Looks like Disney CEO Bob Iger will have to clean up another mess when he and wife, Willow Bay, gain majority control of a Los Angeles women’s soccer team.
The couple, which have reportedly agreed to pay $50 million for a majority stake in Angel City FC, will inherit a team that has been beset by rampant infighting among its founders and board members that include allegations of racial microaggressions and nepotism, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The club was launched in 2020 by an A-list cast of successful women that included Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman and financed by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams.
Investors included fellow actors Jennifer Garner, Jessica Chastain and Gabrielle Union, and star athletes Mia Hamm and Candace Parker. Angel City’s debut in the National Women’s Soccer League in 2022 was celebrated in a docu-series on HBO.
“We were going to be innovative in a way that we hoped would drive equity and generate positive momentum for the league, women’s football and the business of women’s sports,” the board of directors told the Journal.
“Like many businesses, there have been decisions along the way that have necessitated spirited debate.”
The team – valued at $250 million – is reportedly set to sell a controlling interest to Iger, who has been busy trying to revive Disney’s fortunes, and Bay, the dean of the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.
The deal, which would make Angel City FC the most valuable women’s sports franchises in the world, is expected to be completed quickly, sources told the Los Angeles Times last week.
Part of ACFC’s dysfunction stemmed from Ohanian, the principal owner, creating a power vacuum by setting up an unusual arrangement that ceded control to others on the six-member board, the Journal reported.
The team’s co-founders — which also include venture capitalist Kara Nortman, and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, the team’s president — soon engaged in a reported power struggle for leadership. Ohanian, Portman and Uhrman are on the board.
He has accused Uhrman of profligate spending in an effort to make the team competitive, while she argued that women’s sports deserved the same funding as men’s sports, the Journal reported.
Uhrman also allegedly hired her twin sister as the chief marketing officer without consulting anyone else and then kept her on the payroll for months after she fired her, according to the Journal.
During a performance review, Uhrman reportedly cursed out Ohanian after he criticized her work behavior.
Ohanian has looked to remove Uhrman from her role as team president, but Nortman has continued to back her, according to the Journal.
The infighting intensified last month when a a law firm representing Angel City’s board sent a letter to Nortman and Uhrman accusing Nortman of communicating directly with bidders about the proposed deal terms, in violation of a non-disclosure agreement, according to internal documents reviewed by the Journal.
Uhrman told the Journal that neither she nor Nortman could comment on anything regarding active negotiations.
The documents also alleged that Uhrman, who is white, butted heads with sporting director Eniola Aluko, a black woman.
In 2021, Aluko wanted to hire a male coach, but her decision sparked backlash online, with fans attacking the club for straying from its women-centric ideology.
The club pivoted to hiring a female coach, who ended up getting fired after less than two seasons.
Aluko also accused Uhrman of repeatedly berating her, and in 2022 raised concerns about Uhrman’s “microaggressions” to Ohanian during a one-on-one meeting in London, according to the internal documents.
Later that day, Uhrman allegedly interrupted Aluko on a company call and suggested the director take an “amicable exit” before her work contract expired – a move which Aluko said she believed was retaliatory, the documents said.
Aluko left the team in 2023.
For his part, Ohanian said he intends to remain involved with the team after the reported sale to Iger and Bay.
He said the setup in which he had no board control was “one of many hard lessons I learned as a first-time sports team owner,” in a recent post on X.
Despite the internal drama, Angel FC generated $33 million in revenue in 2023, Uhrman told the Journal.
