The San Diego Wave are being sold — and for a record price.
Sportico reported Thursday afternoon that owner Ron Burkle has agreed to sell the team to Arthur Levine and Lauren Leichtman in two transactions totaling $113 million, the most ever paid for a National Women’s Soccer League club. The reported deal is nearly twice as much as the $63 million RAJ Sports paid to purchase the Portland Thorns last year.
A husband and wife, Levine and Leichtman already have purchased 35 percent of the team for $35 million, per Sportico. They will buy the other 65 percent for $78 million at the end of the 2024 season. The Wave, last year’s NWSL Shield winner and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, open their season Friday night with a NWSL Challenge Cup match against NJ/NY Gotham FC. San Diego’s team is led by three of the most recognizable American players in the sport: forwards Alex Morgan and Jaedyn Shaw and defender Naomi Girma.
Burkle, who paid $2 million in expansion fees to bring a professional women’s soccer team to San Diego, will remain the team’s control person for the 2024 season.
The Wave issued a news release announcing that Burkle has brought on the Levine/Leichtman family as “a significant minority investor in the club,” but would not comment on Sportico’s report.
“We are proud of the unprecedented success we’ve had as an expansion team, and I am confident that … their family’s investment will continue to the growth of our team and the San Diego community,” Burkle said in the release.
Leichtman said in the release that she was excited to “ forces with San Diego Wave and build upon the impressive foundation established by Ron Burkle.” She said the purchase aligns with her family’s vision for empowering women and “fostering opportunities for aspiring female athletes.”
Co-founders of the Beverly Hills-based Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, Levine and Leichtman have a longstanding relationship with Wave president Jill Ellis dating to her time as UCLA women’s soccer coach. The couple are longtime Bruins donors and boosters. In 2017, Levine — a 1973 UCLA grad — and Leichtman pledged $2 million to establish an endowed chair in women’s health research at the university.
In the Wave’s release, Ellis said Levine and Leichtman “have been great ers of mine for many years, and I have no doubt they will fit right in with the San Diego Wave community, and it is my pleasure to welcome them to the organization.”
