Why Laura Ricketts jumped at the ‘opportunity to have a culture change, to really write a new chapter’ as owner of the Chicago Red Stars

CHICAGO — The last 13 years as Chicago Cubs co-owner prepared Laura Ricketts for this moment.

Ricketts spearheaded an investment group that officially became the new owner of the Chicago Red Stars on Friday after approval from the National Women’s Soccer League Board of Governors.

The Red Stars were purchased for $35.5 million, a record for an existing NWSL club, with another $25 million earmarked to be put into the team.

“I love women’s sports and played them, so it was interesting, the idea of leveraging everything — all the knowledge and expertise that have been gained by owning the Cubs — and putting that to work for this team,” Ricketts told the Chicago Tribune. “This team has had some really challenging times. The opportunity to have a culture change, to really write a new chapter with this team, was really exciting.”

It became clear 11 months ago the Red Stars likely would need to be sold.

Red Stars players released a statement Oct. 11 calling on the team’s board of directors to remove owner Armin Whisler after the systemic abuse outlined in former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates’ report on the NWSL.

A month later, Ricketts discussed the state of the team with a couple of current investors, and by December she saw the potential and a possible path forward. On Dec. 5, Whisler announced he would put up the team for sale after pressure from the Yates report.

Ricketts felt it was important to have a female-led, diverse investor group. With the right people in place, she envisioned a bright future for the organization.

To fulfill that vision, Ricketts needed to bring in investors. The recruitment process began in January before the formal auction process started. She brainstormed with her brother Tom Ricketts, the Cubs chairman, about who within their network would be able to make this type of commitment.

“It’s not an easy investment to make,” Ricketts said. “It’s not a liquid asset and there’s not a lot of women who have had experience in owning professional sports teams, so it’s kind of new territory.

“All signs point to the right direction for this league, and I can see with the right type of management and investment that happening for the team as well.”

Angela E.L. Barnes, chief legal officer of global design firm IDEO, is among the female Chicago business and civic leaders who became part of the ownership group. She quickly bought into the opportunity.

“A lot of women who have these careers, we’re on the go all the time,” Barnes told the Tribune. “It seemed to me the challenges that were going to be in front of whatever group was going to take on the Red Stars, boy, was I up for that because it’s so important to have these positive cultures and to understand that these women weren’t in a culture where they would thrive. I want to be a part of turning that around.”

Ricketts, who is the control person and lead investor, started to believe in mid-June that the Red Stars sale was more likely to happen. Looking for a clean slate, no one from the previous ownership group will remain.

“For the players’ sake, I wish we could have closed a lot sooner because they’ve been in a bit of limbo, so that’s really the thing that weighs on me the most is let’s get this closed,” Ricketts said. “Let’s get some certainty for the team and let’s help turn the page to a new chapter for them going forward.”

Ownership’s first priorities

The sale was finalized with only six matches remaining in the 2023 regular season, including three at home.

Hiring a general manager and likely a team president are the top priorities. Investing in the game-day experience for both players and fans is also a must.

Beyond that, the new owners’ primary focus is meeting with the Red Stars players to let them know what they stand for: building a club that strives for excellence, becoming champions, creating a championship culture on and off the field and investing in the community.

But everything comes back to culture. The ownership group wants to establish a culture of respect, and it starts with listening to players, getting to know them and hearing their priorities and needs.

Yates’ report outlined former Red Stars coach Rory Dames’ abusive and unprofessional behavior from complaints raised by players between 2014 and 2021 that Whisler downplayed and dismissed.

Rebuilding trust and making players feel safe will take time. Having policies and procedures in place if any issues arise in the future — “and that it’s not something on paper, that it’s going to be acted on and enforced,” Ricketts said — is important to creating a safe, comfortable working environment.

“I don’t think there’s any expectation that this is going to be easy,” Barnes said. “People talk about what they will do, but it’s really in what you implement and your values and how you’re living those. When young players see that the professional players are thriving and do feel safe and are promoting the league and the sport, that makes their experience better.

“We have to get in there and see what is happening.”

Red Stars’ stadium situation

SeatGeek Stadium is not an ideal setup.

The Red Stars’ home in Bridgeview creates logistical challenges for fans wanting to attend games in the southwest suburb, while the stadium itself, which opened in 2006, needs some love.

The Red Stars are last in the 12-team league in attendance, averaging only 4,033 fans through eight regular-season home games after ranking eighth last year. The lack of public transportation options — and what can be a 45-minute drive from downtown Chicago — doesn’t help, nor did losing star forward Mallory Swanson for the season in April when she suffered a torn patella tendon playing for the U.S. national team.

The Chicago Fire were able to buy out the remaining years of their lease at SeatGeek Stadium and move their MLS home games to Soldier Field. They reached an agreement with Bridgeview in July 2019 to pay $65.5 million to break their lease, which was supposed to run through the 2036 season. The Fire gave $10 million upfront plus $5 million for upgrades to the existing soccer facilities around the stadium. The remaining $50.5 million will be paid through 2036.

The Fire and Red Stars both train in Bridgeview; however, the Fire broke ground in May on a new training and performance center on the Near West Side that will open in 2024.

The Red Stars’ lease at SeatGeek Stadium runs until December 2025. The stadium issue is part of the ownership group’s incoming agenda, with Ricketts referring to it as “a key challenge-slash-opportunity.”

“We have to evaluate that and look at it honestly,” Ricketts said. “They need better practice facilities and need some investment there, definitely. Not only is it challenging to get down there (to Bridgeview), but just in general ultimately seeing them have some better facilities.”

Having a team play close to the predominant demographics of its fan base is ideal.

In 2018, the WNBA’s Chicago Sky left Allstate Arena in Rosemont for downtown Wintrust Arena, which features parking garages, three L lines and a bus stop within walking distance. The Sky have averaged at least 7,000 fans the last two years and are one of six teams in the 12-team league to hit that mark this year despite sitting ninth in the standings.

“A lot of thought needs to be put into it,” Ricketts said. “I’m very familiar with Wintrust. Every time I go there I’m like, wow, this is the perfect stadium for the Sky.”

The Sky also reached a deal in May 2022 with Marquee Sports Network, co-owned by the Cubs, to broadcast up to 16 games and stream all games that aren’t nationally televised. Marquee represents an intriguing local broadcast option to improve visibility for the Red Stars, who had only six matches on their 2023 schedule airing in Chicagoland through their deal with The U.

Nationally, 25 Red Stars matches were scheduled for Paramount+ and three on CBS Sports Network. The NWSL’s three-year national broadcast agreement with CBS ends after this season.

“We’ll see how that plays out,” Ricketts said of getting Red Stars games on Marquee. “I don’t have any window into ultimately what that will look like next year, but it would be great. Candidly, there’s no talk of that right now.”

Figuring out why SeatGeek Stadium hasn’t worked out in bringing fans to the Red Stars — whether it’s tied to the stadium and its location or the impact on fandom of the abuse problems outlined in the Yates report — will be part of the ownership group’s evaluation process.

“It’s really hard to say. I mean, certainly they all play a role,” Ricketts said. “Just simple marketing and promotion and corporate partnerships and all of that play a role in the success of the club. The venue they play in is certainly a key factor, but a lot of thought will have to be put into what’s the best place for this team to play.”

Ricketts’ footprint in Chicago women’s sports

Ricketts’ lead role in the Red Stars ownership group comes two months after becoming a minority owner of the Sky when 10% of the team was sold to a group of eight female investors.

The timing of the two endeavors is part luck and part of a more conscious effort by Ricketts to pursue passions that align with becoming more involved in women’s sports in the city. When the pandemic hit in spring 2020, coupled with protests and the Black Lives Matter movement after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in May 2020, inequities in society were brought to the forefront and prompted introspection from Ricketts and her wife, Brooke.

“Are we living our passion? Are we living in our power? Are we doing all we can to have an impact in the world? We both did a lot of soul searching,” Ricketts explained.

Around that time, Ricketts had initial conversations with Sky owner Michael Alter. The path to investing in the Sky — and now the Red Stars — wasn’t obvious at that point, but Ricketts’ lifelong love of sports created a pathway to merging her interests and passions in women’s sports, equity and inclusion.

“As we have owned the (Cubs) longer,” Ricketts said, “I’ve come to understand the power of sport and the potential impact of it with regard to building communities, helping people that have vastly different opinions on everything else in the work to bring them together, civic pride and the opportunity to be a platform for inspiration for young people.

“During that retrospection, a lot of those things came into clearer focus. It helped me see things, maybe opportunities I didn’t see before.”

After listening to Ricketts explain her journey over the last three years, Barnes said it wasn’t that challenging to put together a group of women to follow Ricketts’ vision.

“We really do have somebody who is leading the charge who really believes in this, and that is incredibly inspirational and motivational,” Barnes said. “If you’re of a certain age, there was a limit for how far you could go with sports. Whether that was real or not, it certainly felt that way.

“It matters so much to have examples of owners, not just players, but understanding this entire spectrum that for young people, certainly girls but also boys, it isn’t just a one-gender arena.”