Despite Disappointing World Cup Showing, NWSL Continues to Grow Attendance, Increase Investments

The National Women's Soccer League is boasting increased attendance numbers, as the league gains the attention of viewers and investors. 

According to CBS Sports, the league saw more than one million fans pack stadiums during its most recent regular season, and a new single game attendance mark was also notched this year, when more than 34,000 filled Lumen Field for Megan Rapinoe's final regular season home game with the OL Reign.

The league is now preparing for a sizable crowd at Saturday's championship at Snapdragon Stadium to top off the season. 

Fully Eight of the NWSL's 12 teams set or equaled individual attendance records in 2023, while 10 teams saw their average crowd size increase from last year's numbers.

Part of the league's success has been attributed to better venues, as five teams upgraded their stadium situations in the last three season, including the Washington Spirit, NJ/NY Gotham FC, and the OL Reign, all of whom were NWSL originals.

The Spirit now calls Audi Field its home, a 20,000-seat stadium they share with the MLS' D.C. United. That's after splitting their time between the Maryland SoccerPlex and Segra Field, both of which only sat 5,000 fans. 

"We have a history of playing all over the place so it's confusing for fans, so it took a little bit of time to educate," Spirit COO Theresa McDonnell told CBS Sports. "We did a smaller media campaign in January and February just letting people know that … I think people feel, at least more locally near Audi, more affiliation to the Washington Spirit and more fandom to the Washington Spirit because we're here."

The move to Audi Field allowed the Spirit to target new demographics and expand their fanbase. 

"We know that they like to go out to eat together and for example, they like to go to brunch together, so we had an early game on a Saturday at 1:00 and we did a bottomless brunch promotion," she said. "Basically what they would probably have spent anyway going to brunch, they also got to have a really good time and be in a really good environment and watch an amazing soccer match."

Even after a disappointing showing at the Women's World Cup this year, the league continue to thrive. 

"Being honest, I don't think that the World Cup had the impact that it did in 2019," McDonnell said. "We sold out the match after they won the World Cup in 2019 and we're really proud of the numbers we had in August, September, October but they weren't close to that number."

Aside from an uptick in attendance, many teams have also seen ownership changes, with new owners open to investing even more in the league. 

Vice president of marketing for the Kansas City Current, Jocelyn Monroe, told CBS Sports that coming on as an expansion team in the league, they've seen a lot of growth. 

"Coming in as an expansion team, we were able to see what has been laid in growing the foundation of this league," Monroe said. "We're not only just a young team, we're a young league when you look across the landscape and really using the knowledge of what worked for other teams, where have there been challenges that we can get ahead of."

Clubs new and old are all looking to grow the league. 

"When Michele [Kang] took over the Spirit, we became a startup and it's one thing to work in a startup environment and another thing to work in a 10-year old startup environment," McDonnell said. "Last season, Michele kept texting me every single thing Angel City was doing, all wonderful things. … I think the advantage of the expansion clubs coming in is that we can learn from them, too, and we all have great relationships with each other and everyone's really transparent and we recognize that if we all do well, women's sports will do well and we all win."