Ali Krieger’s Day Part Of Record-Breaking Year Of Growth For Gotham FC

Sunday, October 15 looms as a huge day in the history of Gotham FC. New president Mary Wittenberg has big plans for taking the club to places previously unimaginable, just as she did with the New York City Marathon in her 17 years, including 10 years as president and CEO, of the New York Road Runners.

But with the sendoff match for Ali Krieger, 5PM ET on Sunday, October 15, likely to draw a significant crowd of a piece with the year-over-year attendance growth for Gotham — up 36 percent already this season — Wittenberg sees a business case for leading with love.

“What we want to show is that we have deep deep respect and appreciation for Ali Krieger as a legend, who chose after a multi-time U.S. Women’s World Cup national team presence, after playing for teams across the NWSL, to come here and play at the end of her career and finish her career here with Gotham FC. So the most important thing is that we show Ali a lot of love and businesses and brands will see that that’s the essence of the team that we are.”

Just a few years ago, Gotham FC was known as Sky Blue FC, and a crowd of 6000 was literally impossible, with the team playing at Yurcak Field on the Rutgers campus, and practically impossible. But the team plays at what many consider the finest soccer arena in the United States now, Red Bull Arena, and 6,000 isn’t aspirational — it’s average. That’s a 36 percent jump over 2022, and reflects more than just the leaguewide upward trend of 30 percent in this, a World Cup year.

Part of that progress is likely the result of Gotham leaning into the nature of the World Cup bump now familiar to U.S. audiences, one that reflects a World Cup in which the United States lost in the Round of 16, and featured stars across the world in undeniable proof that the breadth of talent in women’s soccer has grown dramatically.

“Our biggest opportunity is really increasing visibility,” Wittenberg said. “Because if you walk down the street, [you see] fans of the all the national teams who were just at the World Cup, whether it’s the U.S. or Nigeria or Spain, who won the World Cup or Ireland or Brazil, we have the players playing here who spent day in and day out with those teams… the real story this year was ‘whoa, this is a global game.”

The international approach has helped Gotham rise from last place in 2022 to playing a sendoff game with postseason implications. Honor Alie Krieger? A given. But win the match? Gotham FC can clinch a playoff appearance, something Krieger herself is laser-focused on.

Wittenberg said her goal for tickets sold was somewhere between 6500, which she said was the crowd for a match against the Washington Spirit, and Pride Night, when the team drew more than 13,000 fans. A spokesperson for Gotham did not provide an estimate of tickets sold as this story was published.

If there’s any damper on the weekend, it is that the match goes up against the New York Liberty’s Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at Barclays Center, with New York expecting a massive crowd as well at 3 PM. (One can watch both on television, but commuting to or from one means missing the other.)

Taken together, it looms as the biggest day in New York women’s sports history. And it should be taken together — Gotham FC and the New York Liberty inked a partnership shortly after Wittenberg took over as team president.

The link extends all the way through the organizations, with players on both teams friendly, and Wittenberg sharing an alma mater with Liberty CEO Keia Clarke — both are Griffins from Canisius.

“We have really personal relationships throughout the organization, but professionally, we all want to see the Liberty really thrive and they’re just crushing it,” Wittenberg said. But professional, too: she pointed out that CarMax
KMX
, for instance, sponsors both Gotham and the Liberty. Brands recognize the women’s sports moment, writ large, more easily when companies within the space share intel.

It all serves to elevate the women’s sports profile of the most popular sports in the nation’s largest market at a critical time. Gotham grew its profile in time to serve as a vital part of NWSL media rights, a reason NWSL was able to secure a deal last week that vastly increased the compensation it receives for media rights over the next four years. The WNBA is set to follow when its media rights deal with ESPN is up in 2025.

So as Wittenberg sees it, this wasn’t a job. It was a calling.

“There’s nothing easy about it,” Wittenberg said. “But that’s the thrill for us — is it’s such a clear vision and such a powerful purpose that that’s what drives all of us here and that’s how we ended up signing up. It’s not like comparing it to — people aren’t deciding, we’re going to this team or another team, right? You’re like, do I want to devote my life to this venture?”

And even within the framework of this surge across women’s soccer, Wittenberg sees Gotham’s place in it as insufficiently prominent thus far, though she stresses “this is early innings” — she did, after all, only take over as president officially in August. While she wouldn’t comment on Sportico’s NWSL team valuations, for the sake of discussion she added, “let’s say they’re generally correct”, and then asked a question of her own.

“Let’s assume that. Where would you expect the Gotham New York team to be? Much higher than ninth? Yeah. So it’s good, early stages to be in the middle. But that’s where we anticipate being.”