Getting involved in soccer ownership wasn’t exactly in Lauren Holiday’s thoughts when she was a player.

Historically, it hasn’t been in many players’ thoughts. But times are changing, and the two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2015 World Cup winner with the United States’ women’s national team has become the latest player to join the decision-making ranks.

Holiday has joined the board of Mercury/13, the group that owns FC Como Women in Italy, and plans to expand its portfolio in Europe over the coming year. Her involvement comes as part of an investment by Avenue Sports, the private equity fund she advises that is headed by Marc Lasry, the former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

“It’s about a desire to be able to implement change,” Holiday tells in an exclusive interview when asked why she chose the executive route. “It’s also to have a voice. So many owners and ownership groups don’t actually understand the game, or very few understand what it’s like to be on the field to be doing what we’re doing.”

Holiday was already one of an increasing number of former USWNT players who have invested in clubs, having put money into Angel City when they launched in 2020, as did Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach. There’s also Carli Lloyd at Gotham and Brandi Chastain with Bay FC, but while Holiday isn’t putting her money into the Mercury/13 project, this feels like a much more active role.

And Holiday’s primary motivation seems to be providing a players’ perspective to help the game grow.

“For a Brandi Chastain, a Carli Lloyd, or myself, to be able to say, ‘Hey, actually, this is what we really need, this is top priority’, and just giving clarification on what is valued and what is important, is huge.

“Athletes need to have ownership in the sport for the game to continue to grow. Because if you’ve never played, if you’re just a part of it because of money or you’re a part of it because you’re a fan, it’s not going to serve the athletes in the same way, to give them longevity and a path for growth.

“When I had the chance to share my personal experience, and then also share what I believe will help grow the game in an organic way, I got super passionate about it.”

There’s also greater control for a former player who wants to impact the game. If they go down the more traditional ex-pro route of coaching, they become dependent on so many other things — not least the decisions of club owners. If they’re the ones making those decisions, in theory, they have a better chance of shaping the game in the way they want.

“The coach can do everything right on the field, but you can’t necessarily control the culture,” Holiday says. “They can control the culture of the players, but really the culture of the club comes from the top, from the ownership.

“How do you build a club with integrity? With so many organisations in every league, you hear, ‘Toxic organization, you don’t wanna go there’. But as a player, I understand from the top down, ‘OK, this is what an athlete needs’. We want to be able to control the way the culture is built.”

Holiday started down this path when Lasry sold the Bucks, for whom her husband, Jrue Holiday played at the time. Then when Lasry established Avenue Sports, he asked Holiday if she wanted to join him as an advisor.

Then a few months ago, the connection with Mercury/13 was mooted. An organisation co-founded by Victoire Cogevina and Mario Malave in 2023, Mercury/13 is a prospective multi-club ownership group (which currently only owns one club) focused entirely on the women’s game. Former England forward and Angel City sporting director Eni Aluko and ex-Italy men’s captain Giorgio Chiellini are also investors in the group.

It was in lengthy negotiations to buy the women’s branch of Lewes FC in England in 2023 but mutually agreed with the club not to proceed with that deal in early 2024, before making Como its first acquisition in March.

It is currently something of an unknown quantity in terms of a tangible track record: Mercury/13 have implemented a slick rebrand of Como and improved the Italian club’s facilities, but while the team currently sit in fifth place in Serie A Femminile, it’s a little too early to judge its overall impact. It intends to expand its portfolio in 2025 and could acquire an English club in the first half of the year. Mercury/13 could add a club in Spain, and possibly one more in another European country by the end of the year.

One of the more interesting elements of its work will be how successfully it can build a club from nothing, or at least a relatively low base. In the U.S. system, with expansion franchises and the NWSL being a fairly young organisation overall, emerging teams are common. But in Europe, that doesn’t happen as much.

Currently, most of the successful, well-known women’s teams — Chelsea, Barcelona, Lyon — are part of a broader organisation and connected to an established men’s team. Mercury/13 isn’t intending to start from scratch, but its aim is to grow teams with a smaller reputation.

“Europe is a different landscape than the US,” Holiday says. “It’s going to take a little bit of time to get established but once we do, I feel confident that we’ll be welcomed.”

Holiday thinks elements of the game in Europe, like sponsorship, are lagging behind the U.S.

“In American sports, there’s always a new sponsorship, always someone new trying to invest. Mercury/13 are thinking, ‘How do we get eyes on these clubs? How do you pitch these clubs?’. Because they are going to be marketable. This can be a new way.”

Holiday is clearly enthused by the challenge of being hands-on, rather than a more passive investor. But what does she think success would look like in a venture like this?

“My vision of success is not financial,” she says. “It would be leagues competing. It’s so isolated: the European leagues are here, but the NWSL is very isolated. My dream would be that we’re all competing.

“For the men that’s happening so much more. But for women, I’d love it if you could go anywhere in the world and be at a world-class club.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

NWSL, Sports Business, UK Women's Football

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