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USWNT awaiting the NWSL’s big step

By on July 7, 2015

World Cups, both in the men’s and women’s game, tend to be formative experiences for new generations of football fans in the US. “Every four years now I’m seeing so many new soccer fans created in the US by a World Cup,” the US’ leading soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, discussed last year. “Then they want to learn more about the sport, so they’ll check out the Champions League, and the Premier League, and Major League Soccer, and those are the big things that move the sport forward.”

Thus explains the influx of football fans in the US and therefore, MLS. The two hope to go hand-in-hand; the national team sparking the audience and the league cultivating the product on the pitch. The relationship has developed so much over MLS’ twenty years of existence that no longer is neither party is overly reliant on the other, but the benefits are mutual.

The country’s appetite for the game also translated to the Women’s national team. Interestingly, more people watched the US Women’s National Team win Sunday’s World Cup final than did the Men’s dramatic exit from the 2014 World Cup at the hands of Belgium. A total figure of nearly 26 million people tuned into the Women’s final.

The US’ top professional women’s league, the NWSL, relies on the national team’s success to attract fans. If as few as one-fiftieth of those who watched the US team in Canada attended one of forty-three NWSL games last season, the league’s total attendance figure would double.

But converting fans is the issue. One major challenge is the NWSL’s lack of breadth, with ten teams, and just two in the entire Western US. MLS, by comparison, features twenty-four clubs (four set to debut within the next three seasons). The entire population of California lacks a NWSL team, whereas MLS and the USL (the ad hoc third-tier men’s professional soccer in the US) each host three California teams.

The lack of a live audience hinders the money going into the NWSL. Clubs are subject to a $265,000 salary cap, discounting Allocated Players — or anybody who is a US, Canada, or Mexico national team player. These players, who are key in driving the NWSL’s audience, are supported by their given national federation. The national federation’s contributions are “foundational” to the league, said NWSL Commissioner Jeff Plush per CNBC; and even then, US star Alex Morgan is reportedly making less than $100,000-a-year with her Portland Thorns. Allocated players tend to rely heavily on sponsorships to drive their income.

As a result of the supportive relationship, there would be no NWSL without the national team (the leagues average attendance dropped for two consecutive years after its foundation in 2013) and the national team wouldn’t be nearly as good without player’s seeing the competitive fixtures of league play.

League expansion is a possibility, though the economics have to be there for owners. Regarding a potential women’s team coming to San Jose, the San Jose Earthquakes president Dave Kaval voiced such concerns to Football Every Day in May. “It is something that we’ve thought about,” said Kaval. “We obviously think women’s soccer could have a really strong place here in the community, but we also want to make sure that if it’s done, it’s done right and [only] if the league is in a position and is [stable] enough to be…successful. Sometimes with ventures like [the NWSL] it’s really not about [the potential] team, even if it can be successful — kind of like the Earthquakes back in the day. The Earthquakes were great here, but the NASL folded. So we need to make sure that if we’re going to make a commitment to women’s soccer that it is done in a way that the entire league is structured and can be successful.”

Whether it involves more investment, more clubs, or simply the passage of time, prudent growth is essential to avoid stagnation. For now, the women’s club game in the US can’t match the aspirations of the national team, but with a new generation of youngsters having just witnessed the glory of a World Cup victory, the cards could be falling into place.

Homepage photo credit: John Phelan (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.