Draft:Nolan Gallagher (sports executive)

Nolan Gallagher is an American sports executive. He is president and co-founder of Cleveland Pro Soccer, the ownership group of Cleveland's MLS NEXT Pro soccer team and prospective NWSL team..

Education
Gallagher grew up on the west side of Cleveland. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School, earned his B.S. in marketing from Boston College, and his M.B.A. from USC Marshall School of Business.

Gravitas Ventures
Gallagher founded Gravitas Ventures, an independent film global distribution company, in Los Angeles in 2006.

In 2019, Gravitas Ventures moved its headquarters to Cleveland ​​to support the city’s impact on the entertainment industry.

Gallagher remained CEO of Gravitas Ventures throughout the company’s acquisitions in 2017 and 2021. He stepped down as CEO in March 2023 to co-found and launch Cleveland Pro Soccer  with Michael Murphy.

Cleveland Professional Soccer
Gallagher and Murphy co-founded Cleveland Professional Soccer in 2022. Gallagher serves as president of the sports team ownership group.

In an interview with Front Office Sports, Gallagher said the idea of bringing professional outdoor soccer to Cleveland came up in 2021 when he and co-founder Michael Murphy recognized that Cleveland was the only top-20 market without professional outdoor soccer teams.

MLS NEXT Pro Team
On November 21, 2022, Cleveland Pro Soccer announced its new independent club would join the MLS NEXT Pro soccer league in 2025 and had plans to build a soccer stadium.

National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) Team
In October 2023, Cleveland Pro Soccer announced the group was preparing to present a bid for the 16th NWSL expansion team.

In an interview with Cleveland Magazine, Gallagher said about the bid, "You want to be able to show that your community is going to support this team [...] We did something called the 'Back the Bid' campaign, and we just announced that we had 12,000 pledges for season tickets. That idea was suggested, to some extent, by an owner in Los Angeles who said [...] 'Go show that there’s actual demand for a women’s team in the marketplace.'"

The team would be the first and only professional women's soccer team in the state of Ohio. As of April 2024, the prospective team had received 12,000 ticket pledges from fans.

New stadium efforts
In an interview with Front Office Sports, Gallagher and Murphy said a stadium plan would be important for attracting an NWSL team to the city. In February 2024, the Ohio House of Representatives earmarked funding for "Cleveland Women's Soccer Stadium". The stadium will seat 13,000 fans and cost more than $120 million. In May 2024, Cleveland Pro Soccer released renderings for the stadium

Awards & Recognition
Gallagher was named one of Variety 's Hollywood New Leaders in 2011. Throughout his career in entertainment, he spoke on a number of industry panels, including at the Toronto International Film Festival and SXSW Film Festival.