Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and president of business operations Carley Knox are the newest investors in Minnesota Aurora FC, the community-owned amateur women's soccer team that hopes to join the NWSL.
"Our partnership was a no-brainer to help fuel this pathway to professional soccer," Reeve told ESPN. "The Twin Cities will be an incredible market."
The Lynx are in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs on a "drive for five," as Knox called it. They lead the Phoenix Mercury 1-0 in the five-game series.
Minnesota is one of three WNBA franchises with four titles; no team has won five. Minnesota fell to the New York Liberty in last year's finals.
Aurora FC is one of the most unique success stories in American soccer. It has 5,337 investors through its community ownership model, and it was an immediate commercial success upon launch in 2022, playing near- or at-capacity crowds at its 6,000-seat venue -- averaging better attendance than some struggling NWSL teams in recent years.
Aurora's ownership group was among the handful of cities last year that seriously bid for a 2026 NWSL expansion team, which was ultimately awarded to Denver. Minnesota pulled out of the process late last summer -- after also missing out in the 2022 round of bidding -- due to financial complications as NWSL valuations continue to rise. Denver paid a $110 million expansion fee, up from around $2 million a few years ago.
Reeve, who is also president of basketball operations for the Lynx, and Knox are the next step for Aurora in that push for an NWSL team.
An Aurora spokesperson said the team has brought in a series of private investors, including Reeve and Knox, outside of its community shares to help the team reach its goal of becoming professional. The team declined to share the total or percentage of investment.
"For us, the No. 1 [goal] is getting us an NWSL team," Knox told ESPN. "We want to dive in full force and really help grow this thing to get us an NWSL team, because it will be an incredible market. There will be unbelievable support, and the community will absolutely get behind them in a way that we haven't seen before."
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed last week that the league will now accept expansion teams on a "rolling" basis through more private conversations, now that they and prospective groups know what to expect. Denver and Boston begin playing next year, bringing the NWSL to 16 teams.
Reeve, Knox, and their 10-year-old son, Oliver, have seen Aurora's impact up close as season-ticket holders since the soccer team's first season in the USL W League in 2022. Reeve said Aurora fan energy "oozes" throughout the stadium in interactions that she doesn't get to experience in basketball, since she is always coaching during games.
Soccer is Knox's first love as a former Division I player and coach. She remembers chasing down VHS tapes of USWNT soccer games because there was no other way to watch her heroes.
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Reeve and Knox also know what success looks like in professional sports. Reeve is a three-time Olympic gold-medal-winning coach (twice as an assistant before serving as head coach in 2024) in addition to the six WNBA titles the pair have won in various roles (two with the defunct Detroit Shock).
Reeve and Knox have made the Twin Cities their home for the past 16 years. Knox said that "the community is educated on the nature of women's sports" in Minnesota, and that the women's teams support each other. That includes the Minnesota Frost, winners of the first two championships in the Professional Women's Hockey League, and the Minnesota Vixen, a women's football team, Knox said.
"You can do both," Reeve said of local women's teams supporting each other. "It's not or, it's and. You work together as leaders to make that happen."
Knox pointed out that Aurora's success on and off the field has come despite being a team of offseason college players with a handful of home games in the summer. She imagines a team that will thrive at the professional level.
"I see the vision for the future," Knox said, "and we are 100 percent bought in."