NWSL Enters Pivotal Season With Expansion, World Cup Boost

The 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup is going to thrust soccer into the U.S. sports spotlight this summer.

The NWSL is ready.

The league kicks off a new season Friday, riding the wave of strong momentum last year, with ample opportunities to hit new milestones in 2026.

“We’re intending to and expect to break records, as we have in every prior season,” commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters during a press conference at NWSL headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

The NWSL is coming off 22% growth in regular-season viewership from 2024, and a championship that set a new record for the league’s most-watched match with 1.2 million viewers on CBS.

Several of the NWSL’s brightest stars are making comebacks. In the offseason, the NWSL announced a new salary mechanism that—although contentious—allowed the Washington Spirit to re-sign Trinity Rodman and make her the world’s highest-paid women’s soccer player. Along with Rodman, the league welcomes back the other two members of the U.S. women’s national team, “Triple Espresso,” Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson, who were out last year with pregnancies.

Big Growth, Bigger Stakes

The league is adding two new franchises to become a 16-team league, officially doubling the NWSL’s size from its founding in 2013. It’s a homecoming story in New England, with Boston Legacy Football Club replacing the Boston Breakers, a founding team that folded in 2018. 

And the league will debut in the women’s soccer hotbed of Colorado, where Denver Summit FC has already sold enough tickets to set a new attendance record for a women’s professional sports game at its home opener. USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps will play for her hometown team starting this summer when her European contract ends.

The league plans to announce yet another expansion team this year, which, along with Atlanta, will debut in 2028.

It’s also a big year for the NWSL to test its media aspirations, with its current deal from 2023 expiring after the 2027 season. In September, the league announced expanded deals with CBS and ESPN, and added Victory+ as a fifth media partner. While league leaders say they are continuously talking with current and potential media partners, “this year will be important” for future negotiations, league COO Sarah Jones Simmer told Front Office Sports.

“When you see us deepen our relationship with ESPN and our new Sunday night series, or add Victory+ as a partner, this is us starting to test some of those fan rituals and behaviors, and understand how we engage different fans on different platforms, so that we can be even smarter when we are ready for our next media deal,” Jones Simmer said.

Riding the World Cup Wave

Perhaps nothing provides a bigger business opportunity in 2026 for the NWSL, or any soccer organization in the U.S., than the country hosting the majority of World Cup matches.

The tournament will cause some disruptions for NWSL teams; the Kansas City Current will be booted from their facilities as the Dutch men’s national team sets up base camp, Seattle Reign will play games in Spokane, and Boston Legacy will head to Rhode Island for home games.

But it will also allow people who love soccer, men’s or women’s, to discover the NWSL, Berman said. The commissioner said it’s intentional that the league is holding its Challenge Cup during the World Cup in Columbus, which is not hosting any matches, and will return from summer break as the FIFA tournament moves into the knockout rounds.

“There will be less tonnage, or less games, that are happening on the men’s World Cup side,” Berman said, “and give us an opportunity to occupy some of that space when there are still going to be millions of people paying attention to soccer in this country and globally.”