Episode 10: NWSL Season Preview, She Believes Cup, and a Whole Lot of Soccer

Episode 10 Milestone and Announcements

Caitlin: What did the European club landscape look like over there? Well, the answer is not great. So there were no professional clubs over in Europe for women at this time. Hi, I'm Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I'm Alex.

Caitlin: And this is Raising the Game, a women's sports podcast, covering primetime performers, the business behind the leagues, and what the growth of women's sports means for the next generation of women's athletes.

Alex: All right. We're back.

Caitlin: We are back.

Alex: We're back. And I feel like we say this every week, but we have a whole lot to talk about.

Caitlin: We have a lot to talk about. And honestly, one of my favorite things — I'm getting ahead of ourselves — but we get to talk about soccer almost this entire episode. The whole time.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: My favorite sport to talk about.

Alex: I think recently — in the past ten years — it's become one of my favorites as well. So I'm excited.

Caitlin: I converted you.

Alex: I am a convert.

Caitlin: I will take credit for that.

Alex: Let's do it. I think first we've got some announcements here.

Caitlin: Yeah, so a couple cool things. First of all, yay — this is our 10th episode.

Alex: We did it.

Caitlin: Way to go, babe.

Alex: This is awesome. I was just telling Caitlin, if we make it to 11, we have apparently made more episodes than 80% of podcasts.

Caitlin: Look at that. One episode at a time, churning them out. So to celebrate, we actually are going to be bringing something cool and new to our audience — a website, an official website, where as of right now it'll have a little bit more about each of us and our bios, as well as a written summary —

Alex: Like episode recaps. Recaps, yes, that was the word I was looking for. So if you're more into text, it's going to be a little bit easier to digest. You can do a little bit of a review, or if you want to go back and check something but maybe don't have the space or time to re-listen, you can go check that out. And then that's going to be a platform where on an ongoing basis, as we continue to grow this thing out, we might have blog posts — one day I hope we have merch.

Caitlin: Just kidding. But that'll be really cool. We'll be launching that this week. Watch our socials for when it goes live. And it's rtgpod.com — that'll be the website address.

Alex: Yes, no underscore.

Caitlin: Similar to our Instagram handle. And then one other announcement — we alluded to this a little bit last week as we kicked off Women's History Month, Women's Empowerment Month, whatever it is that you choose to celebrate.

Alex: You're just celebrating women.

Caitlin: We are going to do our first kind of evergreen content episode that will release at the end of the month. And it is going to be all about a few — because there were many — women's sports pioneers. So looking back over the history of women's sports and who were some of those women that played a really key role in getting us to where we are today and all the things that we get to talk about here on the podcast.

Alex: And if I remember from the outline, it's kind of a walk through time — quick hits on all these people. And then I think eventually we'll dig into more of those folks as we go.

Caitlin: Yeah, absolutely. We are looking forward to that. Would love feedback when we get that episode out. And if there are coaches, players, leagues that you would want to hear more of — like a deep dive, not something that's topical in the here and now — let us know.

Alex: Let us know. All right, should we jump into top headlines?

Caitlin: Well, we have to do our favorite thing first.

Alex: Oh, why do we always forget that? One of us always does.

Our Favorite Things

Caitlin: I have like three. So one of my favorite things has been that every morning it feels like our kids wake up and they ask if the — they call it the "Parallel Olympics" — and we've corrected them: it's the Paralympics. But what I love is that they're so interested in the variety of sport they saw in the Olympics in February, and they're really engaged in wanting to watch the Paralympics. On the downside, it's been harder to watch those — I don't think they're broadcasting on regular TV the same way. It's probably all over Peacock.

Alex: It is.

Caitlin: But it's been cool that that kind of stuck with them. My other favorite thing — I already said the soccer thing about this episode — but right now I am absolutely obsessed with Taylor Heise on the Minnesota Frost. She had an incredible game on Sunday. One goal, two assists, game-tying goal, assist on the game-winning goal in overtime. It was a huge win for the Frost — they needed the points. I'm just loving how she's playing. I think she really came into her own at the Olympics, and I'm excited to see how she steps into the void created by Kendall Coyne Schofield's injury.

Alex: Yeah, same vibe. My favorite thing was that overtime period. It was so tense and just to watch that go in — it was an exciting moment. The girls were there watching and it was a fun time.

Caitlin: For sure, shout out to Kelly Pannek too for scoring the actual game-winning goal and absolutely laying somebody out at the goal line a little bit before that.

Alex: That was great. She does it all.

Top Headlines

Alex: All right, now we can get to the top headlines. StubHub launched Her Sports Hub, a specific platform dedicated to ticket sales for women's sports across the various leagues.

Caitlin: This is so cool! We just had the headline a couple weeks ago about ESPN pivoting their Sunday night broadcasts from baseball to a women's sports game of the week. StubHub — we shared some data last week from them about the Olympics surge in women's ice hockey. They did a deeper analysis that was released last week as they were launching this platform. What they found was that on average there has been a 215% increase in ticket purchases — not just searches, purchases — across all women's sports after an Olympics competition, summer or winter. The other really interesting thing from their data is that women's sports fans tend to be more broadly engaged across all sports. Men's sports fans tend to be more siloed — like if you're really into baseball, you kind of stay within baseball. But women's sports fans tend to attract attention across sports. I thought that was really cool. It speaks to the inclusivity, and I think it speaks to people wanting to support women regardless of what they're playing.

Alex: We feel that all the time. Unrivaled second season wraps as Mist BC outlasts Phantom BC in the final, featuring all-star performances from Mist captain Brianna Stewart — which gave her the championship MVP — and a record-setting points performance for Phantom captain Kelsey Plum.

Caitlin: Yeah, I could talk a lot about the game, but I think what was really cool was the playoffs in general were insane for Unrivaled. They were super fun. They had record attendance at the semifinals in New York. I do want to call attention to a couple of data points coming out of Unrivaled now that the season has wrapped. First of all, really cool — the winning team takes home a $600K purse to be split among the players. Six players on a team, each gets $100K for winning the championship, in addition to the salaries they're paid by Unrivaled. It's a bonus. And this second season set records — road games, which they had four total but went on the road twice, averaged 20,000 fans at those games. Obviously bigger venues than what they play in Miami at their home arena, but still really monumental. 100% increase in merchandise sales for a total of $4 million in merch, $5 million in ticket sales, and $45 million as of mid-week in total revenue. That's up 66% year over year. And the league valuation at this point is $340 million.

Alex: That's crazy. Two years in.

Caitlin: And there was an interview with the Unrivaled commissioner, Mickey Lawler, who said, and I've got to admit this sounds like a little shade being thrown at NBA league leadership: "It's a by-product of putting the players and the fans first." And it's sort of proving out now. We're realists here — we'll see how this pans out over years.

Alex: The thing they've got to do is figure out the TV thing because TV viewership was down, unfortunately.

Caitlin: That is true. I tried to push a couple of friends and family to watch and they said, "I don't get TNT or TruTV." If they could sign some kind of broadcast deal — even Fox Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, something — that would help a lot.

Alex: All right. We do not have a good update yet on the WNBA CBA. We had some news last night that a new offer was sent over, but we haven't heard anything as of Monday night.

Caitlin: A lot of stuff in the news, a lot of swirl this last week. I saw some ladies on a podcast describe it as a lot of chefs in the kitchen. And when you have that many chefs in the kitchen, you ain't making a meal. A lot of back and forth between the league and the union with offers and adjustments, none of which is being reported in terms of the actual changes. I've read like a million AP articles — from the same guy who writes about basketball and probably has for twenty years. That deadline is tomorrow, folks.

Alex: Hopefully we've got some news by the time you're hearing this.

Alex: Team USA Women's Basketball tips off this week in Puerto Rico for FIBA World Cup qualifying, led by Caitlin Clark, Unrivaled MVP Chelsea Gray, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers.

Caitlin: I've got to figure out where I can watch this.

Alex: Yeah, this is going to be amazing. I was on their site today — we need to figure that out. I might've grabbed it in "What to Watch."

Alex: NCAA Women's Basketball conference tournaments have had buzzer-beaters and blowouts. UCLA dominates Iowa for the Big Ten title. Texas stomps South Carolina. UConn looks likely to breeze their way into the Big East title. Duke survives Louisville in OT for the ACC title. Big 12 title game sees West Virginia upset top-ranked TCU.

Caitlin: There was a lot going on this last weekend. Where we'll leave you with this for now: Selection Sunday is next week, March 15th, with tournament play tipping off on Wednesday, March 18th. We've promised we'll have brackets ready next week. Lots of surprising outcomes — South Carolina losing by 17 was huge. UCLA won by a lot. And UConn is playing right now; we expect them to win by at least 30.

Alex: Boston Fleet retakes top spot over Montréal Victoire. Minnesota remains in striking distance, with a cluster of three teams separated by two points total currently vying for that coveted fourth playoff spot. Boston Fleet and New York Sirens report sellouts for April games to be played at TD Garden and MSG respectively.

Caitlin: This is huge. They're playing at the big arenas. They're expecting 17,000-18,000 fans at both of those games. Looking for a US attendance record.

Alex: Another one. Ohio State took the stacked WCHA crown over the weekend and claimed the top seed in the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Championships, which began on Thursday, March 12th.

Caitlin: And I did see on social media that Olympic gold medalist Laila Edwards of the Wisconsin Badgers was hanging out at a local bar right here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Alex: Look at that.

Alex: In the 2026 Milano-Cortina Paralympics, Oksana Masters wins her 20th medal in the sitting biathlon while US teammate Kendall Gretsch takes silver.

Caitlin: To be clear, her 20th total medal in general, not her 20th in the sitting biathlon specifically. Is she the greatest Paralympian there is? She might be. She competes in both summer and winter games. She does cycling and rowing in the summer and she's won 20 medals.

Alex: Confederation of African Football announces postponement of Women's Africa Cup of Nations. The World Cup qualifying stage for 16 African nations will now run late July to early August.

Caitlin: Yeah, this was a bummer. They were made aware of it two weeks before they were supposed to start. What's impactful about this is that the tournament was going to be wrapped basically right at the beginning of the NWSL season for those players who play in the NWSL — now it's going to disrupt the middle of that season. I don't know if maybe they tried to line it up with the men's World Cup break in the NWSL. They didn't give a reason, but one could surmise given current world events that there may be some safety concerns.

Alex: Sunshine Double in Indian Wells, California features all WTA top-10 players, including Americans Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, and Amanda Anisimova.

Caitlin: Yeah, Gauff retired early in a marquee matchup, citing an injury — I didn't read into exactly what it was. Madison Keys is playing right now as we're taping. Pegula and Anisimova both advanced to the round of 16. You still have Elena Rybakina, Iga Świątek, Naomi Osaka, and Aryna Sabalenka — and Osaka and Sabalenka actually play each other in the round of 16, which will be interesting. So that'll all go into this coming weekend where we'll be able to watch the championships at Indian Wells.

SheBelieves Cup Recap: USWNT Wins Eighth Title

Alex: Awesome. All right. Heading into the SheBelieves Cup —

Caitlin: Let's talk about it. So we wrapped up SheBelieves Cup. For those who are just listening, I am wearing my US Women's National Team hat today. If you ever see people wearing US National Team hats with the crest — if they have four stars across the top, that is a women's team hat. If it has no stars, that is the men's team hat. And the stars are for World Cup championships. Just to be clear.

Back to my favorite team in the world. SheBelieves Cup is a round-robin friendly tournament. It doesn't really mean that much in the standings, but there is a trophy on the line. Team USA took care of business. They beat Argentina last weekend 2-0. We talked about that a little bit on last week's episode. They beat Canada in the midweek 1-0, and they beat Colombia over the weekend 1-0. This very much mimics the round-robin format of a qualifying tournament or the World Cup or the Olympics. There were some things we really liked and some things we were missing.

What is cool — this is their seventh straight shutout. They have not allowed a goal since last fall against Portugal. And it's good to see that resolve. This was their eighth SheBelieves Cup title. There have been 11 total tournaments. Shout out to Emily Sonnett, who has played in all 11 and is an eight-time SheBelieves Cup champion. But they are coming off a loss in this tournament last year — they lost to Japan, which was Japan's first SheBelieves Cup championship. And then last year they also dropped a game against Brazil in pretty quick succession. And everybody was like, what's happening?

Alex: Yeah, it kind of feels like to me that besides the low-scoring, they're getting back to what we'd expect them to be.

Caitlin: Yes. I've read a lot of pundits and analysts commenting on the performance, because last year was really Emma Hayes in the lab, right? Testing players, experimenting. I saw a quote from her recently — when you think back to the 2024 Olympic gold medal team, you think of the resilience of that team, and what's the big tagline from the 2024 Olympics?

Alex: Triple Espresso.

Caitlin: Triple Espresso, right? Everyone was talking about Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson, and Mallory Swanson. And Hayes is astute — she's like, now we're talking about everybody else. Because obviously Wilson and Swanson have been out having babies, and Trin had kind of a challenging year last year in and out with injury. But she's still one of the greatest in the world right now. So it's cool to see — now we're taking the lab results, so to speak, the testing and experimentation, and starting to put it out into the field and really see what those combinations are going to look like.

What I did like, just to start off: I like winning. Winning is the most important thing.

Alex: Yeah, winning is the most important.

USWNT Player Analysis: Strengths and Open Questions

Caitlin: And the shutouts are nice. The composure you're playing with — typically our Latin American opponents tend to be a little bit more physical, a little more chippy. For them to not rise to the bait, play their game, maintain their shape despite the disruption and the physical play — Hayes pointed this out in some post-game press conferences — that is growth that she's been looking to see.

A couple other things I liked: Naomi Girma and Emily Fox — I haven't seen either one of them play for a while because they play overseas in the WSL, and we don't get as many of those games here. They've also been out with various injuries or club duties in the last couple of international windows. I almost forgot how good both of them are.

Alex: If you put a game in where Girma specifically isn't in, and then you watch a game where she is — you kind of walk by and go, "oh, she's in, great." You don't even know it's her, you're just like, I can tell by how they're playing that it's her.

Caitlin: Yeah, she just brings a poise. If she's in, I feel like the only way you're going to score on us is like a super broken scramble in the corner. Run of play, she's too smart, she's too good. So anyways, Naomi Girma, Emily Fox — two other players I really liked how they showed up: Ally Sentnor and Alyssa Thompson.

When we were teeing this up a couple of weeks ago, I had two major questions. One was left back — I still think that's an open question. And two is who's the nine, right? Who is our striker up top?

Alex: As someone who likes soccer and watches soccer but doesn't know all the tactics and lingo — are Sentnor and Thompson contenders for that number nine position? Or is that Sophia Wilson's to lose? What's going on?

Caitlin: Good question. I think it's Soph's to lose, probably. Catarina Macário also kind of plays a nine, but she's got a heel injury and she's in a weird spot with Chelsea FC and things like that. They're also different styles of nine. You can have a false nine, a true nine — there's different ways to play where they're more back-to-goal hold-up play versus running and stretching the field. Alyssa Thompson is not a nine, she's a wing, so she won't be playing at the top in that point position. But she was very good on the wing — very active. I was so happy to see her get the goal against Colombia. She played really well in the games against Canada and Colombia. Ally Sentnor — she's not tall, not big, so you don't think of her like an Abby Wambach or an Alex Morgan type. But she was doing a lot of the right things that Hayes would want to see from someone in that position. And what I loved about her performance is she looks hungry.

Alex: She wants it.

Caitlin: She wants it. Emma Sears could also kind of play that role — she's somebody Hayes is really high on right now. But I think Ally Sentnor is the player to watch as Wilson and Macário get back into the side.

What I didn't like: I didn't love that Trinity Rodman didn't seem able to find the game. And it's hard to say if maybe that was because of injuries suffered in the first game against Argentina — she got knocked pretty hard and was back in training, but you just don't know.

Alex: Was she fully fit? You just don't know.

Caitlin: Yeah. And the disruptive play in the games against Canada and Colombia may not have gotten her the ball the way she needed it. It wasn't that she was bad — I just didn't see her take up space the same way she can.

Alex: You think maybe almost like a decoy too, sometimes?

Caitlin: Oh yeah, she draws so much attention. In the first game against Argentina, you've got four players who have not played together — inexperienced back line combinations. And then when we played without a six — we talked about a nine as a striker up top; the six is that holding central midfielder, the traffic director and connector —

Alex: Is that like the Lindsey Horan type?

Caitlin: No, different. That is Sam Coffey. Sam Coffey is probably one of the best at the six position, the true six. Julie Ertz used to play the six. When we played without someone in that position it didn't look great, it didn't look controlled. Horan can play in that space, she's just not naturally inclined to stay there — she tends to attack more. The six is like a defensive central midfielder. When we played without that, it did not go well.

And not a lot of goals, right? Hayes in the post-tournament press conference said, we showed composure, we showed growth, we won, we took care of business — but we've got to continue to work on the connections.

Alex: At least they held it together defensively.

USWNT Road to the 2027 World Cup

Caitlin: The US Women's National Team has a trifecta of friendlies against Japan starting April 11th. That's one of six remaining international windows ahead of naming the World Cup roster. The roster won't be named until June of next year, 2027 — so they do not have a lot of time. I anticipate we're going to continue to see roster refinement. Emma probably has 20 of her 23 spots locked in, barring injury. There are maybe three questions right now.

Predictions: I think when we get to Japan in April, we're going to see Sophia Wilson back in the side. She played in a preseason match over the weekend. But the Thorns kick off the season against the Spirit this Friday. Catarina Macário — the heel/foot stuff is always unpredictable, so you just don't know where that's at.

I think we missed out on seeing defenders Jordan Bugg and Kate Weisner, both of whom had to leave camp for illness or injury. And Lily Lily Yohannes? — she got hurt badly with a bad ankle injury in the first game against Argentina. I'll be curious if we see her come back. She might be that left-back answer. I thought Avery Patterson was okay out there. Giselle Thompson — I actually really liked Giselle Thompson but we didn't get to see enough of her before the ankle injury.

It'll be interesting because it'll be early days of the NWSL, and then the WSL and European leagues will be ramping up to playoffs, so fitness is a real challenge. Definitely looking forward to those Japan games — they're going to be real fun.

Alex: Those Japan games are going to be real fun.

Caitlin: I love watching Japan play. They're so technical and so disciplined. Some people think it's boring, but I think it's mastery.

Alex: Wear you down.

Caitlin: Exactly.

NWSL History: From Title IX to the Modern Era

Alex: All right. I want to jump into this deep pool we have here.

Caitlin: OK, so we are going to take you through an understanding of the NWSL. The NWSL kicks off its 14th season on Friday night. This is the longest-standing women's professional soccer league in US history, as you're about to learn. So the way this is going to go: a little bit of a history lesson on how we got to the NWSL, what was formative in its history to get us where we are today, then we'll talk through the financial picture — the growth, attendance, viewership. We'll note some players to watch, and then we'll have some predictions on who we think might win this season.

So let's set the stage about women's professional soccer in the US before the league we currently have. Women's soccer culture — really, just like most women's sports as we know them today — was born out of the passing of Title IX in 1972. We're actually going to talk about Patty Mink in our Sports Pioneers episode, who spearheaded that legislation. At the college level, you had to have equal opportunity for men and women, and it really took off and started to build. The timing of that makes sense — the US Women's National Team really started to see success in the 90s. The little kids at the time that it passed were playing professionally or at the college level by the time the women's World Cup started up in the 90s.

So the US Women's National Team became this global force. They won the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991, and then famously won again in 1999 in front of 90,000-plus fans. That is an insane amount of people at a women's sporting event.

Alex: When I saw that number I was blown away. And you talk about the defining moment of Title IX being about 18 years earlier — that's almost like another defining moment where all these young girls got to see this team win it.

Caitlin: They honored Tobin Heath at the USWNT game over the weekend. She actually had a signed ball from Brandi Chastain that just said "believe" on it, and that's what motivated her. You also hear Emma Hayes talk about how she has never coached a team of people who are more invested in the crest — these players seem like they were born wanting to play for this team. That's the legacy of the 99ers and Title IX.

So as we moved ahead, the 1999 World Cup win really ignited this appetite for professional women's soccer. In 2001, the Women's United Soccer Association — WUSA — was founded. This was the first fully professional women's soccer league in the world. Launched with eight teams, with 20 national team players including stars like Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, et cetera. Average attendance reached about 6,000-8,000 — not bad, right? But it didn't last. They ceased operations in September of 2003 after just three seasons, citing unsustainable operating losses of what was estimated to be around $100 million.

Alex: $100 million in 2001 is wild to me.

Caitlin: The main reasons cited: they launched too fast with outsized budgets and it wasn't well thought out.

So after the Women's United Soccer Association, or WUSA, folded, there was a period called the "gap years." The W League, a semi-pro league, was where a lot of women played. Some went overseas. This was from 2004 to 2008. And it got me wondering — what did the European club landscape look like over there? Well, the answer is not great. There were no professional clubs in Europe for women at this time. It was all amateur. Maybe you got some money to cover rent and food, but you weren't getting paid a salary. There were other barriers too — language barriers, visa situations that were really difficult, and no organization helping you with that. You were just showing up because you loved playing soccer.

The French Women's Professional League only really legitimized in 2009. And the WSL — the Women's Super League in England — only became a fully formed professional league in 2018.

Alex: I thought they'd been around as long as a lot of the men's football. And you'd think that because soccer is such a deep tradition over there.

Caitlin: And what's also interesting is that this actually points to this really interesting pivot we're now seeing on the international stage — more parity at the national team level because there are clubs funded in other countries so their professional women can play year-round. It was a really interesting full-circle moment in my research.

So going back to 2009: the Women's Professional Soccer League — WPS — was founded. Eight founding clubs again, featuring international superstars like Marta from Brazil — arguably the best to ever play the game — Abby Wambach, Hope Solo. But it really struggled with franchise instability. Multiple clubs folded within the first two seasons, and the WPS suspended operations in January of 2012, officially disbanding in the spring. The key lessons from WPS were around MLS affiliation and federation subsidies — they were seen as critical missing components.

Alex: It does feel wild to watch two leagues fold and go, "I can do it again, but better."

Caitlin: Third time's a charm. So in 2012, the NWSL was founded. But we have to back up — it was founded in 2012 under US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati, who spearheaded a new model. His critical differentiator was that the US Soccer Federation, Canadian Soccer Association, and initially the Mexican Football Federation agreed to subsidize the salaries of their national team players, and those costs did not count against salary caps. So you could keep top-tier talent in the league while not penalizing teams by using that funding for star players. You could build more competitive rosters.

Then the NWSL officially launched — eight charter clubs again, eight seems to be the magic number. The inaugural season began in 2013. Average attendance in the 2013 season was 4,200 people — less than WUSA. And the Portland Thorns won the inaugural NWSL championship. They also signed a cute little first broadcast deal: a one-year agreement with Fox Sports to televise the semi-finals and championship. And we started to see expansion — Houston, who had the MLS side the Dynamo, added the Dash on the women's side.

NWSL Growth Era and the Reckoning Years

Caitlin: From 2016 to 2020: the NWSL became the first women's professional soccer league in US history to surpass four seasons in 2016, because all the others had folded after three. They signed a three-year broadcast deal in 2017 with A&E Networks — otherwise known as Lifetime — and aired 22 regular-season games on a weekly basis. And then the first major relocation: a team called the Western New York Flash relocated and rebranded as the North Carolina Courage, which is part of the current league today.

During this time period, right before this era started and then within it, you had back-to-back World Cup wins — 2015 and 2019 — the US Women's National Team won back-to-back World Championships. Both of those really spurred interest, attendance, and so on.

Alex: That's right where my interest in soccer kind of started. 2019 was really the first time we watched the Women's World Cup together.

Caitlin: Yes. And that was epic. That was in France. You had Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan and just all the things going on.

Then at the end of this era, 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic really forced innovation. A lot of bubbles popped up for teams to continue competing while staying quarantined. This is where the Challenge Cup was born, which is still played in the NWSL.

And then we get to some not-so-good times. 2021 and 2022 were really considered reckoning years for women's professional soccer. There was a huge exposure around systemic abuse of players. The Athletic published an investigation exposing systemic abuse and misconduct by coaches across the league in October of 2021. In 2022, the Yates Report — put together by Sally Yates, former US Attorney General — documented a, quote, "systemic failure" to protect players from verbal and sexual abuse across multiple clubs and coaching staffs. Multiple coaches, executives, and the commissioner of the league were all fired or resigned.

What's really harrowing about this is that the Yates Report details players reporting on these behaviors as far back as 2015. It showed not only that players were being abused but that there were active coverups — teams were quietly ushering coaches onto their next jobs and writing positive letters of recommendation so those coaches would get picked up by other clubs. Just horrible. There are a lot of really brave women who came forward and put their names on the record, most notably Sinéad Farrelly and a few others. Kudos to them, because otherwise this might still be happening.

Alex: At least there was something positive that came out of that. Like, that should have never happened, but they did get protections. They should have had them a long time ago.

Caitlin: Yeah, it's unfortunately not a surprising oversight that no one decided to look out for these players. And at the same time, and we don't talk much about it in this particular episode, but there was also a huge push for equal pay in US Soccer. This was really led strongly by Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan. We'll talk about Rapinoe in the Sports Pioneers episode.

Back to the history: this launched the league into the hyper-growth era we're accustomed to today. The league really overhauled its leadership in 2022. They hired Jessica Berman as the new commissioner. And nine years after the league began, the players secured the first-ever collective bargaining agreement. Part of the reason a lot of that systemic abuse was allowed to go on was that there was nothing protecting the players.

In 2022, the addition of Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave. Angel City is continually the highest-valued team in the league. In 2023, the league signed a landmark four-year, $240 million broadcast deal with CBS Sports, ESPN, ABC, Amazon Prime Video, and Scripps Sports. In 2024, two more teams: Bay FC and the Utah Royals. This was also the first season that we surpassed two million total match attendees. And one of the coolest milestones for me: the Kansas City Current opened the first-ever sports complex, stadium and training facilities, specifically designed for women. And not just designed for a women's sports team — it was literally designed with women in mind. Sight lines, family rooms, nursing spaces, breastfeeding spaces — all from the perspective of a woman.

Alex: Yeah, that's awesome. It's a beautiful stadium, right on the river.

Caitlin: And that team is amazing. So now here we are in 2026. The league has expanded to 16 teams. We add two more this year with Boston Legacy and the Denver Summit. And an Atlanta expansion team is expected in 2028. I've also heard rumblings that Columbus is trying to make a bid.

Alex: Columbus feels like a foregone conclusion. The women's national team plays there and it's almost filled to the brim. They have an MLS team there too. They play there or Harrison, New Jersey every other time.

NWSL Financial Picture and Attendance Growth

Caitlin: All right, so that's a little bit of the league history. Moving into the structure and financial situation. As we just mentioned, 16 teams as of 2026. It's a single-division format. Thirty-game regular season, with an 18-team playoff bracket culminating in the NWSL Championship, which this year will be played on November 21st. Broadcast partners have expanded — we mentioned CBS Sports, ESPN/ABC, Amazon Prime Video, and this year they added Ion, plus free streaming on Victory Plus, which is a newer sports streaming platform.

Alex: I noticed when I was looking at the schedule that they had Ion and Victory Plus. And Victory Plus is where LOVB plays as well.

Caitlin: Yeah, no shortage of ways to watch. And as we mentioned earlier, ESPN will be featuring a game of the week on Sunday nights, bouncing back and forth between the NWSL and the WNBA. On the financial side, the salary cap in the NWSL is currently $3.3 million, rising to just over $5 million by 2030 when the current CBA expires. Minimum player salaries are right around $50K this season, set to rise to about $82,000 by 2030.

Alex: What was really interesting when I looked it up is that the MLS salary cap is currently $5 million. So they're not that far off — obviously still a gap, but they're closing it.

Caitlin: Yeah. A couple other interesting tidbits: we've talked here on the pod about the high-impact player rule, which allows you to sign a player that meets certain criteria and get an additional million dollars outside of your salary cap. That's going to hopefully draw and retain talent — like we did with Trinity Rodman. On the broadcast deal, and there was some information released last week: the average NWSL franchise value came out to about $184 million per club, up 77% year over year. Notable franchises — Angel City FC valued at $335 million, Kansas City Current at $315 million, Bay FC at $208 million. The total league is valued at about $2.5 billion.

Alex: Is that the teams' valuations added together, or is there some other formula?

Caitlin: I think it's the team valuations, but there might be some external factors considered as revenue too. If you do the quick math — 16 teams averaging $184 million — and expansion fees are always an indicator. In 2021, San Diego paid $2 million to join the league. Denver, starting this year, paid $110 million. Atlanta, who just signed that big sponsorship deal with Aflac, paid $165 million. That's an 82x increase in about four years.

OK, so we told you to hold on to your thinking caps around league attendance. Remember, average attendance in 2013 was 4,200 fans per game — approximately 375,000 total fans across the entire season. Fast forward to 2025: average attendance exceeded 10,000 fans per match. For the third consecutive season — the longest streak in league history. In 2024 we had 2 million fans, an average attendance of 11,250, representing 165% growth in average attendance since 2013. We also saw in 2025 the single-game attendance record between Bay FC and the Washington Spirit at just over 40,000 fans. Now we are all anxiously awaiting the game in Denver — I think it's March 23rd or 28th — where they are already slated to blast that number out of the water with over 45,000 expected.

Alex: I think they're opening up the 500 level in Mile High or whatever it's called now. It's going to be insane.

Caitlin: Really cool to see just this explosion of interest and growth. And then this fun fact: 48 of the 50 most attended professional women's soccer matches are NWSL games. The context is that soccer stadiums typically hold more people than other sports, so soccer rules the roost in the states when it comes to women's sports attendance by almost double. But the better comparison is growth relative to capacity — basketball plays in much smaller venues. I do believe that 1999 Women's World Cup final still tops the table, though there might have been a college volleyball game in Nebraska that outstripped it — 91,000 or something.

Alex: Go Huskers volleyball, I guess.

NWSL Players to Watch in the 2026 Season

Caitlin: So as a primer for your NWSL viewing season, we wanted to give you a couple of players to keep tabs on. We have our established stars like Trinity Rodman — we've talked about her plenty on the pod. We've talked about Temwa Chawinga. She plays for the Kansas City Current, she's a two-time Golden Boot winner, she's incredible — super fast, a really strong forward. And she's going to be really interesting as I look at the off-season additions to the Kansas City Current. They added Ally Sentnor and Croix Bethune, who leaves the Washington Spirit to go play with the Current. I am going to be very interested to see how Temwa does with some of the playmaking that Bethune brings to the field, and having a real scoring threat in Sentnor opposite her.

Alex: Can you tell people what the Golden Boot is? She's won it back-to-back. Is she one of the best players in the world, or is Rodman?

Caitlin: So Golden Boot is the top scorer in the league. Temwa has won that the last two years. She was also league MVP the last two years. She's definitely probably considered the best forward in the league. I think Rodman gets the accolade a little more liberally, probably because of her marketability. Temwa is from Malawi, so she doesn't have that US national team coverage and different marketing playing for an African nation versus the highly cash-infused US Soccer Federation. Which is exactly why we're talking about her here on the podcast.

Caitlin: Rose Lavelle — always somebody to watch, the former Wisconsin Badger. She's really in form right now. She was the championship MVP last year. She's been scoring a lot, creating out of midfield, and seems to really be stepping into her prime from a consistency and leadership standpoint.

Marta — also arguably one of the best players in the world — playing for Orlando Pride. She retired from international play recently but she's a six-time FIFA World Player of the Year. She always has something up her sleeve.

Alex: The question I had — is Marta to women's soccer what Messi is to men's soccer when it comes to career arc and global cultural impact?

Caitlin: Unfortunately, no. You just don't get the same level of exposure and coverage. From a pure on-field perspective, maybe you could make that argument — leadership, amazing achievements, consistently recognized as the best in the world over a very long career, and that longevity is insane for both of them. But unfortunately, if Marta had been American, that might've been different. The US Soccer Federation has had outsized success relative to other national counterparts, and Marta is Brazilian. They probably weren't getting the funding and backing from their federation until very recently. The difference in trajectories between a Messi and a Marta is that Marta probably had to fight for every ounce of access and exposure. She has inspired a generation of young girls and really moved the needle forward for Brazilian soccer. But to compare them is tough, and it's not for lack of talent — it's for lack of support.

Alex: Access and support.

Caitlin: Really good question. And then just rounding out our crew here: Gift Monday. That is a name.

Alex: Amazing name.

Caitlin: She plays for the Washington Spirit. We got to see her a little in action in the playoffs last year. She is a very dynamic player from Nigeria, and she scored the fastest hat trick in NWSL history in 2025 — three goals in under 36 minutes.

Alex: I thought you were going to say 36 seconds and I was going to lose my mind.

Caitlin: That's three goals in less than half a half. She's certainly someone to keep on your list. On the rising stars side — Croix Bethune: she just joined Kansas City Current. Her in combination with Temwa, Ally Sentnor, and Michelle Cooper over there is going to be really interesting to watch. Claire Clare Hutton — also a national team player who moved from Kansas City Current to Bay FC. She was one of the second-highest transfer fees ever in the NWSL, over a million dollars. And earlier this year she became the youngest player to ever wear the captain's armband for the US Women's National Team. Emma Hayes calls her a "future captain in the making" — maybe she needs to revise that to "current captain in the making." And then Ally Sentnor — I remember last year at SheBelieves Cup was her national team debut and she scored a goal, and I remember being like, who is this? She's continued to be productive and had a bit of a breakthrough. This year at SheBelieves Cup is going to be interesting to see how she does on the club side.

NWSL Title Contenders and Dark Horses

Caitlin: All right, wrapping up with our NWSL title contenders. These are all teams I've mentioned, because if it isn't obvious, they tend to have some of the best players we should be watching.

Gotham FC — they won last year as the eighth seed going into the playoffs. The depth they have really held them together. They had some key off-season signings, brought in Savannah McCaskill from San Diego. When they need to win, they know how to win. I could definitely see them making another run at the league championship.

Kansas City Current — they won the Shield last season, the regular-season championship, with 65 points and a +36 goal difference. And they've just added firepower. They also brought in a new coach — Vlatko Andonovski is moving to a sporting director role, and they brought in Chris Armas, a former US Men's National Team player and Hall of Famer. I'll be watching to see how they do, whether he can get the team to lean into his philosophy and system.

Alex: The thing here is they lost in the quarterfinals to the Gotham team.

Caitlin: Yes, they lost to Gotham. Highest seed lost to the lowest seed. It was widely seen as a fluke — or a massive upset. It's going to haunt some people there for a little while. But that's why we play the game.

And then finally, the Washington Spirit — they re-signed Trinity Rodman. You've got Gift Monday, Lacey Santos, Kate Weisner, Tara Rudd, Aubrey Kingsbury, and other experience in that back line. I think their ceiling is the highest. But there's also going to be pressure — they keep talking about Michelle Kang's investment there, and it's kind of like, what can money buy you?

Alex: Back-to-back runner-up appearances. Have they put the missing piece in place to make this a true championship run?

Caitlin: Those are the three that are probably going to be analyst favorites. I've got a couple of dark horses. Portland Thorns — Soph's back. And they got a new coach. Last year they had a firing mid-season and then two different interim head coaches. That's just hard to play in. New head coach now. Let's see what they do.

Racing Louisville FC — 2025 Coach of the Year Bev Yanez. You've got Emma Sears on that team, Sab Demelo. They had a really strong playoff run last year. I could see them building on that behind Yanez's leadership.

Hear me out on this one: the Chicago Red Stars. They finished way at the bottom of the table last year. But they're making investment — building out a training facility. They traded Brazilian midfielder Ludmila to San Diego Wave, which brings a huge transfer fee to the club so they could go shopping. And you've got Mallory Swanson coming back. You've got Jamese Joseph, who's starting to break onto the scene. There might be some scoring options there. I'm just saying.

And then the Denver Summit — I had to put them in here. This is already my favorite new team and I haven't even seen them play.

Alex: Denver is my dark horse favorite on vibes alone.

Caitlin: On vibes. All right, we hope you learned something about the NWSL. If you want to hear more or go deeper on any topic, let us know. But we will be watching a lot of soccer in these next couple of months.

What to Watch This Weekend

Alex: All right, changing to What to Watch and sticking right in soccer — don't leave. Season kicks off. Starting Friday night, 7 PM Central on Prime Video: Washington Spirit vs. Portland Thorns FC, the season opener.

Caitlin: That's a big one. And besides that one — because Soph's back — I have circled the Bay FC vs. Denver Summit game.

Alex: We've gotta watch that. On vibes alone. We've gotta see if the vibes in the marketing campaign turn into success on the field.

Caitlin: We'll probably have soccer on all weekend. Moving on to PWHL — just two quick games. Seattle Torrent at Minnesota Frost, Friday March 17th at 7 PM. They're in third, looking to move up and stay in the playoffs. Boston Fleet at Montréal Victoire, Sunday March 15th at noon Central — a huge game in the PWHL, as we outlined earlier.

Alex: Also outlined earlier: Selection Sunday for NCAA Basketball, 7 PM Sunday. We will see the full 68-team bracket and will start working on some sort of bracket to have ready by next episode.

NCAA Women's Hockey — it's regional semifinals and championships this week. Next week is the Frozen Four semifinals and then the championship. We'll go more in depth next week. And then FIBA World Cup Qualifying: three games this week — Tuesday at 4 PM, Wednesday at 7 PM, and Saturday at 4 PM. All of these are on TNT, TBS, and TruTV. Seems like if you want to watch women's basketball, you need one of those three stations. And then the Paralympic Games — they end on Sunday on Peacock, with the hockey medal game on Sunday, and medal matches all week across events.

Caitlin: Any time you turn it on, you could be watching a medal round.

Alex: All right, we made it through.

Caitlin: No shortage of things to watch this weekend, as usual.

Winners and Losers

Alex: Losers and winners, quickly. I have a loser. It's not a big one: a championship Unrivaled basketball game should not be able to end on a free throw. Figure that rule out and you're good.

Caitlin: Yeah, I 100% agree. That was really not great.

Caitlin: My loser — and I hate that it feels like a cop out at this point — is the WNBA CBA stuff. We frankly didn't go into detail because the reporting coming out about it was so weird. My loser is that we're at this point where there seems to be a "she said, she said" situation — either they're manufacturing drama and trying to sell that, which could very well be the case, or there actually is a rift between the players. And I'm kind of just like, what are we doing?

Alex: Every week we're coming up with new conspiracies for the WNBA.

Caitlin: At the same time, I just wish they could figure it out. I mean, I think the players have felt that way too, right? You feel like Caitlin Clark said it today — she was like, they just need to get in a room, shake hands, and let's go.

Alex: Winners?

Caitlin: The US Women's National Team.

Alex: Yeah, they won.

Caitlin: They literally won. And I think what's cool is that we had this great momentum coming from Unrivaled. You only had to wait a week to turn around and watch these women play again. So that'll be nice — maybe it will tide us over until the WNBA season.

Alex: Has Paige Bueckers been home? No — she's been living in Miami for the last couple of months, and now she's in Puerto Rico. She ain't coming home anytime soon. All right. I think that's it for today.

Caitlin: That is it. That's all we have.

Alex: Hit us up on socials: @rtg_pod on Instagram, raisingthegamepod@gmail.com, and now rtgpod.com.

Caitlin: We'll be back next week. Hope to see you there. Bye!