Jill Ellis still wants to win

The Wave’s performance is personal for Ellis. After leaving the US women’s team, she began advising billionaire investor Ron Burkle, who wanted to found a new NWSL club. As she listened to him describe the type of team she wanted to create, she realized she might be the one to do it.

“I was like, ‘Ron, you know, I didn’t go to Wharton,’” Ellis said, referring to the University of Pennsylvania business school. “But I think I can build a club and I want to run it all.”

So instead of pacing the sideline and scanning opponents for vulnerabilities, Ellis is watching games from a suite, evaluating attendance numbers and weighing how much fans should pay for parking. Ellis has embraced the more logistical aspects of her new job, getting a crash course in terms like “dynamic pricing” and “digital marketing,” and deciding whether Wave’s uniform shorts should be pink or white (she opted for the pink). She proudly points out that it was her idea to have a wave motif running through the uniform numbers.

One thing Ellis didn’t need to learn, however, is that the key to the franchise’s overall success would be wins on the field. The first player he signed was someone he knew very well: Abby Dahlkemper, a defender whom Ellis recruited to the University of California, Los Angeles, coached at the 2019 World Cup and decided to build the Wave’s roster. For the Wave’s second signing, Ellis chose Alex Morgan, the face of American soccer. Neither of them needed much convincing.

“Anything Jill is involved in, excellence is included,” Dahlkemper said.

When it came time for Ellis to find a manager, he committed to hiring a woman. Another club president told him that there weren’t many good female coaches in the hiring pool, prompting Ellis to inform him that he had clearly been looking in the wrong places. He hired Casey Stoney, a former England player, who was named the league’s coach of the year for the 2022 season.