The National Women's Soccer League
The National Women's Soccer League
As a management consultant, I've worked in a lot of industries, to try to turn around and help
a lot of businesses. This is the hardest business I've ever been close to by leaps and bounds.
We're not just growing a business; we're changing a culture and waiting for culture to
change. This is a generational change.
– Arnim Whisler, Owner, Chicago Red Stars
On April 15, 2020, Lisa Baird, commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), joined
a call with a number of other U.S. professional sports commissioners including the National Football
League's (NFL) Roger Goodell, National Basketball Association's Adam Silver (NBA), Major League
Baseball's (MLB) Rob Manfred, the Women's National Basketball Association's (WNBA) Cathy
Engelbert, and Major League Soccer's (MLS) Don Garber. President Donald Trump led the call.
A few weeks earlier, the coronavirus, which caused the COVID-19 disease, achieved pandemic status
and forced many U.S. sports leagues at the collegiate and professional level, including the NWSL, to
postpone or cancel their seasons. The health risks to players, coaches, referees, fans, and the wider
community, were too great, and there were many unknowns.
The purpose of the call: Give each commissioner an opportunity to update President Trump on actions
taken to save their league's respective seasons, preferably seasons that included live fans in the stands.
Besides the entertainment provided by professional sports, tens of thousands of jobs across the United States depended either directly or indirectly on the sports industry, including people who worked in/or
with stadiums, concessions, ticket sales, licensed goods, area restaurants, and hotels.
New to the ranks of sports commissioners, Baird now led a league where eight of its nine teams ranked
among the top 20 in the world. Still, Baird had not been included on the first call with sports leaders
that President Trump hosted on April 4, an omission that did not go unnoticed in the Twittersphere
(Exhibit 1). Baird rectified the situation by calling the White House and speaking to Andrew Giuliani,
special assistant to President Trump and son of Rudy. Baird introduced herself and asked to be included
on the next call.
Exhibit 1 Twittersphere Reaction to President Trump’s First Commissioners Call
And here she was. When it was her turn to speak, Baird began by thanking Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for the government loan that came out of the Paycheck Protection Program. "I set it right out there," recalled Baird. "I said, 'Thank you, Secretary Mnuchin. I really appreciate that'". Unlike many other professional leagues, the NWSL was not a multi-billion dollar enterprise and the loan enabled the league to pay its players' salaries and health insurance. After expressing gratitude, Baird explained to the participants on the call that the NWSL planned a phased-in return-to-play approach. Phase 1 was individual training either at home or a field, Phase 2 was small group training, and Phase 3 was full team training. Teams could only move on to the next phase if they met a list of medical criteria, driven by negative COVID-19 tests. Trump commented that he liked her plan.
The league's phased-in approach illustrated Baird's determination to assemble a season of some sort
for the NWSL. She worried that if there was no season to speak of in 2020, the 8-year old league's
survival would be threatened. Others shared her concern. As Portland Thorns FC defender Emily
Menges noted, "I do worry. Every player knows how precarious this league is. It is scary to think
about".
While there was a lot to worry about, Baird began to wonder: if the NWSL successfully navigated the
crisis, could the pandemic end up creating opportunity for the league?