Soccer Moves in the U.S.: Continued NWSL Expansion and US/Mexico City bid for Women's World Cup 2027
Sydney Sexson
May 13, 20234 min read
Updated: May 13, 2023
Commissioner Jessica Berman awarding Forward Sophia Smith the MVP trophy after her team, Portland Thorns win the 2022 NWSL Championship (Nick Wass, AP)
There have been some big moves in the soccer world in the US over the past few weeks.
Most recently NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman announced in her live interview with the Washington Post, in their first installment of “Leveling the Playing Field,” which is set to feature various women in sports, that the NWSL will be further expanding to 16 teams by the year 2026.
Just a few months ago it was revealed that the Utah Royal will be making a return in 2024 after their previous owner Dell Loy Hansen had relinquished his ownership of both the NWSL and MLS teams. Hansen criticized the MLS team’s support for the BLM movement and had a few comments related to the players protesting the August 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake and in the criticism he received back he gave up his ownership.
The Royals first time around in Utah was “tainted by controversy” further when Head Coach Craig Harrington was put on administrative leave for allegations of making inappropriate comments and the other allegations were listed in the NWSL league wide abuse investigation that was released in December of 2022.
Hopes seem high though for the team to get on the ground running as a quote from Ryan Smith, whose entertainment group owns the Utah's NBA team, Utah Jazz stated,
"And it’s going to be a moment where I personally believe that there has been a massive hole in our community as far as professional women’s sports and an opportunity for my young girls -- I’ve got three young girls — to be able to look up and say, ’Hey, well, there’s another option here and it’s not just about sports. It’s about leadership.’”
The other new team coming in 2024 will be in the San Francisco Bay Area which was announced early April. This will be California's third NWSL team after they just recently added Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC just in 2022 scoring themselves a well deserved hat trick and making it a booming market to say the least.
USWNT star Aly Wagner, who holds a minority stake along with three of her old teammates Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, and Danielle Slaton, commented that the previous iterations of professional women’s soccer leagues and teams were more of “heartstring decisions” while the $125 million investment made by Sixth Street Partners is definitely more of a business decision with highly anticipated returns on the investment.
One city already heavily rumored to be in the talks for the next expansion is Boston, previous home to the Boston Breakers from 2013-2017, and the Wall Street Journal reported in January that the league was in “advanced discussions" on bringing a team to New England.
Another city that was on the short list for an NWSL team was Tampa narrowly losing to Boston and San Francisco for the final two which could potentially give the state of Florida their second team.
Ms. Berman stated in her interview that “we have an incredible amount of interest from qualified investors who want to get in early.” and “a lot of investors are recognizing that and are excited to begin that process of mutual due diligence with us.”
The next couple of years sounds like it will be booming for the NWSL and for the cities adding/wanting to add teams.
These teams are proving their economic value to their cities and their investors, especially with cities like Kansas City breaking ground on their $70 million project at Berkley Riverfront Park in October which will provide the Current with their own stadium, the first ever purpose-built stadium in the league.
It is amazing to see the value that the cities and investors are putting in and just as equally amazing to see the return from fans as well, in 2022 the league saw a 25% uptick in season ticket holders.
Fans are clearly excited to go to these games committing for whole seasons to cheer on their teams and cities want to get in sooner rather than later.
Other major news in women’s soccer news comes from U.S Soccer and Mexico Soccer making a joint bid mid April for the 2027 Women's World Cup.
Cindy Parlow Cone, President of the U.S. Soccer Federation, stated
“The United States has always been a global leader for the women’s game, and we would be honored to co-host the world’s premier event for women’s soccer along with Mexico. Hosting the 2027 women’s World Cup provides us an incredible opportunity to cap off two historic years of World Cup soccer in the Concacaf region, helping us continue to grow the game among our confederation association ... The United States and Mexico want to continue to push the envelope for the development of women’s soccer across the entire region.”
It was rumored that they were originally planning to bid in 2031, but there had been an eagerness to bid in 2027 when previous President of the U.S. Soccer Federation Carlos Cordeiro, who wanted to host the three major global soccer spectacles in America: the 2026 and 2027 World Cups and the 2028 Olympics. (Which I mean yeah who wouldn’t?)
Winning this bid would be historic for soccer in this country which has been experiencing so much growth in the past three years as we have seen with the multiple expansions and exciting announcement of more.
The official unveiling of the 2027 host city is set to be on May 17, 2024 so only 370 days to go…
Women's soccer continues to blaze their trail in not only United States but around the world and it is exciting to think about what opportunities will present themselves next for these talented athletes and eager investors.
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