Denver Summit FC Demonstrates How New NWSL Teams Can Win the Partnership Market
By Adam Grossman
A new sports franchise typically starts at a disadvantage in the partnership market. With no history, no attendance track record, and no established fan base, the pitch to potential partners is largely a promise.
The Denver Summit FC’s ability to attract partners at speed given its official acceptance as a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team in January 2025 offers a blueprint for how new women’s sports franchises can rapidly approach commercial development. The team also shows why the current market environment creates unique conditions for potential success for women’s sports expansion franchises.
Demand Signals Before the First Whistle
The first driver of Summit’s partnership success is the unprecedented demand signal the club generated before its inaugural season. Denver Summit sold 50,000 tickets, a number that would break not only the NWSL’s single-game attendance record but the U.S. women’s professional sports record as well. For partners, that kind of pre-launch validation removes a core element of risk from the partnership conversation. The market has spoken before the first whistle blows.
That micro demand signal is augmented with by the macro tailwinds accelerating women’s sports commercially. Since 2024, NWSL viewership has grown 400% and attendance 43%. Partnership agreements in the league rose 19%, with 200 new brands entering the NWSL partnership space. Partnership growth in women’s sports is now outpacing growth in select men’s professional leagues by nearly 50%, and Forbes projects women’s sports revenue will exceed $2.35 billion in 2025 — a 25% year-over-year increase.
The second driver is the founding partner premium. New franchises can offer something that established teams cannot: the opportunity to be first. CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest non-profit health systems in the country with hospitals and care sites across Colorado, was announced as the club’s first founding partner.
CommonSpirit also secured naming rights for the club’s 20,000-square-foot performance center in Centennial, featuring eight soccer fields, state-of-the-art recovery technology, and private player facilities on a 43-acre campus. The ability to attach a brand to the founding identity of a franchise has significant value in markets where brand differentiation and community connection drive partnership decisions.
Founding Partners, Ownership, and Compressed Sales Cycles
The third driver is the caliber of the ownership group. Denver Summit’s cap table includes Broncos limited partner Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments, Molly Coors, Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin, and Peyton Manning.
Partners are not only partnering with a soccer team but also associating with a network of nationally recognized names across finance, sports, and culture. This ownership profile functions as a credibility multiplier in partnership conversations, particularly with brands entering women’s sports for the first time.
Club President Jen Millet has acknowledged that partnership has been “the toughest part of the accelerated timeline,” noting that deals of this type typically take up to 18 months to close. The Summit has been executing those conversations in eight to ten months. That success is possible because the inbound interest is real. Partners are coming to the table with urgency that did not exist for NWSL clubs even a few years ago.
There is also a community architecture to the Summit’s partnership model that deserves attention. The club has structured its partnerships to include a direct community reinvestment component, the 303 Community Fund, with an initial $10,000 donation to Soccer Without Borders. For health systems, financial institutions, and consumer brands with active corporate social responsibility platforms, the ability to connect commercial partnership with documented community impact strengthens the business case internally.
From Early Wins to a Repeatable Commercial Framework
Denver Summit FC’s early partnership performance reflects a broader shift in how the women’s sports partnership market is functioning. The combination of proven fan demand, macro growth tailwinds, founding partner exclusivity, and a marquee ownership network has allowed a brand-new franchise to compress a multi-year partnership ramp into months. This will be on display for the Summit’s home opener at Empower Field at Mile High on March 28th.
For brands evaluating women’s sports partnerships and for sports executives building commercial strategies, Denver Summit’s model offers a framework. Fan demand validates the market. Founding partner positioning creates urgency and premium. And ownership networks open doors that cold outreach rarely does
The new entrant disadvantage, long assumed to be a structural barrier in sports partnership sales, appears to be far less limiting in women’s sports. This particularly true for strategically positioned franchises taking advantage of micro and macro-opportunities.