NWSL team Racing Louisville FC's ownership group has begun to explore selling a stake in the team, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN.
Racing Louisville is owned by Soccer Holdings, LLC, a large consortium of owners which is chaired by John Neace.
According to the sources, who are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, there is not currently a prospective buyer identified. Rather, Neace & Co. have more formally begun the process of looking for additional investment to keep the team competitive as other clubs in the league continue to invest more aggressively.
Three different sources spoke to ESPN about the prospect of a potential sale of Racing Louisville. However, a Racing Louisville spokesperson told ESPN that Neace is not interested in giving up controlling ownership or relocating the team from Louisville. Neace is seeking further investment and an equity partner.
The team provided the following statement to ESPN: "As the NWSL experiences unprecedented growth, Soccer Holdings is constantly evaluating strategic opportunities to ensure Racing Louisville has the resources to compete at the highest level.
"We're coming off the club's first-ever trip to the playoffs and have assembled a competitive young roster that just last weekend knocked off the league's first-place team. We believe in Racing's future and invite our community to join us at Lynn Family Stadium in support of Louisville's only top-tier professional team."
The matter has the attention and involvement of NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman, sources added.
Racing Louisville was recently valued at $127 million and $140 million by Sportico and Forbes, respectively, ranking it as one of the least valuable franchises in the NWSL.
Still, Racing Louisville's value has skyrocketed thanks to the NWSL's rapid growth.
The club played its first season in 2021 after paying an expansion fee of less than $2 million. Since then, NWSL expansion fees and franchise valuations have skyrocketed. A consortium in Columbus, Ohio, led by the Haslam Sports Group, recently agreed to pay $205 million for the NWSL's 18th franchise.
Racing Louisville joined USL men's side Louisville City FC, which has won two league championships, at Lynn Family Stadium, a 15,000-seat soccer stadium that opened in 2020, but the team has struggled on and off the field since launching.
Louisville made the playoffs for the first time in 2025 as the No. 7 seed, ending a run of four straight years finishing in ninth place.
Attendance in Louisville has lagged as the NWSL has grown. Racing finished last of 14 teams in average attendance last season with around 5,500 fans per game, down from the prior season and the team's lowest average since launching.
Louisville City FC's attendance has hovered around 10,000 fans since the pandemic.
Lynn Family Stadium is, as of this spring, now the home of the Louisville Kings of the UFL, an American football league that plays in the spring. The Kings debuted last month in front of an announced sellout crowd of over 14,000 fans.
Racing Louisville's quest for new investment comes at a time when the NWSL is receiving significant interest from new prospective owners and markets.
For years, Berman has said that relocation of any franchise is a "last resort." She used that same phrase with reporters in New York City in March when asked about relocation in general.
"Relocation should be a last resort," Berman said. "We view, in our philosophy of what our teams are, is driven by the idea that these are community assets. And what that means is that the community has to believe and it has to be demonstrated over time, that owners and the league will keep these teams in markets even through periods of transition, team sales, or other ups and downs that might be happening with the club, with their on-field performance.
"That does not mean that it's a red line. It means that we will only consider that under appropriate circumstances, and we will be very judicious and exercise high discretion in those circumstances where we feel that it's appropriate."
The Houston Dash, a franchise that has also historically struggled on and off the field, has been seeking investment and a potential new owner for over a year.
Every team in the NWSL, other than the North Carolina Courage, has either changed its franchise governor (and, typically, majority ownership) or entered the league as an expansion team since 2020.
North Carolina recently brought in Marc Lasry and Avenue Sports Group for an injection of cash, but Steve Malik retained control of the franchise.
Versions of relocation have happened in the past in the NWSL. North Carolina was previously the Western New York Flash until moving in January of 2017. The NWSL also had a franchise leave Kansas City for Salt Lake City, Utah, then return to Kansas City. Both markets now have teams after the Utah Royals were revived in 2024.
