How NWSL Plans To Maximize Growth In 2023 Season, A World Cup Year

As National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman heads into year two at the helm, she’s got plenty of changes to navigate, from expansion to a television deal to the implementation of vital reforms aimed at making the league a safe place to work.

Yet the executive isn’t content merely to manage these challenges, as she made clear this week in an availability with media to mark the beginning of the NWSL’s 2023 season on Saturday, Mar. 25.

“It creates a level of motivation for me that extends beyond what might otherwise exist, because I want to ensure that I actually am delivering the value that I’m here to achieve,” Berman said. “…What goals exists for me to be able to over deliver for our constituents internally and externally? And so those are the kinds of questions I have and continue to ask myself to make sure that we’re leveling up the league and raising the game to be able to allow for the NWSL to reach its highest potential.”

The measurables heading into this season are visible everywhere. Berman pointed out that season ticket sales, league-wide, are up 20 percent already, year-over-year, from 2022.

The consequences of that are clear. The league’s newest salary cap has increased to $1,975,000, up 25 percent from just last season, and includes $600,000 in allocation money. Teams are also able to take forward unused allocation money from last season, providing extra flexibility for the teams who plan ahead.

It’s all meant a race, both to add outside talent as NWSL sides are able to compete with international offers, to a steady diet of “youngest player ever” signings, the latest coming from the San Diego Wave.

This broke the record held by Chloe Ricketts and the Washington Spirit for… about three weeks.

Every part of this progress brings eyeballs, of course, and Berman said that viewership on Paramount Plus for the league was up nearly 30 percent from 2021 to 2022, with the championship up 70 percent, thanks in large part to that CBS timeslot.

As the league plays out the 2023 season with CBS, actively discussions over the next television deal are going to set the Berman legacy in fundamental ways.

“The conversations we’ve had have been robust,” Berman said. “There are many interested parties in the media landscape… we are looking at it holistically, we’re looking at it both from a domestic as well as international perspective, when we think that there are some really interesting opportunities here and overseas to consider. As we think about growing our brand globally and really claiming our spaces the best league in the world, we want to make sure that we provide opportunities for fans to see our games, anywhere in everywhere.”

Berman hopes to have an answer by this summer, she said. But in the meantime, CBS will broadcast the earliest linear NWSL game yet, on April 1, and plans another primetime NWSL final, no surprise given the ratings success of last year.

If that all seems like a lot, well, Berman doesn’t have to do it alone — the NWSL has doubled its league staff heading into the 2023 season, too. A World Cup year beckons — historically a time that women’s soccer sees waves of new fans crest. Unlike the previous versions in 2015 and 2019, the league looks prepared to capitalize.