By Tony Lawson
Project Level has completed a $250 million first close, establishing one of the largest dedicated investment vehicles focused exclusively on women’s sports.
The fund, backed by leadership from Ariel Investments, is structured to deploy capital across teams, leagues, and sports-adjacent platforms.
While fundraising continues toward a final close, the first close enables Project Level to begin deploying capital and building a portfolio immediately.
That distinction places the announcement less in the category of symbolic momentum and more in the category of execution.
Capital Formation Moves From Attention to Ownership
Over the past several years, women’s sports have seen measurable increases in attendance, participation, sponsorship interest, and media visibility. What has been less common is capital organized to take long-term ownership positions across the ecosystem.
Project Level’s structure addresses that gap directly. A first close marks the point at which a fund is operational: capital is committed, governance is established, and deployment can begin even as additional limited partners are brought in.
In practical terms, it shifts women’s sports investment from episodic transactions to portfolio construction.
Early Investments Reflect a Portfolio Thesis
Prior to announcing its first close, Project Level had already committed capital to two initial investments.
One is Denver Summit FC, an expansion franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League. Recent NWSL expansion cycles have reflected increasing franchise valuations and growing local market demand, positioning team ownership as a central component of the league’s long-term economics.
The second is League One Volleyball, a vertically integrated volleyball platform spanning youth participation, development pathways, and professional competition. Its scale at the grassroots level aligns with a core premise of long-term sports economics: participation drives audience, and audience underpins enterprise value.
Together, these investments suggest a strategy that combines top-level ownership with systems that support sustained growth rather than short-term visibility.
Why Institutional Capital Is Engaging Now
Women’s sports have historically received a smaller share of institutional capital relative to their audience engagement and cultural relevance. That imbalance has increasingly drawn attention from allocators seeking exposure to underdeveloped asset classes with long-duration upside.
Project Level’s approach reflects this shift. By offering institutional investors structured access to ownership and infrastructure within women’s sports, the fund provides a mechanism for participation that individual team acquisitions or sponsorship-driven models often do not.
This framing positions women’s sports not as a marketing opportunity, but as an ownership category.
Implications Beyond a Single Fund
The significance of this first close extends beyond Project Level itself.
It establishes a model for how capital can be organized around women’s sports with institutional discipline. It provides a reference point for other funds and investors evaluating the category. And it signals to leagues, operators, and athletes that capital aligned with long-term ownership and governance is increasingly available.
Most importantly, it contributes to a broader reclassification of women’s sports as economic infrastructure rather than a peripheral market.
An Asset Class Entering Its Ownership Phase
Women’s sports have already demonstrated relevance and audience demand. The remaining question has been whether capital would arrive in forms capable of supporting scale, durability, and enterprise value.
Project Level’s $250 million first close does not answer that question in full. But it marks a clear step toward answering it through ownership, deployment, and execution.
