Growth equity in professional sports
Primarily women's professional teams and leagues, where media rights, sponsorship, and attendance are early in their monetization curve.
The Firm
Elite athletic pedigree. Institutional rigor.
Ascent Sports Capital is a sports-focused investment firm investing across leagues, teams, and the infrastructure that supports them.
Elite athletic DNA
Founded by a Pro Lacrosse Hall of Famer, a WNBA first-round pick, and Division I athletes with deep relationships across professional leagues and the people who run them.
Institutional capital discipline
Rooted in more than $1B of transaction history, M&A law, and real estate advisory. We apply rigorous capital allocation to sports and the infrastructure around it.
The opportunity
High-growth sports assets, led by women's professional sports, where participation, visibility, and media value are rising on durable long-term fundamentals.
Our Edge
Built from the inside
We have spent our lives inside locker rooms, front offices, and league meetings. That operating experience helps us find value where traditional capital sees only complexity.
Our relationships with league governance and franchise ownership give us access to opportunities before they reach the broader market. Founders and leagues work with us because we understand their business from the field up.
Where We Invest
One thesis, three entry points
Professional franchises capture appreciation. Sports-anchored real estate adds hard-asset security. The platforms and technology around them compound both.
Asset-backed sports real estate
Stadiums, training hubs, multi-sport complexes, and sports-anchored development. Purpose-built venues are a primary driver of franchise value.
Services & technology
Operating platforms, training services, and technology in performance, recovery, and women's health that power the wider sports ecosystem.
How We Underwrite
Sports assets carry cash flows and protections that generalist capital often misreads. Our M&A, real estate, and structuring experience applies directly to each.
Media rights, sponsorship & premium hospitalityContractually obligated income
Stadiums & training hubsAnchored development real estate
League membershipGovernance & consent framework
Value Creation
How we build value
Infrastructure enhancement
Modernizing media distribution across streaming and local digital channels, and building brand partnerships that go well beyond logo placement.
Institutional governance
Professionalizing leadership, putting institutional-grade financial reporting in place, and opening our network to strategic partners and follow-on capital.
Commercial maturation
Shifting from transactional ticket sales to long-term sponsorship and premium hospitality, and pricing every match-day and non-match-day event with data.
The Founding Team
Managing partners
Ryan Parsley
Managing Partner
Fund strategy & capital allocation
- Founder and CEO of two asset-intensive companies, both taken through successful exits
- Former M&A and corporate attorney; more than $1B in energy, corporate, and real estate transactions
- Board member, Real Colorado Soccer Club and Real Weld Metropolitan District
- JD cum laude, SMU Dedman School of Law; BA, University of Colorado Boulder; former Division I athlete at TCU
Lee Zink
Managing Partner
Investment evaluation & diligence
- Professional Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee (2024) with an 11-year professional career
- 20 years acquiring, developing, and divesting asset-intensive businesses, including 10 in senior executive leadership
- Co-founder and Executive Partner, Empowering Vision Foundation
- Master of Resources Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law; BA, University of Maryland
Abby Waner Bartolotta
Managing Partner
Ecosystem sourcing & infrastructure
- WNBA first-round draft pick and Duke University All-American
- Former commercial real estate advisor at JLL, advising professional and youth sports organizations on stadium and training-facility real estate
- Former ESPN national broadcaster; Board member, Colorado Sports Hall of Fame
- Master of Professional Studies, University of Denver; BA, Duke University
Strategic Governance
Supported by an investment committee and advisory board with expertise across professional sports, facilities, and investments.
Sports Community Impact
Capital that gives back to the game
2%of GP proceeds committed to the sports community
Where equity can't reach
Ascent's general partner commits 2% of its proceeds to nonprofits working on the hardest problems in sports, where access, safety, and opportunity for athletes depend on mission-driven organizations. As our returns grow, so does our contribution.
Already on the field
Ascent is the jersey sponsor of Real Colorado's USL League Two and USL W League teams, giving men's and women's amateur athletes a pre-professional platform to keep playing. Participation creates the pipeline, and the pipeline creates the value.
We invest across the sports ecosystem because we are part of it.
Contact
Begin the conversation
Reach any of our managing partners directly.