Why The NWSL Could Be The Real Winner In Women’s World Cup

The United States is the odds-on favorite to win the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which kicks off in Australia and New Zealand Thursday. It’s not even close—the second and third choices to win, England and Spain, are going off at double the odds of the U.S., the two-time defending champion.

The far more intriguing question is similar to the one that surfaces every time the men play a World Cup and the U.S. team looks even slightly competitive, only the question has rarely been asked on the women’s side. It is: Can the homegrown soccer league build on the momentum of a World Cup to gain relevance?

Major League Soccer has struggled to do so in each of the U.S. men’s recent outings (to be fair, that squad is comparatively nowhere as good as the women, plus the last World Cup took place during American football season, not MLS season). But the National Women’s Soccer League could be up to the challenge.

Founded in 2012, following the folding of two previous attempts to create a lasting women’s professional league, the NWSL has proven more durable than both the Women's Professional Soccer and Women's United Soccer Association. It rolled out slowly and partnered with Nike, always a wise move for a sports league. It is the first women’s pro soccer league to last more than three seasons, and it benefited when forward Megan Rapinoe became a household name and commercially bankable superstar during the last World Cup.

“For the league, but also for the sport overall, there has been a seismic shift in how soccer is perceived in the United States,” says Julie Haddon, chief marketing officer for the NWSL. She cites the growth in attendance (the league set a new high for the season last year, albeit with two new teams joining the league) and better TV metrics (game viewership was up double-digit percentages over last year on CBS).

A league is only as good as its product, though, especially when coming off a big event like the Women’s World Cup featuring high-caliber play.

That’s why one issue for MLS has always been the perceived lack of quality of the league’s players. Any megastars usually join near the end of their careers, like David Beckham or Lionel Messi, while those at the top of their game stay overseas.

That’s not the case for the NWSL. As Haddon notes, more than a quarter of players participating in the World Cup play in the NWSL. “I think what’s exciting for the fans is that these players are incredible. The best players play here,” she says. In fact, that was the theme of the league’s season-opening marketing blitz, emphasizing that the marquee names in the league would also be the ones taking the pitch in the Women’s World Cup.

Things haven’t been perfect for the NWSL. The Athletic and The Washington Post uncovered allegations of abuse by coaches toward players that led to league executives losing their jobs. The NWSL banned several coaches and fined their teams over the incidents.

While certainly no league is immune to scandal—the NFL and NBA have weathered more than their fair share—it’s more damaging to a young league and gives it something to prove in the public’s eye. Haddon notes that the league worked with the players association on an investigation and implemented what she terms “meaningful corrective action.”

The NWSL will get exposure to its biggest audience yet over the next four weeks as league stars such as veteran Rapinoe, up-and-comer Trinity Rodman and reigning NWSL MVP Sophia Smith capture national attention. It’s a platform for women’s sports that rivals only the Olympics—the last Women’s World Cup final averaged 14.3 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, and millions more watched online.

“This is sport at its finest in America, and it’s our time to take our stage in the world,” Haddon says.