When Angel City As much as the NWSL joined, the goal was to make franchise more than a simple football club. His sprawling, deep and ambitious property group led by celebrities wanted the team to win on the field, but it also wanted to alleviate hunger, support education and promote equality.
It was an innovative approach; Whoever, if he succeeded, would provide a new model on the way the teams interacted with the fans and the communities they served.
However, three years later, Angel City only made half of this program.
Before even drawing the Utah Royals on Sunday in the home final, the team was eliminated from the claims of the qualifiers for the second time. Angel City (7-12-6), which will conclude its third season on November 1 in Portland, won only a third of its 69 games, conceded more goals it has scored and ranked among the leaders of the League in number of times it has been condemned to a fine or penalization by the NWSL for the violation of the League rules.
The performance in the field is regressing and does not progress. With the team under a new direction, a massive change on the football side could happen, as soon as possible.
But the other half of Angel City's experience is going well. Last week, the team announced that it joined Jersey Sponsor Dash to deliver more than 2 million meals to individuals in need in Los Angeles. Trade in addition to other business partners, who must hire 10% of their sponsorship dollars to community programs, the club has distributed more than 237 tonnes of fresh products, formed 164 coaches, mobilized 1,300 people to contribute more than 4,200 hours of volunteering to non -profit groups throughout the city, helped finance a soccer program for migrant families on the world's world. Organized a Sectan Cup program and 2024 Olympic Games.
The Messiah of Angel City Bright famous with teammates after scoring a goal against the Washington Spirit in BMO Stadium on September 27.
(Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
However, the team can continue to do good in the community without doing well on the ground is an open question.
Sportico puts the value of the franchise at 250 million dollars and lists its annual income to $ 35.4 million; Both are records for a professional women's team. And while the league lists the average attendance of the team at 19.310, which is based on distributed tickets, not a dot of turnstile; More than a third of the 22,000 BMO Stadium seats were empty for the day's final appreciation of Sunday fans.
Attendance is not the only thing that blocked. Whatever the momentum, the team obtained from its starry investors – the largest mainly female ownership group in the history of sport and which includes the A -Lywood Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, America Ferrara and Jennifer Garner as well as the former athlete, notably Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Billie Jean King and Serena Williams – The team crossed two coaches and two general directors in three seasons while Christen PressIts biggest box-offence draw has not started a match for more than two years.
The attention and investment in female sports are booming, but Angel City, who plays in a league built on the power of the stars, was the only NWSL team which had no player match in the Olympic tournament last summer. Although none of his eminent civic sponsors has closed their checkbook and disappeared elsewhere – however – fans and even some of the team's original investors lose patience.
“This season has been a disappointment,” said Laura Stripling, a playwright from Santa Clarita and a holder of the team creation season. “I don't know who is to blame.”
Neither Julie Uhrmanthe club president, nor Willow BayWho became the owner of the team last July, agreed to be interviewed, although Uhrman published a written declaration of 67 words through a spokesperson for the club.
“After the season,” said in part “we will examine, plan and make the necessary changes to win. Not only to make the playoffs, but to win everything.”
This could be bad news for coach Becki Tweed and Managing Director Angela Hucles Mangano, who had little success at the end of the team's slide, but welcome to news for Angel City investors. None of the team's donors, such as the owner or president of the team, would speak of the file given the delicate nature of the situation, but in private, many have expressed their frustration in the face of the team's lack of progress: the seven victories of this season with a game to play are a low franchise and there does not seem to be a plan to overthrow things.
Even before the start of the season, there were tensions in the Angel City property group. The co -founder of spring in the spring, Alexis Ohanian, in the spring, at the time, the largest shareholder of the team, was so unhappy with the overflowing expenses of the board of directors for non -practicing things, he pushed the other five members of the board to request the help of a New York investment bank to find a new control owner.
Ohanian did not respond to emails asking for comments, but in July, Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and her husband, the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, spent $ 50 million to take over the team. They were welcomed, a few days later, by a Wall Street Journal article Connect stories of intestine struggles, politics and beads among some of the owners of Angel City who were worthy of a soap opera.
Bay would have learned as much as it can on football before the figures are a busy winter spent redoing the front office and the team's football operations department. Angel City will also see 10 players – including the press, the best scorers Sydney Leroux and Claire Emslie and goalkeeper Didi Haracic – become free agents without restriction, according to the Spotrac website.
Angel City FC striker Sydney Leroux (2) famous with his teammate Claire Emslie (10) after scoring a goal against the Stars Red of Chicago at the Seatgeek stadium on April 13.
(Icon sportswire / icon sportswire via getty images)
However, loss in the field and dysfunction must not derail the community efforts of Angel City, said Lisa Delpy Neirotti, an associate professor of sports management who helped develop the certificate of sport philanthropy at George Washington University.
“I don't see this correlation,” she said. “People who manage the philanthropic side are different from coaches and talent. So you can have great people do part of the business and maybe they just don't have the right people who take care of the business talent. ”
If sponsors and fans are starting to disinterested, it could change the equation, said Delpy Neirotti. But she suspects that many Angel City partners got involved with the team because they were more than winning football matches.
“Where they come from more is the long-term impact, supporting women, supporting people in need and doing this very community focused,” she said.
This work said Brandy Muñiz, executive director of the South La, impact All Peoples Community Center.
“Angel City is in fact engaged in the mission, in their values,” said Muñiz. The team provided meals, helped finance a financial literary course for young people and provided laptops, scholarships and mentorship for a female support group at all peoples.
“It was refreshing because what it shows is a deep care and appreciation, not only for the center, our mission, but our community,” she added. “They really care about people who use our resources.”
Although it is good, for an ambitious team that once promised to revolutionize female sports, it is not good enough.
“I expect more,” said Stripling, the playwright and the holder of the season. “I really like the community awareness work that the team and philosophy does behind the club. However, we are a football team and we have to win. ”
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