By STEPH YANG The Athletic
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In its first year of operation, the National Women’s Soccer League live-streamed its games for free on YouTube.

Audio and visual quality were comparable to trying to watch a video being sent from 10 years in the past, announcing felt cobbled together, and the product looked exactly like what it was at the time: a low-budget effort.

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Watching the first video available on NWSL’s Youtube page, a Chicago Red Stars vs Seattle Reign game from April 14, 2013, is like watching a combination home video and Blair Witch Project recreation that happens to be set at Benedictine Sports Complex. The value of the rights to these games was a pittance; NWSL’s broadcast deal was limited to six regular season games and playoffs on Fox Sports 2.

That year, the average NWSL attendance was 4,270 over 88 total games. The Portland Thorns led the way, averaging over 13,000 fans per game while turning Providence Park into a sold-out fortress. On the other end, Sky Blue FC (Did your brain insert Mariah Carey saying “I don’t know her” here? I sure hope it did) averaged 1,664, a number which did not improve tremendously over the next six years. Total attendance for the season was 375,763.

In 2024, in the first year of a four-year, $240M domestic broadcast deal, the league has arranged to air at least 118 games, complemented by weekly studio shows across CBS, Amazon, Scripps (ION) and ESPN. Attendance has already surpassed 1 million with half of the season left. And the Chicago Red Stars, once a member of the sickly average attendance club, set a new NWSL attendance record with 35,038 at their Wrigley Field game in June.

Per the league, as of June 27:

Steph Yang took a closer look at the numbers…

As of July 5, nine teams of the 12 that played in the 2023 season are meeting or exceeding last year’s average attendance.

The obvious discrepancies here are the Reign’s 40% drop in average attendance and the Red Stars’ 71% jump. Both these teams benefited from huge single-game attendances.

In 2023, the Reign had two games at Lumen Field that dragged their average higher: 42,054 against the Portland Thorns on June 3 and 34,130 against the Washington Spirit on October 6. The June game was a doubleheader with the MLS team Seattle Sounders, while the October game was Megan Rapinoe’s last regular season club game. Without these two games, the Reign’s average attendance was 8,169, which is on par with their current average attendance.

The Red Stars are in an inverse situation; they didn’t have any big swing attendances in 2023, peaking at 8,961 on September 17 against Angel City. But in 2024, they broke the single-match attendance record — held by the Reign for the Rapinoe retirement game. Without that attendance, the Red Stars averaged 3,863 fans through July 5, a 20% drop from last year.

Of course, there’s an entire second half of the season and you’d expect at least a moderate bump after every team’s Olympians return home, especially depending on how those Olympians did. No better advertising than being able to say “Come see Olympic gold medalist play at our stadium.”

The obvious poster child for great attendance is the Kansas City Current, who have sold out every game so far this season. That’s easier to do when your capacity is 11,500, compared to teams like the Wave (capacity 35,000), Angel City (22,000), the Thorns (25,218), or Bay FC (18,000). But considering the Current launched in 2021 with an average attendance of 4,861 playing at Legends Field, before eventually moving to their own purpose-built venue that they’ve now sold out for months in a row, don’t discount the 11,500.

The top three teams by average attendance — Wave, Angel City, and the Thorns — are seeing either dips or marginal gains, but Angel City and the Thorns in particular are operating at a high percentage of seating capacity, meaning they’re filling their stadiums. The swing between their attendance highs and lows isn’t that huge compared to other teams; through July 5, the Wave’s attendance high was a sellout at 22,000 and the low was 16,735. The Thorns’ high and low so far were 21,025 and 16,688.

Compare that to the Wave, who have a strong average attendance, which has swung between a 32,066 high and a 10,289 low. Or the Royals, who have swung between 20,370 and 7,491. Average attendance is just one metric; consistency in ticket sales matters and being able to predictably fill seats is a cornerstone of building a fanbase.

At the bottom, there’s reason for concern over the North Carolina Courage and the Houston Dash, both of whom haven’t really grown their audiences over the years.

In 2023, the Courage had the second-worst average attendance of 12 teams, above only the Chicago Red Stars, who went through a tumultuous season due to an ownership change.

Even now, clawing back fans from their post-Covid-19 (and post-Paul Riley allegations) dip, the Courage still has the lowest average attendance in the league at 5,652 through July 5, operating in a 10,000-seat stadium. The Courage has seen stunning success, including golden years like the Crystal Dunn-Sam Mewis—Debinha—Lynn Williams championship era.

The Houston Dash has similarly hovered around the same number for years. Getting 4,650 average attendance in their first year of operation, the second year of the league’s existence, actually produced the second-highest average attendance in the league, behind only Portland. But last year’s 5,857 average was the third-worst average attendance of 12 teams.

Some clubs are starting to get left behind as NWSL has entered a high-growth era of investment and expansion. In a few years, when the league is sitting at 16 teams and perhaps has a moment to take a breather and settle down, where will teams like the Courage and the Dash be?

Given the league’s overall growth, it would be a shame to see any kind of contraction or franchise move because they couldn’t make the market work, or worse, didn’t or couldn’t make an adequate level of investment. One of the league’s main attractions is its parity; last year’s loser can be this year’s champion with the right vision. To a certain extent, that also means teams keeping up with the average rate of growth in the league so that they can be competitive on salaries and amenities for players and staff, and can add to the overall attractiveness of the league for national sponsors and broadcast deals.

This league has come a long way from local families hosting players and below-minimum wage salaries and Blair Witch Project live streams. That’s not an argument for relentless growth; NWSL going to 16 teams and then pausing on expansion sounds like a great way to find some stability and avoid an endless hustle to find ever-richer investors. But for a rising tide to lift all boats, the boats have to be seaworthy.