This past weekend had the opening fixtures of the National Women’s Soccer League, now in its 13th season as a USSF-sanctioned Division I league.
It’s a league which has great competition, many successful players, and good atmospheres at the 14 stadia that host franchises.
But I’m going to be doing a lot of scoreboard-watching this year. Why? The entire financial and management strategy of the league changed since the last NWSL title was handed out. Gone is the college draft, and in comes an era of total free agency amongst the players in the league.
And no, this isn’t like Major League Soccer where players are theoretically owned by the league. In the NWSL, from your first game to your last, you have agency as to where you are going to play. This puts the onus on front offices and financial people to attract and recruit players, some as young as Mak Witham, who appeared in three games for Gotham FC as a 13-year-old last summer in the NWSL/Liga MX Summer Cup.
Witham is a home-schooled athlete who has played exclusively club ball, and got into last weekend’s NWSL league game for Gotham, which has pretty much transformed its roster from last year, allowing players to leave in free agency and trading others.
I will be looking closely at the league table to see which clubs are winning and losing; and whether they are doing the necessary work to invest in their players and get the right ones. There are going to be 14 separate stories played out in 2025, and I think there are going to be a couple (I’m looking at Portland and Gotham) which could give cautionary tales as to how to run an NWSL side in this envronment.