Global Investment firm Sixth Street has backed Bay Collective, a multi-club women’s football ownership platform, as private capital flows into women’s sport at scale.
The NWSL franchise’s value rose from $2m in 2021 to over $200m in 2026, while McKinsey research found women’s sports revenue grew 4.5x faster than men’s between 2022 and 2024.
The growth is being driven by expanding fan bases, media rights deals and sponsorship investment, with Nielsen research finding NWSL viewership up 61% in 2025 and 64% of fans identifying as male.
Kay Cossington MBE, CEO of Bay Collective, said the platform has “the patient capital of Sixth Street” alongside “the capital and the expertise of knowing what to do with it, how to sustainably and strategically deploy it, and how to develop and build specifically for women’s football.”
Bay Collective currently owns Bay FC in San Francisco and acquired a majority stake in Sunderland AFC Women in June 2026, operating across two of the biggest women’s football markets in the world.
Beyond sporting performance, Bay Collective’s platform spans marketing, commercial strategy and match-day experience, with Cossington arguing that women’s football offers a distinct fan base and different commercial partnership opportunities from the men’s game.
Institutional investors are increasingly treating women’s sport as a serious long-term commercial opportunity, with women’s football in particular attracting significant capital from firms more commonly associated with traditional financial assets.