NWSL commissioner confident league can grow by following 'do good, do well model'
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
When Jessica Berman was named commissioner of the NWSL in the spring of 2022, the burning question was had the league she inherited bottomed out?
Just months earlier a wide-ranging sexual abuse and harassment scandal had rocked the sport. Coaches, general managers, team owners — even the league's former Commissioner Lisa Baird — were either fired or resigned. Two investigations, one conducted by the league and another by U.S. Soccer, were launched as sponsors and investors backed away. The league's brand, it seemed, had been irreparably damaged.
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Thirty-seven months later, the question has changed. Now Berman has people asking how high the 14-team league can go. It's been a phenomenal turnaround in a short time, yet it's one Berman says is nowhere near complete.
"Our board believes that we can be the size of the NFL,' she told U.S. Soccer's SheBelieves Summit last Friday in Los Angeles. 'There is nothing that stands in the way of us doing that.'
Read more: U.S. women's soccer victory over Brazil becomes a showcase for World Cup hopefuls
The NWSL is the healthiest women's professional sports league in the world, with Sportico putting the average value of each of its teams at $104 million, up 57% from last year. It is in the second season of a four-year $240-million TV deal; overall attendance has doubled in the last three years; TV viewership hit 18.7 million in 2024, a five-fold increase from 2023; and expansion fees have jumped from $2 million in 2020 to the record $110 million Denver paid last winter.
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That's part of a movement in women's elite sports that Deloitte, the global professional services firm, projects will produce nearly $2.4 billion in worldwide revenues in 2025, nearly triple the figure from 2023. And while all those numbers pale considerably when compared to men's sports, the increases over the last three years are extraordinary.
So while Berman admitted in a phone call Sunday that the line about matching the NFL with 32 teams was more aspirational than anticipated, it can no longer be dismissed as absurd. Consider that the expansion franchise in Denver, which doesn't have a team or a stadium yet, has already sold 10,000 season tickets.
'It's really driven by the demand we see for expansion teams and quality markets [where] we believe NWSL would be incredibly successful,' said Berman of the league's aspiration. 'It's also driven the growth of the game. From a sporting perspective, knowing that we have the ability to produce top talent; and if we're intentional and strategic about how to cultivate and develop that talent, we think it would be fairly easy for us to continue to scale and grow.'
Women's sports has been an untapped gold mine for sponsors and investors for years, but only recently have those sponsors and investors begun to wake up to the potential.
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Multiple studies have long found that women control up to 80% of a household's purchasing power, so marketing to women would seem to be a no-brainer. And even as diversity, equity and inclusion programs have drawn the ire of the Trump administration, gender equality remains a popular cause, giving companies an extra bang for their buck when they back women's sports.
An Angel City fan waves a Pride flag during the match against the Chicago Red Stars at BMO Stadium in June 2023.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
'It's the do good, do well model, which is sort of core to the next generation of consumers and fans,' Berman said. 'They make decisions based on where they want to spend their money based on whether the company is a place that has values that are aligned with their values and is also focused on doing good and making a positive impact on society and sports in general.'
Judging the health and potential growth in women's sports in general and the NWSL in particular can be even more basic: Just follow the money. Not only the sponsorship, media rights and expansion-fee dollars, but look at the investors. These are not people who got rich by being foolish with their funding. If they think women's soccer is a safe bet, it probably is.
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'Anyone with a smart mind is investing in women's sports because that's where the growth is,' said Emma Hayes, coach of the Olympic champion women's national team.
Businesswoman Michele Kang, for example, has poured tens of millions into women's soccer as majority owner of the NWSL's Washington Spirit, French club Olympique Lyonnais and the London City Lionesses of England's second-tier women's championship. Now she's doubling down, announcing last week that she will give another $25 million to U.S. Soccer to 'accelerate advancements in the women's game through science, innovation and elevated best practices.' That's on top of a $30-million gift Kang made in November to fund increased youth competition opportunities to identify and development national team players.
Last summer Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay became controlling owners of Angel City and before that former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Sixth Street, a private equity firm that says it manages more than $75 billion in assets, backed the Bay FC expansion team in Northern California.
Read more: LAFC holds Lionel Messi scoreless, earns CONCACAF Champions Cup win over Inter Miami
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And these have not been passive investors. Angel City recently opened a sprawling training center in Thousand Oaks the club said it spent millions to renovate. Several other clubs are scrambling to build complexes of their own.
So if Berman inherited a league that could sink no lower, she now manages one whose growth appears limitless.
'I think the question is how quickly will it continue to grow,' she said. 'I'm very bullish on the pace of growth continuing the way it has been. There is a strong need, from both a media and brand perspective, to reach a different kind of audience, a young, more tech-savvy multicultural audience, which we bring. We also skew more heavily representative of a female consumer.
'There is nothing to be worried about. There is a market there. The growth is happening. The investment is happening from all sides.'
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⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week's episode of the 'Corner of the Galaxy' podcast.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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