The National Women's Soccer League

While 2021 likely wouldn't test Baird and the NWSL in the same way as 2020, the year promised to have its share of challenges to overcome, complex changes to navigate, and opportunities to seize.

Fans One big question: how to convert casual NWSL watchers to avid fans? As Baird noted, "Not only do we have to grow the fan base much bigger, but we need a deeper level of engagement". The league needed to draw as many people to their third, fourth, and fifth games as their first with its fans engaging not only at the team level but at the player level. Baird saw fan engagement extending beyond the United States. Women's soccer was gaining popularity in Central and South America, where fans could watch NWSL games through the league's streaming partner Twitch. With fan engagement in mind, league owners decided that the best way to kick off the 2021 season was with another Challenge Cup. This time, the tournament took place outside a bubble, and in home stadiums with updated medical protocols. From April 9 to May 8, casual and avid fans alike got more familiar with the league's teams and players before the regular season began on May 15. In an NWSL press release announcing the return of the Challenge Cup, Baird said, "We're ready to build on our success of the last year and I couldn't be more excited to open the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup presented by Secret the same way we left off in the summer of 2020, watching Houston and Chicago showcase the very best in women's professional soccer". As the league looked longer-term, what steps could it take to broaden and deepen its fan base?

New Teams, New Investors While a sign of success, league expansion would be challenging. The NWSL welcomed Racing Louisville and Kansas City for the 2021 season, and Angel City FC and Sacramento would join in 2022. The new teams would add up to 66 new players to the league, growing the number of players by 31%.

Beyond putting the league in the second biggest media market in the United States, Angel City FC brought a different type of ownership structure to the NWSL. Over 60 young, successful, mainly women, investors from the tech, sports, and entertainment industries, including Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, tennis superstar Serena Williams, and former USWNT legend Abby Wambach, owned stakes in the team.  With so many owners/investors, Angel City wouldn't be at risk of folding from the financial downfall of one investor.

The celebrity backers behind Angel City attracted several high profile women investors from the sports, politics, business, and journalism worlds to other teams. In early 2021, Chelsea Clinton, Jenna Bush Hager, and U.S. Olympic gymnast Dominque Dawes invested in the Washington Spirit, and tennis champion Naomi Osaka in the North Carolina Courage. The addition of more women in the ownership ranks was welcome. Reacting to Osaka's announcement, Baird tweeted, "Proud to have you join our boardroom! Women betting on women". Going forward, what role should the high profile women investors play as the NWSL grows its fanbase?

Relationship with U.S. Soccer It remained unclear how the relationship between the NWSL and U.S. Soccer would evolve following the league's official separation in December 2020. With U.S. Soccer stepping away, league leaders needed to define the fundamental governance of the NWSL. And with U.S. Soccer arguably the league's most complicated stakeholder relationship, Baird and league owners had to wonder: How can the NWSL build a new kind of partnership with U.S. Soccer that was mutually beneficial?

Allocation Money Teams could utilize up to $400,000 of allocation money for the 2021 season, up from $300,000 in 2020. In early 2021, the Portland Thorns signed USWNT players Lindsey Horan and Crystal Dunn to three-year contracts reportedly worth between $125,000 to $150,000 a year, marking the first time USWNT players had chosen to sign directly with the NWSL. Signing with the Portland Thorns gave both the players and the team a sense of a security and continuity. For Horan and Dunn, if they ever lost their spot on the USWNT, their salaries, healthcare, and benefits would not be affected as contracted members of the Portland Thorns. Meanwhile, the Portland Thorns would not have to worry about losing either player, at any point during or after the season, to teams outside the league. There was an additional upside for the Thorns. Because Horan and Dunn gave up their allocated status with the USWNT, the Thorns would have open spots to fill with new USWNT allocated players, effectively doubling the number of USWNT members on the team.  Dunn and Horan's contracts with the Thorns highlighted the difficult balance between wise investment and tight controls. Would their contracts be the first of many like them? As Liz Dalton noted, "We have to be very, very careful not to try and run before we walk... We can't be paying certain players millions of dollars and others $20,000. We have to maintain some of those controls".

Rebrand Baird would spend a large part of 2021 developing a new brand for the league, planning the launch in time for the league's 10th anniversary in 2022. As she explained, "The brands of the league and the teams live in the same environment and need to reflect our values and culture, and connect with a growing and even more diverse fan community". Baird planned to involve players, many of whom were helping refresh their team brands, owners, and fans in the process. But she remained uncertain whether the new brand would be an "evolution or a revolution". What brand strategy would lay the best foundation for the NWSL's next decade?

More Exposure Another big goal and challenge for Baird: broaden the media exposure of the NWSL. Baird was well aware of the role media exposure, or its absence, played in generating interest in the league and converting casual fans to engaged, avid fans. Broadcasters and the sports media faced pressure from players and fans to better measure the demand for women's sports and its value, in general. The traditional measures of success – television ratings, attendance, sponsorship dollars – didn't always fully or accurately capture fan interest and engagement in women's sports because so much took place through social media and niche online publications. But even by traditional metrics, the NWSL made remarkable strides during the pandemic. In 2020, the league succeeded in maintaining the momentum created in 2019 by the national team's World Cup win. Television viewership of the league's Challenge Cup and Fall Series games increased 493% over 2019 numbers, though this was largely overlooked by the mainstream sports media. The failure to appreciate that accomplishment appeared especially glaring since most major sports leagues suffered double-digit viewership declines. Social media mentions climbed 152% and traditional media mentions were up 55%.  For Baird, it was critical to keep growing exposure. How could the league capitalize on its social media strengths and convince traditional media outlets to cover the league more extensively and consistently?

Social Justice In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and killing of George Floyd brought issues of social justice to the collective conscience of many. The sports industry stood at an inflection point, figuring out what it needed to do and how it needed to change in response to race and gender-related inequities and police brutality. Leagues like the NWSL also needed to learn the best ways to use their powerful platforms. During the recreated 2020 season, the NWSL showed that it wanted to be a leader among professional sports leagues in supporting social justice, whether issues at stake concerned race, gender or sexual orientation. With higher profile leagues also eager to lead on the social justice front, how could the NWSL make an impact?