ANGEL CITY FOOTBALL CLUB didn’t happen overnight. ACFC and Monarch Collective Co-founder Kara Nortman and ACFC President and Co-founder Julie Uhrman struggled for years to lift their dream off the ground. The first potential investor they spoke to told them no. Then, another. And another. The pair received over 100 rejections before they finally secured funding, thanks to their commitment to something greater than sports.

Despite (or possibly because of) the obstacles, they’re now regarded as innovators, pioneers, and game-changers. On October 6th, Nortman, Uhrman, and ACFC investor, activist, actress, and Trojan Sophia Bush, sat down with Annenberg DEAN WILLOW BAY and Marshall DEAN GEOFF GARRETT for a discussion on the past, present, and future of women’s sports.

“We used to think of women’s sports as a smaller version of men’s sports, but they are a really unique entity in which culture and commerce and media and entertainment all come together in very unique and different ways,” said Dean Bay. “The ACFC story is one of the most exciting in sports, and it begins with the team that these women created.”

Dean Bay’s observations rang true for Uhrman and Nortman. When founding ACFC, they envisioned a club that could do more than win games or make profit. They dreamt of a team that could inspire.

“When we pitched the concept of Angel City, we wanted to be an organization where mission and capital could coexist,” said Uhrman. “We wanted to be a platform that stands for equity impact in every single thing that we do. And we’re going to use sports and this idea of building a community to create a sense of belonging to ultimately to drive toward equity – and bend the curve toward gender equity and pay equity. So we’re more than a sports team.”

ACFC isn’t the first sports team or corporation to pledge itself to humanitarianism. All too often companies don’t follow through on promises of social impact. But it was crucial for Uhrman that Angel City be different and in doing so, ultimately transform the culture of sports.

“We said right away we have to walk the talk. We never wanted to give the community an opportunity to say you’re only here in name only,” said Uhrman. “We’ve given 22,000 bras to young girls. We’ve donated over a million meals to date. We’ve helped over 140 coaches get employed. We’ve thrown 833 events. We’ve done grants and scholarships of $143,000. We’ve got 8,300 hours of programming for soccer. We wanted to make sure we were authentic.”

How can a team existing in a success-driven arena divide its attention between the field, the community, and the bottom line? Sophia Bush believed ACFC was specially equipped for just that task.

“The traditional methodologies of businesses run by men are singular in focus,” said Bush. “As women, because we’re used to facing more obstacles, because we’re used to being paid less, because we’re used to having to do more with less resources, we manage to spin a lot of plates at the same time.”