The United States’ professional soccer teams for men are still in the middle of their “Soccerwarz,” and the same mistakes and lack of leadership from the US Soccer Federation are making things the same for the women. The NWSL will be joined by a brand-new separate women’s football league this summer. It will be called the USL Super League. Ladies’ […]
The United States’ professional soccer teams for men are still in the middle of their “Soccerwarz,” and the same mistakes and lack of leadership from the US Soccer Federation are making things the same for the women. The NWSL will be joined by a brand-new separate women’s football league this summer. It will be called the USL Super League.
Professional football for women has been suffering since the start of the first pro leagues in the US and other countries in the 2000s. After three years, the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) both failed. With the NWSL’s 12th season coming up in 2024, things are finally getting stable. But things are about to change. In August, the USL Super League will join the NWSL at the top of the American women’s football grid.
Two different D1 football leagues playing against each other? That can only happen in the United States.
The “Soccer Wars” are coming to women’s soccer.
There has been a lot of fighting in American football leagues for as long as there have been teams. In the 1920s, the ASL and the US Soccer Federation went at it. It was the NASL vs. the USSA in the late 1960s. Many lower division wars have been fought over the years. The most recent one was when the NASL broke away from the USL in 2011 and lost that battle.
Now Major League Soccer is moving into the lower divisions and is a threat to USL. In the 2010s, Major League Soccer helped USL beat its foe.
But up until now, things have been pretty smooth on the women’s side, at least as far as fierce competition between teams goes.
All of that will change soon, when the USL Super League becomes a division one league in the US and joins the NWSL.
When USL tried to get division one approval, it could be said that they started this front in the football wars. The Super League was first introduced as a Division Two league. It will now be on the same level as NWSL on the grid.
Even though the NWSL has had a good start of more than 10 years and a lot of star power, this move must have made them a little uneasy.
NWSL and USL Super League are going head-to-head.
The USL plays in the autumn and spring, while the other league plays in the summer. However, they will be directly competing for fans, owners, staff, players, and markets. In some places, teams from the two different leagues will be pretty close to each other.
There is only one area with teams in both leagues. That is Washington, D.C., home of the NWSL’s Spirit. But teams from North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, and Washington will play in both leagues. And Florida has a lot of people. Since 2016, the Orlando Pride have been the only professional women’s team in the state. Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale will, however, have teams join the Super League in 2024. Jacksonville and Palm Beach have also been named as possible future expansion teams.
Another interesting fact is that North Carolina and Louisville, two USL men’s organisations, run teams in the NWSL. Are they ever going to try to move up to the Super League? Keep an eye out for it.
As the women’s game continues to grow, potential owners will have two leagues to choose from, and both will likely try to get some of them.
Super League hasn’t said how the games will be shown yet, but USL’s men’s leagues have a new deal with CBS Sports. Of course, CBS is also a partner of the NWSL. It will also be interesting to see how things go with the TV side.
Will fans have to choose a team? Will fans stick with the league? Fans will have to make tough decisions about how to spend their money. I’ve had that Larry David GIF stuck in my head ever since the USL-SL Fort Lauderdale club was announced. I’m a huge football fan for both Fort Lauderdale and the Orlando Pride, so I see a lot of football.
We can’t both live in this country. Is that right?
Would people in the US want another professional women’s league?
Think about what’s going on in the rest of the world. In Europe, the best leagues for women’s football all have between 10 and 16 teams. Not for the USA, though. Each one is for a different country that is much smaller in size and people than the USA.
And the United States has without a doubt the best and most developed system for women in high school and college anywhere in the world. There are plenty of players, and once they graduate from college, they don’t have many choices either. The Super League will not have a college draft like the NWSL does. This could mean that players have more options for where they want to play.
When you add the NWSL and the USLSL together, you get 23 clubs, which is enough for a whole continent. It’s a different matter whether fans or watchers show up for more WoSo. But the rest of the world is coming up to the USWNT. If we want to stay at the top of women’s football, we need more clubs and more chances for players to stay at home and play at a high level.
Getting it all in order
The biggest problems are with logistics and running the government. For example, it doesn’t make much sense for five competitive teams at the same level to all play in Florida, but for four of them to play in the winter and one to play in the summer without ever playing the other four.
In this case, it would be good if US Soccer had better leadership and more direct organisation.
Also, the women’s tower could have been put together much more easily than the men’s, where sides are already set in stone. That’s especially true when you think about how the USSF ran the NWSL until not long ago. The men’s lower division game also had a chance to play in the USSF Divison 2 Pro League in 2010, but in 2011 the Federation gave back control of the prison to the inmates.
A simple, federation-run pyramid of divisions where new teams can just sign up to play in the league system would be much better than separate leagues that compete with each other. Unfortunately, that’s all we have.
It will be very good for the game in the future if these rival leagues can play against each other in other events.
A world where we work together?
If everything goes as planned, two division one women’s teams will play next to each other almost all year. In outside events, this means that both leagues must be represented equally as D1 leagues.
In the future, Concacaf might put together an event like the Champions Cup for women. The US’s spots in such an event would have to be split between the NWSL and the USL Super League.
Then there’s the chance of a U.S. Open Cup for women. With division two and three games coming up and a lot of amateur and semi-pro women’s clubs, it seems like a no-brainer to put together an event like this.
As we know from the recent fight between the MLS and the USOC, any American professional league is required by the Professional League Standards to play in all USSF and Concacaf competitions. And yes, that paper does talk about a Women’s U.S. Open Cup by name.
The NWSL and Super League teams would have to be placed the same if it happens. This event might be a fair way to see who gets to play in any future continental games.
Then when do you play it? Since the teams play at different times, it might be hard to find time to play a cup.
In any case, neither NWSL nor USL-SL should be happy living in their own little worlds. People who want to challenge themselves in open competition should be praised. And if they don’t, the games’ governing bodies should make them.
Times will be interesting from now on.
It is great that there are more clubs and more job possibilities for players, coaches, and staff in the game. End of sentence. Also, seeing how a Fall-Spring league works in this country will be very helpful for the game. It will be hard for the women’s game, though, as we move forward. Things aren’t easy like they used to be.
We hope that the chaos we’ve seen in the men’s game when leagues fight with each other doesn’t happen in this new area.
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