John Neace never planned to own a womens soccer team. He didnt even want to own a mens one. Yet here he is, chairman and CEO of Soccer Holdings LLC, running both NWSLs Racing Louisville and the United Soccer Leagues Louisville City.
Neace was living on a boat in the Bahamas in 2013, fresh off selling his insurance business and waiting out a five-year non-compete, when Wayne Estopinal, an architect from New Albany, Ind., who was on the board of USLs Orlando franchise at the time, reached out to him about relocating its mens team to Louisville. Neace thought it would be a fun way to take his children to games and eventually steer a few conversations back to selling insurance through this new venture. The plan didnt survive his first contact with the locker room.
I just fell in love with the players, he says of the USL team over a video call from his home. Some knew they were never going to play at a higher level, and yet they showed up every day and gave everything.
The would-be networking opportunity became a new business venture.
There was a method to my madness, but it wasnt really, Oh, I want to own a sports team, he says.
Neace is an entrepreneur with a hunger to learn new things and make discoveries. He operates through Neace Ventures, his private equity firm, investing locally in Louisville-based companies from wineries to pizza restaurants, and is also building a Scotch distillery with a friend he met on a golf trip.
He is the kind of guy who will seat you, pour you a bourbon and talk through why Louisville needs more pro sports teams. And you will believe him.
He is equal parts investor, loyal fan, pragmatist and soccer dad/granddad who fills his suite at 15,000-capacity Lynn Family Stadium with family and friends. He is at every home game. The suite holds 24 people. His 10-year-old granddaughter, Lainey, and 12-year-old grandson, Bennett, are always there. Bennett always argues with Neace on lineups.
I tell him to take it up with Coach Bev (Yanez, the Racing Louisville manager), Neace says.
After acquiring the USL team, Neace and his business partners seized the opportunity to purchase the NWSL expansion team in 2019.
They initially filed a trademark for Proof Louisville FC, referencing the areas bourbon industry. However, after receiving a mixed fan reaction, the name was changed to Racing Louisville FC, meant to be a combo of classic South American soccer team names and the citys horse-racing culture, which was unveiled a year later.
The club played its first season in 2021, acquiring its first players, midfielders Yuki Nagasato and Savannah McCaskill, through a trade with the Chicago Red Stars, and more later via the NWSL expansion draft.
The team finished in ninth (of 10) that first year a position they continued to end in, until this season.
On Sunday, a 1-0 win against Bay FC sealed seventh place and their first playoff berth. It was their 10th victory of the season, in 26 matches, that secured their spot.
Neaces ownership philosophy is shaped by his origin story.
Growing up in Newport, Ky., he was able to attend college thanks to the GI Bill a U.S. law that provides educational benefits to military veterans and, in some cases, their dependents. His father, a Korean War veteran, passed it down to him, making higher education possible for their family. After college, Neace started working for an insurance company and, as a young executive, moved to Louisville to stay close to his mom. The city has been his home for the past 42 years.
Louisville, he will remind you, isnt exactly a one-horse town.
College football at the University of Louisville pulls 50,000-plus attendance and competes with soccer schedules across a few Saturdays. Theres Triple-A minor-league baseball with the Louisville Bats. Competition for eyeballs is real. But Neace believes the market is big enough and wants to act.
Racing and LouCity both play at Lynn Family Stadium. They push the brands through their local beer label (Falls City). They will be the landlords to the United Football Leagues new Louisville Kings team in the spring, and, if he has his way, Louisville will add a major womens volleyball team the sport his daughter played through high school and is still very passionate about.
Louisville wants to be a big city, he says. You cant have your cake and eat it too; you have to show up.
Neace is not the kind of owner who deals with the day-to-day operations of his teams, but he never stops educating himself in the game that was new to him a decade ago.
As soon as he bought LouCity in 2013, he booked a trip with his sons to the mens World Cup finals the following year to get firsthand experience with the culture of the sport.
That month in Brazil with his sons was a crash-course in soccer.
From stadium-hopping between the cities of Natal, Manaus and Sao Paulo to follow the U.S. (and then the eventual winners, Germany, because his son likes the team), to eating built-your-own street sandwiches with three different types of protein that stunned Uruguayan fans, he soaked it all in.
The other lesson was the Brazilian tradition of showing receipts to leave a venue.
One night in Natal, Neace headed back early and closed out the tab on his card. His crew stayed, kept ordering, and had to sneak out as they did not have their receipts, and the staff wouldnt let them exit. The next morning, Neace returned to settle up his bill in halting Portuguese. The owner was surprised. You came back? No one ever comes back! he told Neace. From then until the end of the tournament, a front-row table was reserved with his name on it.
That blend of curiosity and straight talk shows up in how he thinks about the NWSL, too. He is happy with its growth, but that was not the reason he got involved.
The league is growing exponentially, and Id like to say that when we got involved, we saw this kind of growth, but I would be lying, Neace says. I just thought it would be fun and my sons would buy me a beer every once in a while. I am still waiting for that beer.
Neace and his partners paid approximately $2million for the franchise at the time. Since then, fees jumped significantly. The Denver Summit has paid $110m to join as the leagues 16th team next year.
According to Forbess 2025 valuations, Racing is valued at $88million. But the league is still young. Neace borrows an American sports cliché he knows is imperfect for soccer: if this league is a baseball game, were in the third or fourth inning.
In terms of growing pains and retaining talent in Louisville, Neace acknowledges there will be more challenges ahead. Still, he believes that financial considerations are important. If the only reason you play for me is money, youre probably not the player I want, he says.
Build the right environment and people will choose it. Yanez told him that if shed had facilities and dedicated staff like Louisvilles early in her career, she (and players like her) might have gone even farther, Naece says.
The road to building a club with the right facilities, a safe environment and a competitive roster capable of reaching the playoffs was a long one for Racing.
The clubs first head coach, Christy Holly, was a central figure in the systemic abuse investigations that swept across the NWSL following The Athletics reporting in 2021.
According to findings from both the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and a joint NWSLNWSLPA investigation, Holly was accused of sexually harassing former Racing defender Erin Simon in April 2021. Louisville dismissed him for cause and subsequently overhauled its coaching staff and roster. After two seasons dedicated to rebuilding, the club appointed Yanez as head coach. Two seasons later, she has led Racing to its first-ever playoff appearance. She will be the first person to play and coach in the NWSL postseason.
On growth curves and expectations, especially in a parity-driven league, Neace is blunt. Racing felt clearly better for stretches this season, only to concede late, nine or 10 times and drop points. It was maddening for the owner.
But their passion is contagious, he says. For someone like me, whos never exactly been a star athlete, watching truly great athletes compete is especially infectious. Its been a lot of fun, but also frustrating at times. For four straight years, we were right there, knocking on the door but unable to break through. Thats what makes this years success all the more satisfying.
He is not shy about the ledger, either.
Its a business, even though its entertainment, Neace says. Pay has to be representative of income. Im not in it just for fun. Im in it to make money, too.
Thats not a hard-edged posture; its guardrails. The question for every stakeholder, including owners, players, and the league, is whether youre building for the future or chasing short-term yield. There isnt one right answer, he concedes, but sustainability wins over time.
I have no doubt we will get there, he says.
Neace is also a big fan of the NFLs Cincinnati Bengals (Newport is right across the Ohio River from that city), and sees them as an example. Theyve been to the Super Bowl three times and lost every time. I want them to win one Super Bowl, as much as I want my teams to win the championship, so I will have stories to tell in the nursing home.
As for a lucky charm? He offers one, deadpanning: My lucky Penny, my wife.
The Neaces will be at Audi Field in the nations capital Saturday for Louisvilles quarterfinal against the No. 2 Washington Spirit, hoping for a breakthrough.
Neace believes his team deserves it after going through so much and working so hard.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Racing Louisville FC, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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