As the regular season resumes, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has an opportunity for a breakout moment after an all-time high following the United States Women’s National Team’s (USWNT) gold medal run at the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. After the team’s impressive run, NWSL’s fan base has increased and fans are anxious to find out how the NWSL will compete with the Women’s Professional League in Europe and keep up their newly-found winning streak.
After the Olympic games, the Washington Spirit entered the season with six Paris Olympians and a gold medal. The Spirit dropped their new campaign in May 2023 titled, “That’s The Spirit,” which brought much-needed attention to both the Washington Spirit and the NWSL. This campaign investment exemplifies owner Michelle Kang’s commitment to revolutionizing women’s sports. Kang is just one owner who hopes to take the next step to make the NWSL the most preeminent sports organization in the world. Spirit even introduced new marketing strategies, including picturing the team on local pizza boxes. Since the Paris Olympics, the league has gone through one of the greatest game attendance bumps in league history, surpassing one million attendees with half the season remaining.
In the wake of this success, the league set its eyes solely on European football as its biggest competition and the NWSL is looking at European soccer leagues as a model to uplift their own league.
In 2023, the average attendance for a Union of European Football Association (UEFA) Women’s Champions League game hit five figures for the first time, a 100% increase in just four years. The incredible growth of the Women’s Champion League is a result of the “The Time for Action” strategy set in place by the UEFA five years ago. In 2019, the UEFA created a plan “dedicated ‘to championing, innovating and accelerating women’s football,’” according to UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
Major changes occurred on August 23, 2024, as the NWSL and its players association announced a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), controlling the terms of the players’ employment within the league, and allowing players to determine which team is best for them. The agreement will be in place through 2030.
There have been a lot of changes to the league, but eliminating both the college and expansion drafts will change the entire game. Teams can now bid for talent globally, and some of America’s best players like Alex Morgan and Abby Dahlkemper previously signed with European teams professionally. When they signed, the no-draft CBA was not in place, forcing them to choose to sign with European teams instead of American league teams. Since the draft doesn’t structure European teams, players such as Morgan and Dahlkemper got paid the free market value of their talent.
Now that the CBA opened this tactic to the NWSL, they hope to keep players in America.
Due to the draft, player trades would often occur without the players’ consent. Additionally, because of the CBA, all players can become free agents when their contracts expire.
The commissioner of the NWSL, Jessica Berman wrote about the CBA in an email to The Athletic.
“The resulting CBA gives us long-term labor peace, alignment with global standards, and control over our business,” she said. “All of which will enable the NWSL and our players to work together to build the league for the future.”
These new changes allow the league to compete with the European League on a level playing field.
This model is similar to soccer leagues worldwide, and these new changes allow the league to compete on a level playing field with the European League. The new changes will also create more opportunities for female professional footballers to grow their careers and allow American fans to watch the best talent on the planet play in their own domestic league.
