It's advertising all the way down
Angel City FC exists more as a concept than a tangible thing. The National Women Soccer League’s upcoming expansion team, which will play its games at Banc of California Stadium in downtown Los Angeles, doesn’t have a roster, head coach or crest. It does have a long list of famous owners, though, including Natalie Portman, Serena Williams and, of course, some venture bros.
I like Angel City FC as much as one can like a thing that doesn’t exist yet. I’m a founding member, own some merch and would like to buy season tickets when that is a thing we do again. It’s exciting that professional women’s soccer is coming back to L.A. for the first time in decades.
The club wants to be different, something made clear by its “Social Impacts” page and in any number of public comments by its owners. Professional sport is a guilty pleasure, but some are more guilty and less pleasurable than others. Angel City FC offers something to assuage that guilt by committing to “Equality, Equity and Education.” These come with plans for what appears to be good work or at least well-intentioned ideals. Under Equity:
We have a responsibility to use our influence to create a more equitable present and future for everyone. This means increasing access to resources, information and opportunities for groups who have been marginalized. Check back here for details of our first Equality partnership with Kiva.
Fighting for a more equitable present and future! That sounds great! Let’s check-in with the team’s social channel to see how that’s going.
Ah, well, nevertheless.
If this irony isn’t abundantly clear, catch up on why companies like Doordash are horrific for workers. Gig economy jobs exacerbate, or at the very least make clear, the distinct lack of equity in the United States. These places do not care about their workers and just earned a huge victory thanks to Prop 22.
Doordash choosing to dump money on a professional women’s soccer team at the same time it’s a primary sponsor for NASCAR’s only Black driver sketches an outline of what the company is trying to do. I can’t quantify what this kind of reputation laundering actually gets a company like Doordash, but I do know this partnership with Angel City FC gives the game away.
It would be great if professional sports teams were community-owned and that ownership was reflected in the places they exist. Instead, we have clubs like Angel City FC that use social-consciousness as a marketing tool. It’s a way to make you feel better about your consumption so you’ll buy tickets, merch and memberships. That a club claiming its commitment to equity happily takes money from a company like Doordash says everything.
Perhaps Angel City FC can’t live up to its lofty ideals, but the club certainly didn’t have to throw them away so obviously.