Cleveland Soccer Group is launching a franchise in a new professional women’s soccer league just months after missing out on an NWSL expansion franchise. Instead of waiting for the next round of NWSL expansion, the investor group led by Gravitas Ventures’ Michael Murphy and Nolan Gallagher is joining WPSL Pro, a proposed Division II league set to launch in 2026.
WPSL Pro, a startup professional league from the longtime operators of the amateur Women’s Premier Soccer League, was initially proposed as a Division III league but has instead decided to seek Division II sanctioning from U.S. Soccer. It would become the third women’s professional league in the U.S., joining the NWSL and the recently launched USL Super League. Other WPSL Pro markets so far include Atlanta, Dallas, High Point, N.C., Oklahoma City, Sioux Falls, S.D., and the S.F. Bay Area.
Cleveland was one of three finalists to receive an NWSL expansion franchise for the 2026 season alongside Denver and Cincinnati. When NWSL awarded its 16th franchise to Denver in January, Cleveland Soccer Group reexamined its plans for women’s soccer.
“Obviously, it was disappointing,” said Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Cleveland Soccer Group. “We put a lot of effort into that bid to be number 16, but at the end of the day, our goal was to bring professional men’s and women’s soccer to downtown Cleveland, and we just took a step back and said, ‘Well, what assets do we have?’”
MLS Next Pro has already awarded Cleveland Soccer Group an expansion franchise in the men’s developmental league, and Cleveland Metroparks last year approved the group’s $4.2M purchase of a 14-acre lot in downtown Cleveland on which to build a soccer-specific stadium. The group also collected 16,000 season-ticket pledges for a women’s team during the NWSL expansion bid, which it hopes to convert into deposits for the newly announced WPSL Pro team.
Murphy is not closing the door on NWSL expansion in the future but does not want to wait until that occurs to launch professional women’s soccer in Cleveland. Pivoting in the short term from NWSL to WPSL Pro has allowed the group to reduce its initial investment. While NWSL received a $110M fee in its most recent round of expansion, the cost to join WPSL Pro as an original member team is $1M.
The group has also scaled back its stadium plan from a 12,500-seat, $150M venue to a 10,000-seat, $50M project. Murphy stressed that the “lean construction” venue can be expanded in the future as demand dictates or if the city lands an NWSL team.
“This is a function of let’s get in the game and control what we can control,” Murphy said. “It’s too hard for us to sit here and predict five to 10 years from now what the future of women’s professional soccer is going to look like in this country. All I know is that if we go out and execute and play in this downtown stadium, we’re going to be in a good position vis-à-vis whatever comes next.”
The reduction in up-front costs has allowed Murphy to once again serve as Cleveland Soccer Group’s primary investor. When it was seeking the NWSL expansion team, the group recruited Rockefeller Foundation EVP/Programs Elizabeth Yee to be the lead financial backer due to the high price tag.
