San Diego Wave Owners Sue Jill Ellis for Alleged Broken Promises
The owners of the San Diego Wave have filed a lawsuit against the former team president, Jill Ellis, alleging that she misled them by promising to stay with the team after the sale. Ellis resigned two days after the deal was completed.
Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine, owners of Wave and a millionaire couple, are suing Ellis through a related company. They are seeking unspecified damages in a jury trial for alleged false statements and broken promises.
The lawsuit is “baseless” and was filed in retaliation for Ellis’s request that she be paid her deferred compensation.
Jill Ellis’s lawyer
Ellis, a two-time Women’s World Cup-winning former coach with the United States women’s national team, was the Wave’s first president, an NWSL expansion team in 2022.
The San Diego Wave was sued by five former employees.
Jill Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit against a former employee.
Leichtman and Levine purchased the Wave in 2024, in a sale that valued the team between $113 and $120 million, a record at the time for an NWSL team.
According to the lawsuit, Ellis was a key factor in the club’s purchase decision and that the plaintiffs relied on his promises to guide the team for many years.
With Ellis as president, Wave was the first NWSL team to reach the playoffs in its expansion season (2022) and won the NWSL Shield the following year.
The lawsuit was filed in the California Superior Court in San Diego on Monday. Ellis resigned from her position two days after the team’s sale, to take up the position of FIFA’s director of football, announced in December 2024.Jill Ellis dejó su puesto como presidenta del equipo San Diego Wave en 2024.The plaintiffs allege that Ellis had no intention of continuing his involvement with the Wave when negotiating with FIFA, which makes his promises misrepresentations. The lawsuit does not specify whether those promises were written or contractual.
The plaintiffs allege that Ellis’s negotiations with FIFA affected the team’s performance in 2024, with a tenth-place finish under three different coaches, and that it cost the team revenue in 2025. The lawsuit estimates that the loss of revenue “amounts to at least 40 million dollars in business value”, although the exact damages are not specified.
Leichtman and Levine seek a jury trial to determine damages.
Other unidentified defendants are also mentioned in the lawsuit for allegedly participating in the false promises that helped to “induce” the plaintiffs to complete the purchase.
Leichtman and Levine were friends with Ellis since she was the UCLA women’s soccer coach, a team she led to win an NCAA championship in 2013. Leichtman and Levine are frequent donors to UCLA women’s athletics and, according to the lawsuit, provided financial support to the women’s soccer team. They traveled with Ellis to the 2013 College Cup, according to the lawsuit.
According to a letter from Ellis’s lawyers sent to the Wave owners, Ellis signed a five-year contract in December 2021 that paid him $1 million in his first year, with subsequent increases. The agreement also included annual deferred payments of $250,000 to be paid after his departure from the club.
Ellis claims that he is owed more than $1.23 million in deferred payments and penalties.
This baseless lawsuit is retaliation against Jill Ellis for asking the current owners of the San Diego Wave FC to pay the deferred compensation owed to her under her employment contract and California wage laws.
Douglas Silverstein, Ellis’s attorney
The plaintiffs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A San Diego Wave spokesperson issued the following statement:
This is a legal matter between the Levine Leichtman family office and Jill Ellis. The San Diego Wave FC is not a party to this lawsuit. Our focus as a club remains on our players, our fans, and the community as we continue to build an exciting future for women’s soccer in San Diego.
San Diego Wave Spokesperson
The Monday lawsuit is at least the third litigation surrounding the Wave and Ellis’s period.
Last year, Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit against former team employee Brittany Alvarado after Alvarado posted a message on her social media alleging a toxic work environment at the Wave and accusing Ellis of “fostering an environment where abusive behaviors among her subordinates are allowed to flourish.”
