Houston Dash close to $120 million sale to son of jailed Chinese billionaire

Martin Macdonald

• 9 Oct 2025 16:00 CDT
• 3 min read

News

Houston Dash owner Ted Segal is close to selling the club for $120 million to a Chinese-American investor.

The NWSL outfit could soon belong to the RHC Group, founded by Richard Hsiao, the American-born son of Chinese billionaire Xiao Jianhu.

The league is seeking additional information on the source of RHC's Group's money due to their ties to Jianhu.

The Chinese billionaire allegedly built his fortune doing dealings with Communist Party leaders and is currently serving 13 years in prison due to financial crimes, according to the government.

Sportico reports that he was abducted by Chinese agents and has subsequently disappeared.

However, it has been reported that RHC Group's wealth apparently comes from Hsiao's mother, Zhou Hongwen, who is independently wealthy from her husband.

Hsiao's other venture, J17 Capital, was also funded by Zhou and her family.

Should the deal go through, Hsiao would become the youngest owner of a major American sports franchise, at 24-years-old.

The proposals have been going on for months and the wheels were set in motion when Hsiao began undergoing league background checks. Any deal needs to be given the seal of approval by NWSL owners.

“The NWSL’s thorough due diligence process regarding the proposed transfer of control ownership of the Houston Dash is ongoing,” a league rep told Sportico.

“As with all such matters, the NWSL Board of Governors retains full authority to approve or deny any ownership change based on the league’s governance standards.”

Representatives for the Dash, NWSL and RHC declined to comment to Sportico.

Segal bought bought Houston Dash and Houston Dynamo for $400m in 2021, with the men's side representing the major chunk of that outlay.

He will retain ownership of Dynamo.

Sportico recently valued Dash at around $74m, someway short of the $120m deal that is being proposed.

American sports and China

Relations between American sports and China have been sketchy recently due to a tweet that was sent out in 2019 from then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey that spoke in favour of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver then claimed that "hundreds of millions" of dollars of revenue had been lost as China subsequently stopped airing matches for a short period of time, expressing "dissatisfaction" with the tweet by Morey.

In June of 2022, Silver said: “My position is … engagement is positive, particularly through sports.

“To keep people safe and prosperous, using sports as a platform to keep people around the world talking is critically important.

“At the same time, I don’t think it’s inconsistent with our values for our game to be broadcast in China and 200-plus other countries in the world. So that’s where things stand.

“Very specifically, I think it’s a positive thing right now that we are exporting this Americana, NBA basketball and the messages that come with it, to China."

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