MLV LA Names Team President
Lindsay Amstutz takes over a 2027 franchise that already has an owner, a coach and a conference, and still has no venue, no schedule and no full identity.
Lindsay Amstutz grew up in Los Angeles, ran regional sports networks there, and marketed the Sparks.
On Aug. 20 Major League Volleyball made her president of a Los Angeles team that does not yet have a building.
The club plays its first match in 2027. The venue is still to be announced, and the league says branding and schedule details come in the following months.
Amstutz arrives from Playfly Sports, where she was president of media and partnerships. Before that she was chief media officer at OneTeam Partners, senior vice president and general manager at FOX Sports West and Prime Ticket, and vice president and chief marketing officer of the Sparks.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is the majority owner, Ben Priest is co-owner and team governor, and Alisha Childress, a three-time NCAA champion and an Olympian, is head coach and head of competition.
"Building a franchise from the ground up, in my hometown, with local ownership, is an incredible opportunity," Amstutz said in the league's release.
Priest called her someone who "knows this market, understands the business of women's sports." Commissioner Jaime Weston called her "the ideal leader to build a franchise."
The hire lands a day after MLV published its 2027 alignment, which is 12 teams in two conferences playing 26 matches from January to May, with Los Angeles in the West alongside Dallas, Minnesota, Northern California, Omaha and Vegas.
Indy Ignite president Mary Kay Huse put the growth plainly, saying the league had "expanded by 50 percent from eight to 12 teams in just one year."
A team with a coach, an owner and a president and no address is a strange object. It is also what every expansion franchise looks like fourteen months out.
