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Hollywood actresses, TV stars, athletes. A prominent group of investors has formed in the United States to bring a professional women’s team to Los Angeles. They are much more than just football.
Dhe project is called “Angel City”. And it is obviously not just the city that inspired the choice of name. With Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner, Eva Longoria and Jessica Chastain, some Hollywood actresses also belong to the group of 33 people who are now pursuing the idea of bringing women’s football to Los Angeles.
The investor group wants to finance a professional team that will start in the US women’s league in 2022 and thus finally put California on the NWSL map.
There will be no shortage of sporting and economic competence. In addition to the glamor that the film stars spread, numerous owners from the California financial world, but also more than a dozen former American international players like Mia Hamm or Abby Wambach are among the owners.
Portman and Nortman in the fight for women’s rights
Media consultant Julie Uhrman acts as president. The initiators, however, are actress Portman and investor Kara Nortman, who got to know each other in 2019 through their commitment to equality. During the World Cup, Nortman and Portman supported Megan Rapinoe’s American players in their lawsuit against their own association. The women’s team had tried – ultimately to no avail – to have the premiums raised to the level of the significantly more unsuccessful men.
In parallel, Nortman and Portman developed the idea of a professional team for Los Angeles. “Natalie wrote me a text message three times with just one line: ‘Let’s get a team to LA,'” Nortman told The New York Times. On their way, they quickly found other well-known supporters who wanted the project to be understood as a political sign.
Including tennis star Serena Williams and husband Alexis Ohania, co-founder of the online platform Reddit. The fact that the couple also gave their daughter shares shows the importance that “Angel City” enjoys. The two-year-old Alexis Olympia thus becomes the owner of a professional club.
It is crucial for her mother that sporting success and economic profit are secondary at “Angel City”. The main thing is to show society new ways and values, as Becca Roux thinks.
The head of the USWNTPA players’ union said that the combination of female investors, former professional players and people of different skin tones on the club board has the potential to break old thinking structures in other clubs and in other professional leagues.
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