The National Women's Soccer League
The Fans
The NWSL fan base ranged from diehard supporters to young soccer players and their families to spectators curious about the league after the USWNT's successes in the World Cup. After the women's 2019 World Cup win, the league's game attendance was up 22% for the year and 58% post tournament.
In general, when it came to the collection of data about fans, women's sports lagged behind men's
sports. Women's sports also faced outdated ideas about fan interest, notably that male fans did not care
about competitions that featured female athletes. While Nielsen statistics from 2019 showed that 84%
of general sports fans were interested in women's sports (and men represented 51% of that number),
coverage skewed heavily toward men's sports. In the United States, women's sports received 4% of
sports media coverage. Putting that disparity in more critical terms, Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim
Whisler said, "It's embarrassing to think of the decisions in boardrooms that have prevented women's
sports [from getting more exposure], particularly the best women's team in the world, the best country
for women's soccer in the world, to have not pushed this the way they're pushing professional cornhole
on ESPN". Cornhole, a lawn or bar game where players toss bean bags toward a board with a hole for
points, earned coveted Saturday afternoon viewing slots on the cable sports network. The lack of media
exposure given to women's sports, including the NWSL, created a sense of disrespect among avid fans
and barriers to entry for more casual fans.
Another issue: the way women's sports historically marketed themselves. In the early days of the
NWSL, teams heavily targeted young soccer players and their families. The teams positioned their
players as role models and saw the youngest generation of female soccer players as their fan base of
the future. But that strategy had limitations. Commenting on the young girls who asked for her
autograph after games but didn't know her name, now retired NWSL midfielder Joanna Lohman said,
"I love having them there, and I love that they want my autograph, but there's not that diehard interest
that you want in your fan base". Players knew that diehard interest came more from young adult fans
or, at least, fans who could buy tickets and drive themselves to games. Or, in the case of London-based
NWSL fan Gen Williams, fly themselves to the United States and travel by Greyhound bus to games.
When the league's official Twitter account asked fans "Tell us you love the NWSL without telling us
you love the NWSL," Williams responded with a spreadsheet from a U.S. trip to see several NWSL
games. (Exhibit 4)
Exhibit 4 Gen Williams Travel Itinerary for NWSL Games, October 18-22, 2020
While NWSL fans traveling from Europe constituted outliers, avid supporters of the league did travel
long distances to attend games. Commenting on the reach of the NJ/NY Gotham FC, formerly Sky Blue
FC, the team's general manager Alyse LaHue said, "When we look at our heat maps of where our fans
come from, to come to our games - it extends very wide. We're well into Pennsylvania, well into
upstate New York. We've had fans from Vermont come down. This is a really wide footprint that we
have and we recognize that". Prior to the pandemic, game attendance varied widely from team to
team. In 2019, while the Portland Thorns led the league with an average attendance of 20,098 fans per
game, that number was nearly double that of the second-ranked franchise. The teams at the bottom of
the league in attendance drew a slightly more than 3,000 fans per game.
As the NWSL matured, its most devoted fans looked to social media and niche, online publications like The Equalizer for league information, player updates and analysis. One journalist described NWSL fans as "passionate about the league, dedicated to its growth, and extremely online". Another noted: "If I'm going to look up something about women's soccer that I don't know, honestly, sometimes my first stop is still Twitter". Market research conducted for the NWSL showed that 75% of the league's fans follow it on social media. The most engaged members of the fan base formed a small, but vocal group online and, as one fan explained, that group "wants to see the sport grow, and knows people care".
Many of the league's most devoted fans joined team supporter groups. During games with live fans, the supporter groups could be found in specific sections of their home arenas, cheering, chanting and drumming. The supporter groups also created passionate online communities through social media. Members of the groups often saw each other as a "second family". When asked about the goal of the official Houston Dash supporter group, the Bayou City Republic (@BayouCiyRep), the group's leader said, "To provide a space where fans can be crazy, super fans and passionate about Houston Dash soccer. We're an immediate community when you need one. Soccer has been a space we've all turned to when we move somewhere new". The supporter groups and other diehard fans provided a supportive, welcoming space online and in-person. On social media, the NWSL's most engaged fans could be funny, sarcastic, reverential and critical. They advocated fiercely for the game they loved. They also kept broadcasters, news outlets and the league accountable.
The NWSL's distinct fan culture developed, in part, from a lack of coverage, attention and respect for women's sports from mainstream media. It wasn't always easy to find matches on television or game statistics or deep dives into team strategy. Fans took pride in challenging preconceived notions about women's sports and women's soccer. As one fan of the Chicago Red Stars noted, "There are a lot of people who have this disdain for women's sports, so there's a kind of 'us against the world' mentality. We want to create this different world, a world we want to live in". Whisler echoed the fan's assessment, "It's hand-to-hand combat to grow fans in women's sports". The relatively small size of the NWSL made it even more challenging.