ticketing agreements, food and beverage agreements, and pouring rights agreements. The Sports Group is preeminent in the field of naming rights, having worked on some of the biggest and most innovative deals in the sports industry. The team also negotiates some of the largest athlete endorsement agreements and steers large investments in professional sports franchises. Beyond transactional work, the group has extensive experience in dispute resolution, including many high-profile litigations and confidential disputes.