David McNeil always wanted to own a professional soccer team.
“It was a bucket-list thing,” he said.
Unfortunately, that bucket wasn’t holding the $500 million it would cost to buy into MLS or even the $20 million it would cost to join the second-tier USL Championship. He and his wife, Sheri, could spare a few hundred dollars, however, so when the Orange County Soccer Club offered the chance to become a stakeholder in the team for as little as $100, they put $12,500 in — and David added a line to his LinkedIn page identifying him as the owner of a pro sports franchise.
That’s not exactly how Jerry Jones or Stan Kroenke got started, but even a small piece of the pie is, well, a piece of pie. And even if it didn’t get the McNeils a seat at the table when big decisions are made, they considered the money well spent.
“I own a lot of Apple stock but they don’t call me, either. So that’s OK. I don’t want management responsibility,” said David McNeil, a principal with an insurance broker and consultant company and a longtime OCSC season-ticket holders. “What I want is to be able to go up and enjoy it and support what the management is doing.
“It’s not really a part of my investment portfolio. We think of it as community support.”
Fan ownership of a sports team is nothing new. The NFL’s Green Bay Packers, for example, have more than 538,000 stockholders, many of them simple fans, while clubs in the German Bundesliga are required to give their members a majority of the voting rights, ensuring that those members — in many cases the fans — have the final say in how the club is run.
Orange County’s program, similar to ones used by fellow USL Championship clubs in Oakland and Detroit, debuted in October 2023 and allowed people to own part of the team for a modest investment. The McNeils were among the first of 1,463 U.S. supporters to sign up and the idea proved so successful, OCSC expanded it to the United Kingdom last year, signing an additional 303 stakeholders and bringing the total amount raised to about $650,000.
“When you own something rather than just being a normal season-ticket holder, it gives you a different, unique way into the club that feels different from normal fandom,” said Dan Rutstein, the team’s president of business operations and a small-dollar investor in his favorite British club, AFC Wimbledon. “Some people came in for $100, which is a sort of ‘tell your friends you own a bit of the team.’ Some people came in at $50,000. It’s a real investment.”
Among those who have ponied up are former USC quarterback Matt Barkley and former Angel City and Mexican national team forward Katie Johnson. A minimum investment gets you a certificate of ownership; other levels entitle owners to unique merchandise such as scarves, a round of golf with a player or a dinner with the manager.
What it doesn’t get you is a vote in how the team is managed, although James Keston, the team’s majority owner, says that doesn’t mean you have no voice.
“I want more engaged fans and owners, not less engaged,” said Keston, who spent about $5 million to buy the Orange County Blues in 2016 and then rebranded the team as the Orange County Soccer Club, increasing its value to $50 million over the last eight years.
“Why soccer is different from pretty much all the other sports really is that fan engagement. No other sport gets the type of passion and the type of excitement and the type of absolute and complete dedication. If we want to see the next stage of U.S. soccer, it has to find a way to trickle through in a larger and deeper way into people’s lives.”
A list of the many individual owners of the Orange County Soccer Club.
(Orange County Soccer Club)
The investment model Orange County and the other USL Championship clubs are using was made possible by something called Reg CF, which was included in the 2012 JOBS Act signed into law by President Obama. The regulation allows companies with assets of less than $25 million that are seeking small amounts of capital to raise up to $5 million annually from a wide pool of backers, including non-accredited investors.
That means you don’t have to be a billionaire to own part of your favorite team.
“The advantage is you can get fans to invest, right?” said Steven A. Bank, the Paul Hastings professor of business law at UCLA and a close observer of soccer finances. “You obviously have full loyalty from the fans who invest, which is great, and you can raise money in a world in which advertising sponsorship revenue might be declining or might be difficult to attract.”
The downside is teams are required to do a lot of extra paperwork to comply with federal regulations and to keep investors informed. And for the investors, there’s no guarantee they’ll ever get their money back.
It was the fans who inspired Orange County to try Reg CF. When the Galaxy attempted to kick the team out of its longtime home in Irvine’s Great Park in the fall of 2023, supporters flooded council meetings and told the city what the club meant to them.
“It felt really special because of the length the fans went to to save the club,” Rutstein said. “So the day after we signed out 10-year deal with the city to keep the stadium, we launched the fan ownership scheme.”
Keston said the additional revenue the new owners have contributed won’t fund playing signings but will instead pay for stadium improvements and a new VIP stand, investments than will directly affect those fans. The team also said it is all but certain to offer another opportunity for people the join the ownership group this season, giving more fans a chance to brag about their (tiny) piece of the rock.
“How often do you get a chance to buy a team?,” McNeil asked. “So it was a smaller piece. But nevertheless the same concept.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
