NEW YORK — Next summer’s Women’s World Cup is shaking up the NWSL’s calendar, forcing the league to start its season earlier than ever.
The solution? Go to the Super Bowl.
On Wednesday, the league announced its 2027 regular season will kick off in Los Angeles on ESPN three days before the Big Game. Super Bowl LXI, which will also take place in Southern California, will be the first to air on ESPN (in addition to being simulcast on ABC).
“We have intentionally, again, seeing the success we’ve had about leaning into the halo of the men’s World Cup, using that same thesis for next year,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters Wednesday during a press conference at league headquarters in New York. “We will be working closely with ESPN to make sure that the NWSL is woven into the weekend’s stories.”
Berman’s comments come in reference to the strategy the league used amid the men’s World Cup in North America this summer. The NWSL returned from a break during the knockout rounds, and sold out the New York Mets’ Citi Field for a match between Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit four days before the World Cup final in New Jersey.
The 2027 season will be the last under the NWSL’s current media deals with ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime, and Ion. Last week, the league dropped its partnership with Victory+ due to a lack of payments, according to The Athletic.
In response to a question from Front Office Sports, Berman said the NWSL has exclusive negotiating periods with its current media partners, and already meets with them for both annual and midyear reviews.
“All of our broadcasters have expressed their continued enthusiasm and excitement for the product and all of the opportunities and milestones in the future,” Berman said. “This will obviously be top of the agenda for the next six to 12 months as we’ll look to really map the future of what our broadcast landscape will look like in ‘28 and beyond.”
Berman said the “most important and active workstream” heading into media negotiations is figuring out which weekends the NWSL can use to carve out new tentpole events—which they could then fold into broadcast deals—such as a potential All-Star Weekend. That heavily depends on the international calendar that forces the NWSL to break for its players to join their national teams. The commissioner noted that the next 12 to 18 months will be “critical” as FIFA extends its international match calendar, which is currently mapped out through 2029.
“We very much understand the need to work with the ecosystem,” she said, “and want to make sure that as the place where we are responsible for the daily training environment of these players, that there’s appropriate allocation of weekends to be able to grow the business.”
According to Berman, the league is having its best-ever median attendance so far this season with 10,031 fans, and a second-highest average attendance of 11,174 fans. Merchandise sales are also up. Compared to the first half of last season, NWSL Shop sales are up 178%, and first-week jersey sales across teams increased 77% from last year.
