Ten groups have submitted bids to the NFL to be investors in new women’s and men’s professional flag football leagues, and that round of bids will close this week, sources told ESPN.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February that the league was “aggressively” exploring creating separate professional flag leagues for men and women.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the 10 investors include Alexis Ohanian’s investment firm 776; TKO Group Holdings; Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group; partners Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz; Connect Ventures, a partnership between talent agency Creative Artists Agency and venture firm New Enterprise Associates; and SMAC Entertainment, a media company co-founded by Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini.
“It’s clear that there’s a lot of interest in the pro flag league,” Goodell said Tuesday at the league’s annual meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. “We have been getting bids on people who want to invest in that, either financially or invest in the operations of that, so we’re hard at work and I expect there’ll be progress soon.”
Serena Williams, who is married to Ohanian, appeared at a panel at the NFL meetings on Sunday to address growth in women’s sports. Caitlin Clark, Denver Broncos minority owner Mellody Hobson and Eli Manning were also a part of the panel.
Calling her “the GOAT,” Goodell said Williams “not just understands women’s sports, she understands business and sports and, I think, society.” She became a minority owner of the WNBA expansion franchise in Toronto this year and became a part owner of the Miami Dolphins in 2009.
The league has identified flag football as a way to introduce the sport to new fans and grow the game internationally — and has provided critical support to the effort to include flag football as an Olympic sport in 2028.
According to the National Federation of High Schools, about 500,000 girls ages 6 to 17 played flag football in 2023 — a 63% increase since 2019, making it one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. The NFL counts more than 750,000 participants in its NFL flag football league nationwide, and all 32 franchises sponsor their own leagues.
