The women's soccer landscape in North America includes established-leagues, emerging newcomers
FILE - Pachuca's Jenni Hermoso, center, is greeted by teammates before a Mexican Women's soccer league match between Pachuca and Pumas at the Miguel Hidalgo stadium in Pachuca, Mexico, Sept. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
FILE - Pachuca's Jenni Hermoso, center, is greeted by teammates before a Mexican Women's soccer league match between Pachuca and Pumas at the Miguel Hidalgo stadium in Pachuca, Mexico, Sept. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
What does the landscape for women's professional soccer look like in North America?
The National Women's Soccer League, which kicked off in 2013, is arguably the top league in the region. Mexico's Liga MX Femenil is in its eighth season.
Advertisement
But in the past year, two other women's leagues have jumped into the fray: the USL Super League, which is in the midst of its first season, and Canada's Northern Super League.
Two other leagues could join next year, occupying the tier below the NWSL and USL Super League on the women's soccer pyramid in the United States.
National Women's Soccer League
After two other attempts at professional women's soccer in the United States failed, the NWSL finally took hold. Founded with eight teams, the NWSL was boosted in the early days by the U.S., Canadian and Mexican soccer federations, which paid the salaries of their national teams players who played in the league. When Denver and Boston join next season, the NWSL will have 16 teams. Team valuations have risen dramatically in three years, with Angel City valued highest, at $250 million. The league has been able to attract some high-profile sponsors, including Nike, Ally Bank, Elf Cosmetics and AT&T.
Advertisement
Liga MX Femenil
The women's counterpart to Liga MX in Mexico has 18 teams, all associated with men's clubs. The league, founded in 2017, features two competitions each year: the Apertura that runs from late summer through the fall and the Clausura, which runs from January to May, similar to the Liga MX men. The league has attracted high-profile foreign players including Women's World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso and France's Amandine Henry. Big-name sponsors include Nike and Amazon. Mexico also has a lower division, Liga TDP Femenil, but it is not professional.
USL Super League
Nearing the conclusion of its debut season, the league sits on the top tier of women's soccer alongside the NWSL, but it does not share the same status in the U.S. ecosystem, largely because it is new and teams are located in some smaller markets. The Super League has eight teams with a ninth set to join next year. Investors are taking notice, and Gainbridge financial services company will be the league's title sponsor next season.
Advertisement
Northern Super League
Canada's first pro league kicked off in April with six teams: the Halifax Tides, Montreal Roses, AFC Toronto, Calgary Wild, Ottawa Rapid and Vancouver Rise. One of the highest-profile players in Quinn, who won a gold medal with Canada at the Tokyo Olympics. Quinn scored the league's first goal, converting a penalty for a 1-0 Vancouver victory over Calgary in front of more than 14,000 fans at BC Place. Sponsors of the league include Coca-Cola, Toyota and DoorDash.
WPSL Pro
This second-division league will launch next year with a focus on developing players. The league got a boost from the Cleveland Soccer Group, which pivoted to WPSL Pro when it did not land an NWSL team in the latest round of expansion. Cleveland's group is fielding a team and investing in the league itself. Cleveland will be joined in the startup league by teams in Atlanta, Dallas, North Carolina, Oklahoma City, Sioux Falls, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Advertisement
NWSL Division II League
The NWSL recently confirmed it had asked U.S. Soccer to sanction a lower-division women's professional soccer league that could launch as early as next year. With at least six teams, the new league seeks to develop players who aren't quite ready for the top level. U.S. Soccer has certain conditions for Division II sanctioning, including a minimum number of teams and stadiums that seat at least 2,000. In the case of the NWSL, all the lower-division teams would be affiliated with top-tier clubs, sharing ownership and infrastructure.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Epoch Times
2 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Mexico Sets Minimum Tomato Export Prices Following End of US Trade Deal
Mexico has introduced minimum export prices for fresh tomatoes to protect its domestic supply following the expiration of a 2019 trade agreement with the United States. The U.S. government withdrew last month from the 2019 trade deal that had previously suspended the antidumping investigation into Mexican tomato imports.
USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Alex Palou clinches fourth IndyCar championship with two races left in 2025 season
While Will Power captured his 45th career win Sunday at Portland International Raceway, Alex Palou finished third to wrap up the 2025 IndyCar Series title with two races remaining. PORTLAND, Ore. — Alex Palou put to bed what can only be deemed one of the most dominant championship performances the IndyCar Series has ever seen, capturing his fourth career season championship with two races still left to contest before the 2025 season is complete. Will Power, the 44-year-old veteran whose future with Team Penske is uncertain, won the Grand Prix of Portland by 1.6 seconds over Christian Lundgaard. Power earned his 45th career win and first since last year's Portland race. By virtue of his third-place finish at Portland International Raceway on Sunday, Aug. 10, Palou increased his cushion over Pato O'Ward to 151 points. Insider: Why is Team Penske considering replacing Will Power when he's been its best driver this year? FOURTH. CHAMPIONSHIP. CLINCHED. 🏆🏆🏆🏆 O'Ward entered the weekend as Palou's only mathematical challenger started on the pole but had a power failure after the restart on Lap 21 causing him to go eight laps down. With only a maximum of 108 points to be earned over the final two race weekends at the Milwaukee Mile (Aug. 23-24) and Nashville Superspeedway (Aug. 30-31), O'Ward no longer holds any chance to pull off what for weeks would've been maybe the most miraculous championship comeback the sport had seen. A title fight the 26-year-old Mexican driver has frequently deemed "over"recently, always accompanied with a chuckle, is now formally so, with Palou going wire to wire for his fourth IndyCar title in five seasons, all since joining Chip Ganassi Racing for the start of the 2021 IndyCar campaign off the back of a 2020 rookie season that even days ahead of signing with CGR had left him uncertain if his career in IndyCar would last beyond a single season. The 28-year-old Spaniard won that 2021 season opener and was off to the races, like he was this season. Unlike that debut campaign with Ganassi, or any major American open-wheel season of any kind since A.J. Foyt's in 1979, Palou would go on to win five of the first six races of the season, a feat matched only three times in the sport's history (Foyt in 1964 and '79, and Al Unser Sr. in 1971). And in only one of those spectacular seasons, Foyt's 1964 campaign, did one of those drivers ride their early hot streak to not only an Indianapolis 500 victory as well as a championship, as Palou has now done. It's the first time in 15 years (Dario Franchitti, 2010) that a driver has paired a championship with a chance to kiss the bricks in the same calendar year. Still with two races left, it's unclear whether Palou may match Foyt's all-time series mark of 10 wins in a single season (a record matched, but not beaten, by Unser Sr. in 1970). But already with eight victories, it makes Palou's 2025 season, and his six-year resume, already one of the best the sport has ever seen. Palou is now just the third driver to win three consecutive championships in series history, joining Ted Horn (1946 to 1948), Sebastien Bourdais (four straight in 2004 to 2007) and Dario Franchitti (2009-11). Along with Franchitti (2007 to 2011), who won four consecutive IndyCar championships in which he competed after taking 2008 off to race in NASCAR, Bourdais and Foyt (1960 to 1964), the Ganassi driver is also one of only four to win four titles in five consecutive seasons. The speed at which he amassed his four Astor Cups (six seasons) can only be matched by Bourdais, who captured four Champ Car championships in his first five years in the sport, albeit during the waning years of the split when his competition was a bit watered down and fragmented with drivers from Ganassi, Penske and Andretti all competing in the Indy Racing League full-time. To boot, Palou is only the sixth driver to even hit the four titles mark, and with just one more, he'd break ties with Franchitti, Bourdais and Mario Andretti and join just Foyt and Scott Dixon as the only drivers to reach five championships in major American open-wheel racing.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Portland wins Cascadia rivalry match against Seattle 4-2 in the NWSL
Reilyn Turner's goal put Portland in front in the first half and the Thorns went on to defeat the rival Seattle Reign 4-2 on Sunday in the National Women's Soccer League. The so-called Cascadia rivalry dates back to the NWSL's first year in 2013. It was the league-high 43rd meeting between the two Pacific Northwest squads. Despite temperatures that reached nearly 100 degrees, there were 21,811 fans at Portland's Providence Park for the game, the biggest crowd for an NWSL game this season. It was the second NWSL match of the day. Earlier the Chicago Fire drew 1-1 at home with Bay FC. With the win, the Thorns (7-4-4) remain undefeated at home this season with five wins and three draws. The Reign (7-5-3), who downed the Thorns 1-0 in Seattle earlier this season, jumped in front in the third minute, when Emeri Adames scored into the far corner after a through ball from Jess Fishlock. The Thorns were awarded a penalty when Turner was fouled in the box and captain Sam Coffey calmly converted it in the 18th minute. Turner put the Thorns in front for good in the 26th minute with a goal served to her by Jessie Fleming. After Reyna Reyes scored on a header in the 55th to extend Portland's lead to 3-1, Fishlock got a header for the Reign to pull a goal back in the 64th. Less than a minute later, the Thorns answered with Pietra Tordin's goal for the final margin. The six total goals were the most for a Cascadia match. Former Reign and U.S. national team player Megan Rapinoe and partner Sue Bird, who played for the WNBA's Seattle Storm, were among the fans at the game. Groom's goal pulls Stars into draw Shea Groom scored just before the half and the Chicago Stars played to a 1-1 draw at home with Bay FC in the National Women's Soccer League. Bay (4-6-5) jumped out to the lead in the 29th minute when Taylor Huff scored between the legs of Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. Groom scored her second goal of the season in the 42nd minute, Ally Schlegel intercepted the ball up the field then ran it forward, splitting two defenders on the shot. Chicago (1-9-5) is struggling with just one win this season, sitting second-to-last in the standings above only the Utah Royals. The lone win was a 2-1 decision against Bay FC in the San Jose, California, in April. Chicago forward Mallory Swanson, who is not playing this season because she is pregnant, was at the match. ___ AP soccer:
