NWSL is reviewing final bids for an expansion franchise

The league plans to announce an expansion site later this year.

The National Women’s Soccer League is in its home stretch and has apparently identified a number of markets that the league and Inner Circle Sports will now evaluate during the process of awarding an expansion franchise sometime between October and December. Investors in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Minneapolis-St. Paul want a team. Other contenders could come from Atlanta, Denver, Jacksonville and Nashville, where local groups could be interested in buying an NWSL franchise. Whoever ultimately gets a team will pay significantly more than the teams’ owners did when the league was founded in 2012.

The NWSL has 14 active teams and has a Boston team waiting in the wings. The league is looking for another market to join Boston in 2026. In November 2023, league commissioner Jessica Berman said there were “more than a dozen qualified investor groups from various markets across the U.S. that are extremely interested in the type of investment.” There is no clear favorite in the race to create an expansion team to get.

It’s been a long road for professional women’s soccer leagues in the United States. The thinking in 1999, after the US women’s national team won the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, was that it was time to create a league. It seemed women’s soccer had found the right combination of financial support with the formation of the Women’s United Soccer Association in 2001. The WUSA had the 1999 players and solid support from the cable television industry, including ESPN, Turner Sports and PAX Net. The WUSA couldn’t attract a crowd to fill the stands or watch games on TV. It was dissolved in 2003. Women’s professional football started in 2009 and was abolished in 2012. The NWSL began play in 2013 and has struggled throughout its existence.

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