What one year covering the NWSL taught me

What a wild year it has been for the NWSL (and me, let’s be honest, ha!)

It was about this time last year that my former professor and mentor, Jody, contacted me about a passion project she wanted to get started. I’ll be totally honest here - I knew NOTHING about the NWSL. Sure, I played soccer in high school (ages ago, but who’s counting) and catch a few games here and there…but I was SCARED to take on this adventure with her (and another of her former students - Urvi.)

Fast forward a couple of months and we have a brand guide, a website and a social media presence. We’re days from kickoff and WE LAUNCH. I was giddy.

Ok, ok…enough about how we got started. Here’s what I learned over this past season:

NWSL fans are dedicated. Women’s sports are growing - and fast.
1. In case you didn’t see any of my blog posts this season about match attendance and tv viewership, records were broken. For the first time in league history, attendance topped two million, and we saw several sold out games. Things got even crazier for Championship weekend. Here’s a quick look at the records from the NWSL. (Shhh…we don’t cover them…BUT, another women’s soccer league also launched this year. We’re keeping a close eye on what this means for the NWSL in the years to come.)
2. Right now, the NWSL sits at 14 teams but expansion talks are happening. Boston has already secured the 15th team spot. Last month, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman announced Cincinnati, Denver and Cleveland are the three finalists to become the 16th team. (There’s a Caitlin Clark connection here - check out that article from ESPN!) Boston and the chosen team will start play in 2026.
Tiffany & Co. and the NWSL.
1. Did you know that Tiffany & Co. has designed four trophies for the NWSL? I didn’t, but I am IN LOVE - so take a look! (As our founder, I think Jody should hook us up with some Tiffany swag, right?!)
The ownership of NWSL teams is wild.
1. Want to take a look at what celebs are part of ownership groups of NWSL teams? Urvi covered that and we’ve seen a few additions throughout this season. (As a Red Raider and huge fan of the Mahomes family - I’ll highlight that Brittany and Patrick are part of the ownership team of the KC Current. Oh, and we may see Caitlin Clark’s name pop up in the future - see the #1 above!)
I want to be Temwa Chawinga when I grow up.
1. Is there anything Temwa can’t do?! She was SO IMPRESSIVE this season and so much fun to watch. She even went on to win league MVP. I’m excited to see how she impacts the league going forward.

Now, here we are, reflecting on the past year and what this passion project has meant to us. Honestly, Jody, Urvi and I met last night to discuss the future of NWSLines. We discussed whether we wanted to hang up our hats and call this a success or simply reevaluate how we cover the NWSL going forward.

GOOD NEWS! We’re not going anywhere! We’ve enjoyed sharing our thoughts and NWSL stories and stats with you this year and we’ll be back to do it again next season. We’ll spend the next couple of months simplifying some of what we do to make it easier for us and hopefully provide better content for you because of it. Here’s the thing - this isn’t our part-time job. We don’t get paid. We simply do it because we want to. When we get stressed out because we didn’t write enough blogs this week or we didn’t get the stats or standings posted quick enough, it’s no longer fun for us! So, we look forward to 2025 and continuing along this passion project journey with you guys!