Jordan Angeli’s soccer career has taken her around the world.
The television analyst played collegiately for the Santa Clara Broncos, featured with the U.S. national team at an under-20 championship in Russia, and played professionally across three major cities: first with the Boston Breakers in the Women’s Professional Soccer league (WPS) and later with the Washington Spirit and Western New York in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
The one place the game never took her was Colorado, her home state.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to have a team here,” Angeli told The Athletic. “I played in Boston. I played in D.C. I played in Western New York, but never anywhere close enough where my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my whole family, my friends from high school, everyone could come watch me play.”
On Thursday, those dreams became a reality, with NWSL naming Denver as the location of its 16th team to start play in 2026.
The idea began in the spring of 2023 when Colorado native and sports business executive Tom Dunmore reached out to Angeli on X, formerly Twitter.
“I’m working on trying to bring a women’s soccer team to Denver,” he wrote. “Are you interested in chatting?”
The pair quickly jumped on a video call and, a few weeks later, Angeli found herself sneaking around downtown Denver, meeting with others, including insurance executive Ben Hubbard, a former official with the Obama administration. Together, they’d meet in the basements of restaurants to talk about bringing their vision to life. Their grassroots effort, “For Denver FC,” formally launched that July. Just a few months later, they had their majority investor, Rob Cohen.
“Good thing I checked my Twitter DMs because you never know what’s in there,” Angeli said with a laugh. “But this one was a really good one.”
Denver joins the NWSL on a record-setting $110million expansion fee. The ownership group won the bid over Cleveland and Cincinnati — the latter had secured a commitment from WNBA star Caitlin Clark as a celebrity investor.
But Denver, the bid competing furthest from the public’s eye, won over the league.
The process yielded the largest expansion fee in U.S. women’s sports history and attracted an ownership group with deep pockets and even deeper ties to professional sports. It helped that those behind “For Denver FC” — such as Dunmore, Hubbard and venture capitalist Nicole Glaros — had the necessary business connections from the start.
Cohen, the chairman and CEO of IMA Financial Group, will serve as the club’s controlling owner and majority investor. As the face of the bid, he played a critical role in winning over the NWSL.
The remaining ownership group includes Project Level, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Ariel Investments led by Mellody Hobson and former Washington Commanders president Jason Wright; FirstTracks Sports Ventures LLC led by siblings Jon-Erik Borgen and Kaia Borgen Moritz; and other notable investors including Neelima Joshi, Dhiren Jhaveri and Molly Coors.
Hobson, one of the first Black owners in the NFL with the Denver Broncos, will serve as the team’s alternate governor on the NWSL board of governors. Aside from her high-profile corporate resume, which includes ties to Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase, she is also a shareholder of the Chicago White Sox, WNBA and League One Volleyball.
Cohen is the majority owner of the NWSL’s newest team in Denver (Denver NWSL)
Cohen’s ties to the Colorado sports scene also run deep, which was an attractive asset to the NWSL.
In 2001, Cohen founded the Denver Sports Commission, which works to bring major sporting events to the city. He is a founding member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation and was part of the push for Denver to host the 2030 Olympic Games. Last year, Cohen was also linked to an ownership group that led an unsuccessful bid to bring the WNBA to Denver.
By the time he joined Denver’s bid for a professional soccer team, Cohen was seasoned in the art of expansion bidding. The executive was previously interested in being a minority investor in both the Denver group and Minnesota Aurora, which currently competes in the USL W League, sources briefed on the previous discussions told The Athletic. Aurora had explored its own NWSL expansion bid, but NWSL does not allow one owner to have stakes in multiple clubs. When “For Denver FC” first launched, it had expressed interest in both the NWSL and USL Super League. Investors, those sources said, felt the NWSL was a more secure investment, considering its proven stability, despite being significantly more expensive to join.
“I wouldn’t change the life that I’ve lived up to this point because everything I’ve done has taught me and put me where I’m at, good and bad,” Cohen said in an exclusive interview with The Athletic on Monday. “There were setbacks and disappointments that helped me focus and understand the things we need to overcome and do. There were also successes that told me what works.
“I just feel blessed that we were at this point where all those things came together in a way that this was the right time at the right place with the right bid for us to bring this (NWSL team) to this community, because I think it’s going to be extraordinary.”
Between that first meeting with “For Denver FC” and being awarded the NWSL expansion team, Cohen and his ownership group put together a proposal that left NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman confident in the decision to partner with Denver. Berman told The Athletic’s Full Time with Meg Linehan podcast that Cohen’s leadership was a key contributing factor in the league’s decision to award their group the bid. Denver’s ownership group was also willing to pay the highest fee to enter the league, according to sources briefed on the negotiations.
It also helped that Colorado is a hotbed for women’s soccer, with several professional players hailing from the state, including current national team players Lindsay Horan, Sophia Smith and Malory Swanson.
“A reasonably high percentage of the U.S. women’s national team came from this community and there’s an entire groundswell of people who are really fans of the game itself,” Berman said. “That is unique in our country. The Bay Area has that. Denver has that. There’s probably a handful of other markets that have that.”
Denver’s location was also a draw for the NWSL, with the league having what Berman described as a “vacancy” in the mountain timezone.
“As we think about our next media deal and other broader macro league objectives, having a team here right now is really important,” she said.
Berman met with Cohen “long before” the expansion process started. He visited the league’s offices in New York to share with Berman his vision for bringing women’s soccer to Denver.
“He was just so authentic and genuine and (it) felt like he’d be really great to work with, which, shocker, is something that’s actually important,” Berman said. “We want to work with good people.”
The league and Denver’s group connect on weekly calls to discuss all the to-dos between now and the 2026 season when the team is expected to debut.
“The day the deal closed, Rob told me that he had spent four hours making his to-do list and he said it was organized under four tabs, and each list was like 150 things long and he had leaders for every tab,” Berman said, “and I was just like, ‘Wow. Let’s go.’”
NWSL commissioner Berman was impressed by Cohen’s organized plan for the team. (Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images for NWSL)
Berman said the league also met with various stakeholders prepared to back Denver’s expansion bid, from those in the public and private sectors to potential sponsors and a potential supporters’ group. They also met with public officials, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.
“Everyone was singing from the same song sheet, ready to stand behind Rob, deferring to his leadership, and it was just clear that they had built a well-oiled machine that was ready to operationalize what we know is going to be a heavy lift in the next 12 months,” Berman said.
“We have a very aggressive growth plan and we need to surround ourselves with people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work and are aligned with our values and (Cohen) was definitely that,” Berman said. “When he came in to present to our expansion committee, I think everybody was blown away by his and their group’s preparedness.
“By the way he led the group, it really just inspired confidence.”
It’s that quiet confidence that kept the Denver bid from being distracted by the other finalists in the NWSL expansion race. In September, the Cleveland ownership group announced plans to build a $150million downtown stadium. In November, Clark was linked to the bid in Cincinnati. All the while, Cohen and his ownership group in Denver remained tight-lipped about their own plans.
“It’s just the personality of the ownership group coming through in the bid itself. My philosophy is: do the quiet work behind the scenes, get the work done, cross the Ts, dot the Is, do the things you need to do to win the bid,” Cohen said. “Not try to win a bid in the media, but win the bid with the substantive parts of the bid.
“The league was very clear that they were going to pick the city based on the market, based on the ownership group, based on the facility plan, and, obviously, based on the expansion fee. So, we were just focused on getting the work done and figured the rest would take care of itself at the right time.”
That work is far from over, with only a one-year runway until Denver’s first game. The team will debut in 2026 alongside Boston. The Boston club has had its own sets of challenges since securing its bid as the NWSL’s 15th club.
Denver is now focused on securing its infrastructure plans, rounding out the team’s ownership group with what Cohen called “strategic investors,” staffing the team’s operations and securing revenue opportunities, such as sponsorships and focusing on other operational logistics like ticket sales.
The ownership group remains tight-lipped about the specifics of their plans, particularly related to infrastructure. Cohen said the team will play in a temporary venue until it secures its own stadium. The team has plans for training facilities and a stadium that are “world-class facilities that are dedicated to, built for and utilized by women.”
“We’ve had months and months of discussions with many of the players that we need to talk to, from local jurisdictions, as well as financing and other pieces to bring those together,” Cohen said.
While he didn’t share specifics, Cohen said he hopes to have more stadium and facility information in the “next several weeks.” Sources have told The Athletic these negotiations remain ongoing.
Angeli said having professional women’s soccer in Denver puts “the biggest smile” on her face. It was her group’s grassroots efforts that played an active role in helping Denver secure an NWSL team. They’ll remain active in helping build the Denver club’s foundation, said Angeli, who will be MC’ing a supporter fan rally in Denver on Thursday.
“As a former player, I get proud when players are GMs or players or coaches, or (when) you see this increase of former players in prominent roles within NWSL,” Angeli said. “When it comes to ownership or team building, like expansion, (this) is not really something that was pursued until we saw my Santa Clara girls do it at the Bay. I thought, ‘Well, if they could do it, maybe I could have some of that same Bronco power and get it done here in Colorado,’ and, lo and behold, here I am.”
Angeli (right) has made it her mission to bring professional women’s soccer to her home of Colorado. (Brad Smith / Getty Images)
Cohen’s interest in bringing professional soccer to Denver was inspired by “For Denver FC’s” grassroots efforts two years ago. He met with the group over Zoom in the fall of 2023. It was a turning point in their movement, Angeli said.
She was working for CBS Sports in Connecticut at the time, squeezing meetings with their group in between the studio shows. It was those first conversations with Cohen from her kitchen table that made her feel like, “This is really happening.” Her “For Denver FC” group chat buzzed with excitement after their first conversation.
“Our goal for Denver FC was to launch a community movement that was so undeniable that people with the ability to fund a team would want to be a part of it, and that meeting (with Cohen) cemented that in my mind,” Angeli said. “We all knew what we had done really worked and it was going to provide a great platform for whoever financed the team to jump off from.”
Cohen said their passion was contagious. It wasn’t long before he was all in.
“The more I learned about what the opportunity was, what was going on in the league, and the opportunity that exists here in Denver, the more excited I got and the more I leaned in,” he said.
For Denver FC originally explored options in the USL Super League and NWSL. (For Denver FC)
Angeli was driving home after a workout when she learned Denver won the bid. She found out like the rest of the world through reports leaked in the media. But it really sunk in when a reporter she trusted messaged her to confirm the news.
“I’m at a stoplight and I look at my phone and I read that. I just started crying. I couldn’t help it,” Angeli said. A few days later, Angeli and the rest of the For Denver FC group were on another call with Cohen.
“I wanted to tell you guys this before everything leaked, but I guess it’s already out there,” Angeli remembers Cohen saying at the time. “But, yeah, we’re getting a team.”
She grew even more emotional when she saw the team’s potential colors and potential stadiums.
“I just was so thankful,” Angeli said. “I hopped on at the end (of the Zoom call) and just thanked the owners and said, ‘You know, as a little girl, I could only dream that this would be a reality.’”
Additional contributors: Meg Linehan and Jeff Rueter
(Top photo: Erin Chang / ISI Photos / Getty Images; Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic)
