A little less than 2 years ago, I joined Ben Hubbard, Tom Dunmore, and Jordan Angeli at ForDenverFC, an effort to bring women’s professional soccer to Colorado. And today, that dream is realized!
My story began with the nudging of a friend Jaclyn Hester, who suggested I watch the Angel City documentary. In that video, there’s a scene where Abby Wambach is interviewed about receiving the ESPY Icon Award, next to Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning. She laments that instead of feeling pride in what her accomplishments have brought her, she felt rage at not entering into retirement with a similar financial situation as Kobe and Peyton. While she didn’t begrudge them their success, she couldn’t understand why she didn’t have similar opportunities as those two, in spite of similar career accomplishments. And honestly, I got angry. Angry for Abby, angry for female athletes, and just angry for women in general. Any woman who sees that video should be angry. So I started digging.
At that time, there was not one women’s professional anything in Colorado, despite Denver boasting 6 men’s professional teams. How can that be in such an athletic, pro sports state? If I was going to start a women’s professional sport team here, it just had to be soccer. While other sports could make sense, soccer has a much more global presence, and the US Women’s National Team has been ranked #1 for most of the last 10 years. So our ladies win on the global scale, where men’s soccer is ‘meh’ globally. Even more impressive, Colorado is well represented in the starting lineup for the USWNT, which means we’re producing the best talent globally right here in CO, but they can’t play here because we don’t have a team? Insane! So let’s start a women’s soccer team!
I got connected to Ben Hubbard, Tom Dunmore, & Jordan Angeli who had been working towards this goal for a little under a year and we started ForDenverFC – a grassroots effort to pull together Colorado’s first women’s pro soccer team. We recruited a contingent of almost 150 ForDenverFC Ambassadors who organized community events around Colorado to help spread the word. Together, we made huge strides on the marketing and community front, the facilities front, and the financing front. Together we identified Rob Cohen as an ideal anchor owner for this effort, and were delighted (if not surprised!) by how quickly and eagerly he said yes. Rob stepped in and brought the dedication, heft, resources, and influence to get the effort over the line. We couldn’t have done this without Rob!
So Colorado – I am so excited to share with you that ForDenverFC has realized it’s dream. Presenting – Denver NWSL!
In a post I wrote last year, I hinted at a couple of projects I’ve been working on – and I’m excited to share one with you now.
Along with my partners Ben Hubbard (the entrepreneur), Tom Dunmore (the professional sport and soccer expert), and Jordan Angeli (a previous NWSL player) – we’ve launched ForDenverFC – an effort to win a women’s professional soccer team expansion slot here in Colorado. This is Ben’s vision, joined by Tom, then Jordan, then me.
Why soccer? Good question – especially since I don’t know much about professional sports and my soccer career was limited to one season as a kiddo, one season on a club team in college, and a couple of seasons as a spectator when my daughter played.
I was introduced to the concept by my friend Jaclyn Hester over at Foundry Group, who urged me to watch the Angel City FC documentary on HBO. Two things stood out for me; first was one of the founders of Angel City, Kara Nortman, who is a female VC, not unlike me. The second was this scene with Abby Wambach (please watch it!) who was reminiscing about getting an ESPY Icon award on stage alongside Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning. In that scene, she was lamenting that she should have felt proud because she accomplished everything these other titans of sport had accomplished; but rather she felt rage because she had a job interview because she couldn’t afford health insurance or her mortgage. She didn’t begrudge them their financial success – she just didn’t have the same financial opportunities even though she accomplished the same level of mastery. I hope that clip boils your blood as it did mine.
Abby’s frustration was an inspiration to me, just like the founders of Angel City, and pretty much any other female who has watched that clip. So I started looking into women’s pro sports teams. Did you know that as of this writing, Colorado has all 5 professional sports? Football (the Broncos), baseball (The Rockies), basketball (The Nuggets), hockey (The Avalanche), and soccer (The Rapids). We even have a lacrosse team (The Mammouth) – which makes 6 men’s teams. But not a single women’s professional sport? And this is in the heart of a demographic who loves their sports!
Also, weren’t the female soccer players in the US head and shoulders above the men in terms of wins? In fact, the US Women’s National Team has been called the most successful in international women’s soccer, winning 4 Olympic Gold Medals, 4 World Cup titles, and 9 CONCACAF Gold Cup titles. Furthermore, the team was ranked #1 consecutively from 2009 – 2014. The men’s team doesn’t hold a candle to the women’s performance (sorry dudes).
Furthermore, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL, the premier league in the US) has 19 players from Colorado. Three star players from the US Women’s National Team call Colorado home. Colorado is producing talent that can not only play on a national level but win on a global level – and they can’t even play here? Additionally, women’s pro teams are decades behind their male counterparts in terms of equity values (how much the teams are worth) – but women’s sports are catching up FAST when it comes to viewership.
So, yes. Let’s help fix that, shall we? I’m not one to look backward or hash out all the reasons why this is the case – but I love to be part of solutions. So when I started looking into what it would take to launch a team, Ben, Tom, and Jordan’s efforts emerged, and I’ve been lucky enough to be included in the effort.
The great news is that we’ve assembled a killer team of owners whose vision aligns with ours. Furthermore, we have a world-class team of support (legal, facilities, consultants, marketing, etc) to help us put together a winning bid. We’re up against some stiff competition, but we have a real shot at this and we’re going to need Colorado’s broader support to win it.
Want to get involved?
Sign up for our email list – the more signups we have, the more the league sees how we can mobilize a community into season and regular ticket holders. The NWSL wants teams playing in full stadiums to a passionate fanbase!
Come to a watch party! It’s where we gather the community to watch women’s pro soccer and talk about the update to our bid process. Plus you get to hang out with cool people, like me (cough cough).
If you *really* want to get involved and have ~5 hours a month to volunteer, consider joining the existing 100+ FDFC Ambassadors.
Follow ForDenverFC on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn and please retweet and reshare our content to help spread the word.
If you run a soccer club or team anywhere in Colorado, we’d love to know you. Reach out!
And if none of that is your jam, try attending any women’s sporting event. I don’t even care what it is – but let’s sell out all women’s sports here in CO. High school sports are fun to attend and the area universities have a robust lineup of women’s athletics. In fact, one of the best basketball games I ever saw was a women’s game at CU. The tickets are affordable, it’s a great outing with the family, and it helps instill a culture of supporting women’s sports.
A small crew of ForDenverFC Ambassadors gathered in San Diego to watch the National Championships in November 2023.
I have a crystal clear vision in my head of sitting at the Colorado season opener, in our dedicated stadium, with my daughter beside me, along with all other young girls and boys in Colorado, excited for them to see what women can do, both on and off the pitch, and feeling humbled to be part of the FDFC journey. It might not work. We might not win the bid. It’s going to be a ton of work with no guaranteed outcome. But for me, this effort isn’t just about soccer, but about all women’s professional athletics, and more broadly giving women the same opportunities as our male counterparts. I hope you join me.
Nearly Nicole 