What did I learn?

I've been intrigued by Ashley's reflection of what she learned during 2024 and have been mulling over that simple question for weeks: What did I learn?

Overthinking that question was easy until I realized that sorting my answers into a few key areas might help me answer it in a shorter blog than anyone wants to read. So, here are the primary things I learned about the league, about hosting a blog and developing sports information in this millennium and finally about what kind of content NWSL fans want.

About the league:

It's thriving. It's exciting.

It is economically viable and on solid ground with new leadership. The promise of the NWSL continuing to grow, thrive and succeed is about the surest thing in sports I can think of right now. Yes, that's even with the new USL Super League. There's a lot of talent out there.

When we began this little venture we were committed to providing content that could help newer fans understand the sport better and part of that goal was providing information about where new converts could find good media coverage of it.

It turned out there are a lot of those people out there. Each team has at least one dedicated, clever and talented "stringer" providing excellent coverage of their local teams. (Stringers - that's what they used to call the journalist who covered a region as they cobbled together a living reporting on a lot of sports).

Those folks and the outlets that hire them should be followed on social media and the site "The Equalizer" is a worthwhile small subscription price to pay to get excellent coverage on all things women's soccer.

Hosting a blog and developing sports information in this millennium:

In reviewing our site metrics we learned that our most popular content was the weekly stats pages and I personally believe that was for a few media-type follower's convenience. Sports information at its best.

But those stats were originally started because when the 2024 season began the NWSL website frankly didn't do a very good job of updating what this old sports information person considers the bare minimum. Information like, who scored the goal, who assisted and when was that goal scored?

So I set about using a Google folder/doc system and cranked out the info the old fashioned way each week, by typing it up on a new document and linking it.

Somewhere in about the second or third month of the season the need for that all changed when the league unveiled a new format for hosting statistics on their site, which can be accessed from the schedule page. There, a person can click to their heart's desire to find the details they need.

Still, and I'm sure this is a nod to my father teaching me at an early age that once you start on a team you may not quit until the end of the season, I continued to place a deadline on myself to have those pages updated on Mondays. It turns out, I was often faster than the team's sports info people were at posting what I needed, so that entire process flat wore me out.

(Yes, let's be real, it's also that I'm older than I was when I used to do that kind of work with gusto and have an often more-than-full-time real job to attend to, as do my NWSLines.com partners.)

So, for 2025, we will feature a weekly "wrap up" section in our Bloglines and I will happily summarize key details from weekend's matches, rather than stress all the details.

What kind of content do the fans of the NWSL want?

To answer that question, I turned to a few year-end reviews and publicly available data.

According to the league's website and associated metrics, these were the 5 stories covered and consumed most on mass or social media from the 2024 NWSL season.

Record-breaking viewership:

The 2024 NWSL Championship match averaged 967,900 viewers, marking the league's most-viewed match in history. And, the NWSL Skills Challenge became the most-watched NWSL event ever with 1,537,720 million viewers. Recaps of both those events were popular.

Orlando Pride's historic double:

The Orlando Pride won both the NWSL Shield and the 2024 NWSL Championship, becoming the first professional sports team from Orlando to win a major league trophy. They set league records for most points, wins, and clean sheets in a season en route to those honors, and the pre- and post- game stories were well liked.

Soaring attendance:

The NWSL's 2024 season attendance topped a record-breaking 2 million fans through the gates. Notable events included a historic game at Chicago's Wrigley Field, which set the record for the highest attendance at a single NWSL game with 35,038 spectators and anytime a story that focused on the sport's popularity was published, it was read.

Landmark media rights deal:

The 2024 season was the first under a new media rights agreement valued at approximately $60 million per year, placing about two-thirds of the games on various television networks and streaming services, and those details were popularly followed in media outlets. (Oh, and I also learned what ION was, which was a fun adventure to find each week.)

Expansion and growth:

The league introduced two new expansion teams in Utah and the San Francisco Bay area. Additionally, the Kansas City Current opened the first venue built specifically for a women's pro sports team and media outlets and viewers, alike, were interested in the matches that were held there. As the league continues that growth, coverage of those cities (Boston and Denver are in) will likely continue to be shared.

Other top reads/views:

Crossover content from the NWSL to coverage of the USWNT at the 2024 Paris Games and the players who competed there were popular. (Should I type "Duh" here?)

The Washington Spirit's Trinity Rodman with her signature "Trin Spin" (a move that makes defenders look foolish) was the player fans most consumed content about (on both traditional media and social media platforms, the spin is best consumed via video).

Reportedly by them, the Athletics' No. 1 story regarding the 2024 NWSL season was its kit reveal coverage, with subsequent love/hate opinions expressed by authors and fans in comments sections alike.

Yep, in the end, fans love to love or hate the apparel and the merch and the notion that "revealing" the kits isn't actually sports news or a newsworthy event is as old fashioned as keeping a paper copy of all the stats from week to week!