Boston’s Record NWSL Debut Comes As Women’s Sports Boom

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Women’s professional soccer is back in New England, and the new NWSL expansion team is debuting at a time when women’s sports have never been bigger.

Boston Legacy FC drew more than 30,000 fans to their 1–0 loss to Gotham FC at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, marking a new NWSL record for an inaugural home opener. The Legacy record will stand for two weeks until fellow expansion team Denver Summit FC has its home opener, which has already sold more than 50,000 tickets.

The Legacy and Summit are the NWSL’s first expansion teams since Bay FC and the Utah Royals in 2024. In the two-year interim, interest in women’s sports and the business around them has exploded.

NWSL expansion fees tripled. Trinity Rodman signed the league’s first seven-figure contract. More teams are committing to dedicated practice facilities, and viewership and attendance are climbing.

Boston and Denver are arriving at the ideal time to tap into the existing momentum in women’s sports and the untraditional fanbases they attract. 

“We’re not sports fans in general, to be honest,” Lauren from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood told FOS at the Legacy match. “We’re a fan of women. And we think there should be people and spectators watching women’s sports. And even though we’re not fans of men’s sports traditionally, we’re still happy to support this team.”

Fans like Lauren highlight a dynamic that Golden State Valkyries president Jess Smith explained to FOS in an interview last year. Smith said that her organization, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008, targets a specific subset of fans who might not care about basketball or sports at all, but are “pouring into all things women’s sports” because they “align with their personal values.”

Aleksandra from Boston’s South End neighborhood told FOS at the debut match that she wasn’t big into sports growing up, but says she now loves women’s sports. She said she got into women’s hockey while in the student band at Northeastern University, a powerhouse in the sport. Aleksandra wore a jersey and captain’s hat from the PWHL’s Boston Fleet at the NWSL match, with a newly obtained Legacy scarf around her neck.

“I’ve been with the Fleet from day one, and I was really excited to see the Legacy come in,” Aleksandra said. “I was never really into soccer, so I’m excited to experience it. I’ve never been to a pro soccer game. This is my first game of any type going to Gillette.”

Fans of all kinds are hungry for women’s sports in Boston. The WNBA’s Connecticut Sun sold out TD Garden twice in the past two seasons, and Boston is among the competing bids to buy the team. The Fleet sold out an upcoming game at TD Garden in April. Boston also has professional women’s teams for rugby, lacrosse, and American football.

The Legacy are the NWSL’s second attempt at a Boston team. The Boston Breakers were one of the league’s founding franchises, but folded in 2018 amid financial strain. Commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters before Saturday’s match: “It’s hard to imagine a professional women’s sports league in the U.S. not having a team in Boston.”

The landscape around women’s professional soccer in the U.S. is entirely different from the Breakers final seasons a decade ago, when the team averaged about 3,000 fans per match at Harvard University’s Jordan Field.

For Missy from Somerville, Mass., a former fan and volunteer for the Breakers, watching the Legacy with 30,000 fans at the Patriots’ home stadium was “surreal.”

“It’s incredible to see the growth of women’s soccer’s growth across the nation, but then also for people to be excited to be in Boston, too, and to have a professional women’s soccer team,” Missy told FOS at the match. “The jump scare from Jordan Field to Gillette Stadium is kind of crazy.”