While the Rockies smell like Greeley, Rob Cohen is a
breath of fresh mountain air. No excuses. No fall guys.
No blaming the system. No 21-0
beatdowns . Just hope. A man with a plan. “Obviously, building an expansion team is unique and different,” said Cohen, controlling owner of the new
Denver National Women’s Soccer League soccer club , the first major women’s pro sports league to call the Mile High home. “But (winning quickly) has been done in other leagues. “(The NHL’s) Vegas (expansion team), they reached the (Stanley Cup) championship in their first year. Look, if you set goals for excellence, and that is your beacon, that is what you’re trying to build. I’ve told everyone, ‘We want to do everything we can to win in Year 1.’ That doesn’t mean we will. That will be our focus.” The Avs dealt away a star in Mikko Rantanen,
only for the hockey gods to spank them for it in about the cruelest way imaginable. The Nuggets have made the Thunder look mortal going into Tuesday’s Game 5 of the Western Conference semis, yet home court still favors OKC. Once the NBA Playoffs have left our purple mountain majesties and fruited plans, what have we got left? The Broncos in shorts and shells for a few weeks. After that, we’re sharing June and July, all alone,
with the worst Major League baseball team ever assembled . Denver’s
on the last train to Loserville. Rockies CEO Dick Monfort’s locked us in a passenger car and thrown away the key. “I’m going to let people who are smarter than me, who know branding and marketing, (handle slogans) when we do our brand launch,” Cohen continued. “But I’ve been consistent in our messaging (that) we wanted to do everything with excellence in mind. “The whole idea is, we want to be a franchise where every front office person and every coach want to be a part of what it is that we’re building.”
“It’s certainly not the finish line”
Spring 2026 can’t get here fast enough. While the Rockies have become a national punch line, Cohen and his partners have been quietly piling up win after win. Training facility? Check. Practice Fields? Check. Temporary home stadium? Check. Season tickets? Ceremonial, bowling-tournament-sized check. As of early last month, Denver NWSL had already received 10,000 deposits for season tickets, becoming the fastest franchise in that league to ever hit that mark.
Still not convinced there’s sufficient interest in a women’s soccer franchise in the metro? Let’s do some quick math. The team’s temporary stadium in Centennial, which they’ll use for the ’26 and ’27 seasons, will seat roughly 12,000. Their permanent home in the Santa Fe Yards will seat 14,500. With 10,000 deposits accounted for, at least 80% of their seating for that inaugural 2026 campaign has already been gobbled up. The win streak continued Monday, when the Denver City Council gave initial approval for $70 million toward land purchases and infrastructure for Cohen’s new team in the Baker neighborhood, roughly four miles south of Empower Field along Interstate 25. “It’s certainly not the finish line,” Cohen told me Tuesday. “It’s really more the starting line.” Whenever public money’s involved, the hot takes start flying. But know this: Cohen,
chairman of IMA Financial Group , and his partners are on the hook for about $200 million to get their new stadium up and running by 2028. The franchise’s season ticket sales show that guaranteed, paid foot traffic from March through November — the NWSL’s regular season, which runs concurrent with baseball — isn’t just ready. It’s willing. Cohen figures he’s got about half-dozen “work streams” running at full speed right now with 2026 in mind. The team’s Centennial training center needs to be fully operational by next spring. He plans to have a general manager and coach named “very soon,” ideally locking down both before the NWSL’s 2026 free agency period opens on July 1. “We’re in the final stage of our GM search,” Cohen said. “I think we’ll be able to announce a GM in the very near future. And obviously that would hopefully be followed very quickly by a head coach and the technical director, so that’s ready by July.” A nickname and club crest — the color green will be a part of the scheme — are also on track for a summer or late-summer reveal, Cohen and team president Jen Millet confirmed. Talent acquisition is going to follow more of a world/European model than a traditional North American one. As part of the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, the NWSL won’t conduct any drafts. Players will be signed individually, resembling how soccer teams are built globally and how, say, Major League Baseball used to do things prior to its first amateur draft in 1965. All of which puts a premium on your market, your club’s attractiveness and your scouting.
“We would love to have some Coloradoans on our team”
And the metro’s already got a leg up on the market part of that equation. The “roots” of grassroots women’s soccer in Denver run deep. The US women’s national team sold out Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for a friendly last June, and have another one coming up against Ireland next month. Three of the USWNT’s best players are Front Range natives — Sophia Wilson (Windsor), Mallory Swanson (Highlands Ranch) and Lindsey Heaps (Golden). Wilson (nee Smith), currently a forward with the Portland Thorns, has a player option for 2026 and can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. Swanson (nee Pugh), another striker, has a deal with the Chicago Red Stars through 2028. Heaps, a midfielder, is under contract with Lyon in France through 2026. “I think anyone would want to go play for their respective hometown team,” Heaps told “The Women’s Game” podcast recently. “I think it would just be cool (that) my parents don’t have to fly to a game and my whole family could come. I think it would be so special if they want me.” Spoiler alert: They do. “We would love to have some Coloradoans on our team,” Cohen said. “But we have to go through the process of seeing who’s under contract, who’s not, who’s available, what we can afford.” Skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin officially joined the ownership group last week, and more Colorado icons could be coming. Cohen won’t name names, but noted that “we’re open to having conversations and have had conversations with other people” about becoming investors. “I’ve lived in Denver long enough to know that this is a very strong sports town,” Cohen said. “And with that comes a very high expectation of what the product is like … I’ve said multiple times that this is the expectation, that’s what we’re driving toward as an organization. And the fan support has been incredible, but we know that the expectations for those fans are high. It’s our goal to try and meet that.”
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