O’Melveny Advises Angel City FC in Partnership with California Lutheran University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES—March 8, 2022—O’Melveny advised Angel City Football Club, the professional National Women’s Soccer League team in Los Angeles, in a partnership agreement with California Lutheran University to serve as the team’s practice and training site for at least two years, with the possibility of an extension for a third year.

The agreement was announced on March 8, 2022.

As part of the agreement, Angel City will support Cal Lutheran’s renovation of the university’s North Field, where Angel City will practice. The team will also use a number of Cal Lutheran’s other facilities, including the university’s football stadium and fitness center. In addition, Angel City will provide internships to Cal Lutheran students, and the team’s staff will offer a variety of guest lectures on campus and will host an entrepreneurial workshop for Cal Lutheran students and staff at the team’s headquarters.

Cal Lutheran has a long history of partnerships with professional sports teams. It has been home to the training facility for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams since 2016, and it hosted the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys training camp from 1963 to 1989.

The O’Melveny team advising Angel City included partner and Sports Industry Group Co-Chair Chuck Baker, counsel Eric Geffner, and counsel Alexandra Piarino.

O’Melveny has represented Angel City since its inception in 2020, advising the team’s initial group of founders—including Academy Award-winning actress and activist Natalie Portman, technology venture capitalist Kara Nortman, media and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and venture capitalist, 776 founder & Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. O’Melveny helped the founders bring Angel City into the National Women’s Soccer League and has also advised in equity financing, intellectual property, labor and employment, and sponsorship and other commercial matters.

O’Melveny’s Sports Industry Group handles many of the legal matters that draw coverage in sports pages everywhere—billion-dollar acquisitions and dispositions of professional sports teams; cutting-edge media and licensing arrangements; stadium development, financings and naming rights; sponsorships and endorsements; strategic joint ventures; and high profile litigation and other disputes.

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Angel City issued the following announcement:

Angel City FC Announces Partnership with California Lutheran University as Inaugural Training Facility

Mar 08, 2022

Today, Angel City Football Club (ACFC) announced that California Lutheran University will serve as the inaugural team training site as they prepare for their first season in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). The team will begin practicing today at the private university, located about 40 miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles in Thousand Oaks.

"It’s wonderful to have a new home in Cal Lutheran, which provides the elements of a practice facility that an elite team needs to train at peak form,” said ACFC Vice President of Player Development and Operations Angela Hucles Mangano. “Finding so many high-quality features in one location in the greater Los Angeles area is rare, and Cal Lutheran has those elements.”

ACFC will provide internships to undergraduate and graduate students at Cal Lutheran, which began offering a bachelor’s degree in sports management in 2020. The organization’s staff members will guest lecture in a variety of Cal Lutheran classes, and club members will participate in chalk talks with student-athletes. The club’s leadership also will host students and staff at Angel City’s Los Angeles headquarters for an entrepreneurial workshop.

ACFC’s Director of Corporate Partnerships Alex Mallen, a Cal Lutheran alumna, played a key role in bringing the university and the club together.

As a component of the partnership, Angel City will support efforts to renovate the university's North Field, where it will practice, laying the foundation for the site of a future track after the club departs. The university has not had an on-campus track for its track-and-field teams since 2004.

The agreement allows the team to base its training operations at Cal Lutheran for at least two years with the possibility of extending it to a third year. In addition to North Field, Angel City will use facilities within William Rolland Stadium and Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.

The university has a long history of partnerships with high-level athletic teams. Cal Lutheran has been home to the Los Angeles Rams training facility since 2016, and it hosted the Dallas Cowboys training camp from 1963 to 1989. The 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic men’s water polo teams trained in Samuelson Aquatics Center.

“Cal Lutheran is thrilled to develop this win-win partnership with Angel City. We take great pride in being a regional asset and having two professional teams currently using our beautiful campus as their professional training sites,” said Cal Lutheran President Lori E. Varlotta. “At the same time, we are pleased that this burgeoning relationship will provide our students with internships, access to stimulating guest lectures and a glimpse into what successful entrepreneurship looks like.”