The Return Of U.S. Team Sports: Women’s Soccer Sets The Pace For Pandemic Play

Team sports return to action this weekend when the National Women’s Soccer League becomes the first U.S. professional league to resume play since the pandemic closures began in March, a pioneering test case for the scheduled return of the NBA, WNBA, MLS and MLB next month.

“If there was a blueprint for how to do this, no one shared it with me,” quips NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird, who was named the head of the league in February after the post was vacant for three years. “I wanted the NBA to go back first.”

Saturday’s face-off between reigning champions North Carolina Courage and the popular Portland Thorns will be the first in a month-long Challenge Cup played in Utah’s Salt Lake City suburbs without fans. Also missing will be some of the sport’s biggest names, including Christen Press, Megan Rapinoe and Tobin Heath, all members of the world champion U.S. national team who are sitting out due to the uncertainty around the coronavirus.

The Orlando Pride already had to pull out from the competition when six players and four staff tested positive for coronavirus during the league’s mandatory testing regimen, which required two negative tests before traveling to Salt Lake.

The Challenge Cup is modeled after international-style tournament play, with a season’s worth of play crammed into one month, a structure agreed to by team owners and the players’ union without issue. A panel of 15 physicians helped develop testing and safety protocols while Baird also arranged with mothers in the league to bring their children to the city as well as caretakers, if needed, and allowed any player to opt out without any repercussion and full salaries and benefits for the year.

Getting the game back on its feet was no small challenge, especially for a commissioner just three months in as head of a league that is just beginning its road to independence. The former U.S. Olympic Committee executive and CMO of New York Public Radio took a seat vacated by the former commissioner in 2017 and assumed control of a sport that was struggling, including conditions so deplorable at Sky Blue FC that two players declined their draft picks to avoid it.

Since its inception in 2013, the league operated under a management agreement with U.S. Soccer, which pumped in $18 million to keep it afloat. The sport did get a boost in 2019 when the U.S. Women’s National Team, led by Rapinoe, won the Women’s World Cup. Morale grew and attendance rose 22% ending at 792,409, a new season record high. 

A day after she took charge, Baird signed a landmark 3-year deal with CBS, which will pay $4.5 million for the rights to air league games on network TV for the first time, as well as a separate rights deal with streaming platform Twitch to reach an international audience, and a multi-year sponsorship with Verizon. Procter & Gamble’s Secret brand was brought in as the Championship Cup’s presenting sponsor. Today Google
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joined as a partner; teams will use Google Meet to host virtual cheering sections for their hometown fans.

“I can’t think of anything that could have made it more challenging,” Baird says of shutting down the leagues two days into her job. “But I came in because I believe there’s an appetite for the women’s game, I believe in our style of soccer, and I want to be part of the momentum going forward.”

She won critical support from local real estate developer and Utah Royals team owner Dell Loy Hansen, who proposed the state as a bubble location. Hansen offered stadiums and training fields used by the Royals and his MLS Real Salt Lake teams, one of his nearby hotels for lodging, and jets to fly several teams into the city. He also donated $700,000, worked with the state’s governor, sports commission, and health and business leaders to find additional housing and get testing measures on-site, and got the city of Herriman, home of the tournament’s Zion Bank Stadium, to kick in $100,000 to help defray costs.

“I wanted to help create enough discount and support so we could make it net neutral for teams,” says Hansen. “I didn’t want to see women’s soccer take a step backwards. Their success has been hard won and this is a huge chance for women to continue to make breakthroughs in equality.”

Still, challenges linger, with coronavirus cases on the rise in parts of the United States, including Utah, and a shortened season that will also bring much lower revenue than expected at the start of the year. Royal’s Chief Business Officer Andy Carroll hopes each team can make up for some of their lost ticket sales with advertising, tapping Navigate Research to identify seats that were the most highly visible in past TV coverage and putting sponsorship banners on them in place of fans. Each NWSL team was given a spot to pitch local sponsors, which will be seen on every broadcast, even when they aren’t playing. 

Eight teams participating in the tournament, their staff, caretakers and Baird landed in Salt Lake City Wednesday. They were tested again and systematically moved to their “protected environments,” as Baird prefers to call the bubble, which include their own dedicated elevators, living and dining facilities, recreational areas and transportation. The only time teams will meet each other will be on the pitch, while having no guarantees that the tournament environment will remain safe enough to complete. 

“It was not an easy thing to ask players to commit to doing this, but it’s easy to remember the health and safety of the players and staff will remain our top priority here,” Baird says. “Ultimately, we are working hard to develop sponsorship, broadcast, and a license business for the long-term, so we can increase pay and expand. This tournament and how we all came together is a strong step in that direction.”

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