SAN DIEGO — Five former employees of the San Diego Wave Fútbol Club have filed a lawsuit against the women’s soccer club and the National Women’s Soccer League, alleging a string of violations ranging from retaliation to sexual assault and adding to a growing list of ex-employees calling for change at the club.
One of the plaintiffs is Brittany Alvarado, a former Wave FC video and creative manager who posted on X in July that the club is discriminatory toward its female employees and fostered an abusive workplace under the leadership of President Jill Ellis.
Her allegations, and others shared soon afterward by other ex-Wave employees, sparked national coverage and increased scrutiny on the NWSL, Wave and Ellis, who has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Alvarado.
In the Oct. 7 complaint filed by Alvarado and other plaintiffs, Alvarado said the Wave repeatedly failed to fulfill her requests for appropriate disability accommodations as she dealt with severe anxiety and depression while working there between March 2023 and June 2024.
“Despite Plaintiff’s repeated requests for a good faith attempt to accommodate her disability — specifically either providing Alvarado a quiet space to edit videos or allow her to edit videos from her home — defendant Wave refused to engage in the process,” the lawsuit said.
She said her deteriorating mental health was caused by insufficient support in the workplace, systematic exclusion and professional undermining after she requested an investigation into workplace conditions at the Wave.
Alvarado was eventually placed on an unpaid leave of absence in March, which she believed was retaliatory. She eventually decided to resign in June.
A representative for the Wave FC declined to comment on the filing.
“This lawsuit concerns allegations initially raised on July 3, 2024. As this matter is an ongoing legal proceeding, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the club said.
All five of the women accused Wave FC of retaliation, wrongful termination or discharge, and negligence, including negligence related to hiring and supervision.
“The culture of covering up workplace misconduct instead of acting to prevent it permeates league offices, including at San Diego Wave,” the suit states.
Although Ellis herself is not named as a defendant in the October lawsuit, she is mentioned several times and accused, along with other leadership, of fostering a negative workplace at the club.
The complaint states that the NWSL was aware of workplace issues with Ellis as early as 2022 but had done nothing to improve the situation.
“Unbeknownst to the public but well known to the NWSL, Ellis’s cultural and legal failings, and the abusive and hostile work environment in San Diego had become so large that multiple employees reported her conduct to the NWSL and asked for help from the NWSL,” the lawsuit states.
Allegations
One plaintiff, who went by the name Jane Doe and worked as a senior communications manager, alleged that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and harassed by a colleague during her time with the Wave. The first assault took place in her first week on the job in 2023, after the colleague offered to show her around the city and then pressured her into non-consensual sex.
As her mental health condition deteriorated, Jane Doe said she eventually told a supervisor that an employee was “traumatizing” her and raised other complaints about the toxic work environment. The next day, she was placed on leave and terminated a few days later for performance-related issues, she said.
Jane Doe said she eventually reported the assault to the NWSL, but she was told by the league that Wave was not obligated to take any action because she made her report using the term “assault” instead of “sexual assault.”
She also stated that the employee who assaulted her was later terminated for sending an inappropriate photo to another employee.
Another employee, former Community Relations Coordinator Abigail Lozano, claimed that Ellis asked her inappropriate questions about her immigration status during her employment, which made her feel uncomfortable.
Lozano also said she received permission from supervisors to visit family in Mexico for a month after she was granted an advance travel parole, which allows non-citizens to leave and re-enter the United States without having to obtain a visa. She intended to work remotely during the trip.
Despite having permission from her supervisors, Ellis later said she would not be allowed to be gone for that long.
Upon her return from her trip, Lozano said that tension grew in the office, and she had multiple hostile interactions with supervisors. She eventually decided to resign.
A former creative services manager named Victoria Diaz said Ellis repeatedly made her feel embarrassed about her housing situation. She was commuting to San Diego from Los Angeles because she could not find affordable housing locally.
Diaz also said that on Halloween last year, then-vice president of people and culture Megan Wakefield wore a Day of the Dead-inspired costume to the office despite not being of Latino heritage. Diaz said this was a “grossly insensitive act,” especially for someone working in the human relations department.
The lawsuit raised several concerns about Wakefield, who left the club earlier this year. It stated that the club was negligent in hiring and retaining her when she was clearly unqualified. Specifically, the complaint states that Ellis hired Wakefield for the HR role because she was a friend of her spouse’s from Jazzercise.
“When Wakefield ultimately left the organization this year, representatives from the NWSL, in full recognition of the wholesale failure to hire competent and appropriate Human Resources staff, apologized to many San Diego Wave employees and stated they would make sure Wakefield’s replacement was ‘qualified,’” the complaint stated.
During her time with Wave, Diaz said she strove to grow in her career and received positive performance reviews but was repeatedly passed up for opportunities and promotions in favor of mostly White male colleagues.
In January, Diaz was suddenly terminated and was given the reason that her role was no longer needed. She was not offered severance and was also pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement, she said.
A fifth employee, Kristina Perez, a former events and fan engagement manager, said she was wrongfully terminated by Wave after using accrued sick leave to care for her sick child.
Perez said that in April last year, she informed supervisors she would be working remotely to care for her child. After attending a virtual meeting that day, Wave’s new vice president of people and culture informed her that she was being terminated due to a “letter received from a partner.”
Perez said Wave refused to show her the letter and that the club offered her a severance package if she agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused.
Perez also alleged that Wave interfered with her future employment opportunities by telling other companies not to hire her.
NWSL investigations
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit also said the Wave was slow to implement reporting procedures in the workplace and that the NWSL was disorganized in handling complaints.
The complaint states that NWSL did conduct two separate investigations into Wave’s workplace culture following reports from employees. One investigation took place in 2022 and another in 2023, but neither led to substantive changes, the lawsuit said.
Current and former Wave employees, including some of the women who filed the complaint, said they submitted complaints and information to the NWSL to be included in the first investigation but that the league did not incorporate these complaints.
These additional workplace complaints were only addressed following a strong push by former and current employees, the complaint said, with the league ultimately opening a second investigation.
“Defendant NWSL’s investigations only looked backward — not on whether defendant Wave needed to take any action to protect employees presently, or going forward, but whether defendant Wave should have done anything differently previously. This investigative slant fails to protect employees, and fails to correct unlawful hostile work environments,” the complaint states.
An NWSL spokesperson confirmed that they did conduct two investigations into the Wave front offices, but that no violations of league policy were found.
“The NWSL has previously received reports of misconduct in the San Diego front office. Those reports were investigated by an independent third party and we are satisfied with the results, including the finding that there was no violation of league policy in connection with the reported conduct,” the league said.
“Due to the confidential nature of workplace reviews and investigations, and our commitment to everyone who participates, we are not making public those findings. We will continue to take any and every report of misconduct seriously, hire independent third parties to investigate those reports, and take all appropriate actions based on the investigative findings.”
