This season, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is experiencing major difficulties drawing live audiences to its matches; an issue highlighted by its stark disparity between television viewership and stadium attendance. Even with impressive television viewing figures (the NWSL final outperforming Major League Soccer (MLS) championship game) live match attendance figures have become concerningly declining over time.
Recently, Major League Soccer hosted over 26,000 attendees while its National Women’s Soccer League League Championship Game saw much lower turnout, drawing only 11,500. This discrepancy illustrates an issue within both leagues — an inability to draw fans consistently enough into stadiums; with crowd numbers for specific matches often falling below what had been anticipated by organizers of all kinds – that requires attention for league officials.
Highlighting specific instances from Matchday 23 of the NWSL season, even high-stakes matches struggled to fill the stands. For example, a game featuring the Portland Thorns attracted over 21,000 fans, indicating potential, yet other teams like Angel City FC and Gotham FC saw significantly lower turnouts, dipping to as low as 3,710 for the Chicago Red Stars. These figures prompted discussions among sports journalists about the declining trend in league attendances, despite some positive movements from a few clubs.
External factors such as inconvenient scheduling have been acknowledged as contributing to these challenges, suggesting that the issue may be complex. This trend is particularly concerning as it unfolds in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup, a period that should ideally see a surge in domestic soccer engagement in the United States.
With the World Cup expected to draw significant international attention and economic benefit, the current state of domestic league attendances presents a conundrum. Insights suggest that while international soccer is soaring in popularity, America’s home leagues are struggling to keep pace, raising questions about sustainability, marketing, and fan engagement strategies.
Notably, Major League Soccer (MLS) attendance numbers have seen an overall decrease despite new team additions; this downward trend extends to the NWSL as well, underscoring the need for introspection and action taken to revitalize America’s soccer leagues prior to hosting FIFA’s biggest soccer event this summer. As this country prepares to welcome this international tournament with open arms, its primary aim must be attracting record attendance figures as well as growing domestic game’s fan base and cultivating grassroots engagement within our domestic game’s fan base at home as the world event takes place this summer!
This situation necessitates an in-depth dialogue around how both NWSL and MLS can innovate more efficiently to engage fans more directly – helping promote soccer on domestic grounds as much as globally.