Most people are familiar with Major League Soccer (the MLS), the Men’s Professional Soccer League here in the United States. However, people are surprisingly much less familiar with the league’s female counterpart: The National Women’s Soccer League (the NWSL). It has not been an easy road in getting the Women’s League to where it istoday, and it is still growing rapidly. For those of you who don’t have much background knowledge on how women’s professional soccer works in America, or how it came about, here is a summary of it’s history and current standing.
Women’s professional soccer first came about in the United States in 2001 with the Women’s United Soccer Association. This was taken over in 2007 by the “Women’s Professional Soccer” (WPS) League. Then, it was in 2012 that this lead was succeeded by the NWSL, which is the current professional women’s soccer league today. Once the WPS came to its end in the Spring of 2012, the United States Soccer Federation began to discuss the future of women’s soccer in the U.S, specifically the future of professional women’s soccer. In the summer of 2012, the U.S Soccer Federation held a conference that resulted in the plan of creating the National Women’s Soccer League, which would launch the following year.
So, 2013 marked the beginning of the National Women’s Soccer League that consisted of 8 teams: Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Western New York Flash, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC, and the Washington Spirit. The very first NWSL game was played on April 13, 2013, which resulted in a 1-1 draw between the Portland Thorns and FC Kansas City, in front of a crowd of 6,784. That year, the regular-season attendance averaged about 4,270.
Currently, the league is up to 10 teams, as the Houston Dash joined in 2014, and the Orlando Pride joined just last year in 2016. Also last year, the Western New York Flash relocated to North Caroline, where they became the North Carolina Courage.
When I say the league is growing rapidly – there is no debate. As of today, the NWSL uses 10 stadiums. The highest attendance in the history of the league was a crowd 23,403 fans to watch the Orlando Pride versus the Houston Dash at the Orlando Citrus Bowl. When the league began in 2013, the team cap was $200,000, and minimum player salary was $6,000, and the maximum player salary was $30,000. Today in 2017, the team cap is up to $315,000, the minimum player salary is up to $15,000, and the maximum is now $41,000. Although there is still a long ways to go, the league has made progress in these areas every year, and will hopefully continue to do so.
The NWSL has also made huge improvements in its broadcasting. Beginning in 2013, the league signed a one-year agreement with Fox Sports to televise 6 season games, the semi-final and the final on Fox Sports 2. As of this year, the league just signed a three-year agreement with A+E Networks to have 22 regular season games televisedon Lifetime as the NWSL Game of the Week every Saturday, and 3 post-season games. From only 8 games being televised the whole season to having a weekly time slot on Lifetime, the NWSL is slowly making more and more of a name for itself.
It is interesting to learn about NWSL’s history. For woman’s sport, sometimes it is harder to gain popularity, fund and attention than that of male’s sports. In my opinión, it is a good thing that NWSL is thriving now. I hope that it will become more popular in the future.
Hey Kerry, this was a great post on the NWSL. It is a little shocking to know that a professional women’s soccer league only appeared around 2001, and it is incredible to see how much the salaries and attendances at games have grown. I think that the NWSL can become really popular, especially if the United States Women’s Soccer team keeps doing so well in international tournaments, and as more girls start playing soccer and are able to find and regularly see role models on TV. There is definitely a bright future ahead!
The information that you disclosed here is really getting me pumped up and excited for sports. I grew up watching this sport (like most people in the world) and can never recall having any sort of exposure to female soccer or the NWSL league. Now, seeing empowered and strong female athletes really expand their sport and make way for further exposure of female capability in sport makes me excited at the future prospects of little girls and women growing up today.