The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) feels like a league that’s near its tipping point. With each new headline; like 500% increased ratings in 2020, new investors into the league, and two new teams joining in 2022 Los Angeles and Sacramento; it doesn’t seem like there’s much getting in the league’s way. Let’s start with Analyzing NWSL Sacramento and the League Silence.
Even as bigger names in the sport like Tobin Heath, Sam Mewis, Christen Press, Rose Lavelle, and Abby Dahlkemper; move their trade to the English FA Women’s Super League, and Hermann Trophy-winning Stanford senior Catarina Macario opting to play with Lyon in France over the NWSL; the good overwhelmingly outweighs the not-so-good.
A Friday afternoon men’s Major League Soccer (MLS) press release, published just before eight o’clock on the East Coast, may turn into the league’s first not-so-good.
Ron Burkle, the primary investor in both the NWSL and MLS Sacramento 2022 expansion teams, decided not to continue with his investment in a new MLS expansion, citing COVID-19 as the reason. The Athletic’s Meg Linehan reported that right now, there are no signs of it impacting NWSL Sacramento.
Does not sound like we will get a #NWSL statement tonight on Sacramento — but based on the phone calls I’ve had with a number of folks around the league, general sense is that this might not affect their expansion efforts on the women’s side.
— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) February 27, 2021
The silence on the league’s side could mean a few different things. First, that everything with the NWSL expansion is actually still on track. There have been moves made by NWSL Sacramento already. Specifically, bringing in two-time World Cup-winning United States Women’s National Team coach Jill Ellis as a front office hire for work on both the men’s and women’s expansions. Also, the Athletic has reported that the NWSL Sacramento group has already made payments to the NWSL for their expansion.
Another way to look at it is that Burkle and the investment group haven’t made a decision on the NWSL side. While there is a drastic expansion price difference between the leagues. Equalizer soccer reported that post NWSL Challenge Cup, the NWSL expansion fee rose to $2 million. On the MLS side, Forbes reported that Burkle and Sacramento investors paid $200 million. They could be considering their next move in sports investment. If this is the case, a lack of a statement from the NWSL; in the almost 24-hours post, MLS announcement makes sense.
A final theory is that the NWSL could be considering if they want to continue with Sacramento and Burkle, even if Burkle wants to keep his investment. If the league sees an understandably negative reaction towards the abandoned investment; they could want to steer clear to avoid backlash to the league. It may be difficult to convince a city with an established soccer community to continue supporting someone that didn’t feel that they could do the same. Losing the MLS investment has already resulted in a statement from Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg; that they’re hoping to continue their pursuit of Major League Soccer.
If the worst-case scenario of Sacramento losing their team comes to fruition; it doesn’t mean that the league will start spiraling. They have shown since their founding in 2012; that they can weather through storms and this looks worse for Burkle’s business acumen than the league.
Due diligence on addressing the situation can be expected when there are discussions involving moving around millions of dollars, however, they shouldn’t wait too long. If their silence is dragged on for a while; it could cause concern to grow in not just Sacramento supporters but future investors.
Follow me on Twitter @1ThomasCostello. And check out Beyond Women’s Sports for more articles on amazing women and their sport.
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