The players don't get paid very much, so a team can make those numbers work. The owners seem to have learned some hard lessons from the failure of the previous leagues. There is a very bad ownership situation in New Jersey, which is an embarrassment to the league, but most of the teams seem committed to doing things right and building for the future.
The Portland, Orlando and Houston NWSL teams are all partnered with their MLS counterparts. I don't know if there is any financial support involved -- as there is with the WNBA, which is a subsidy stepchild of the NBA -- but there do seem to be synergies of marketing and branding that benefit the women's teams with partnership deals.
I live in DC. The Spirit play most of their home games at the SoccerPlex in Germantown, which is about four zipcodes out of DC (at least it feels that way). It is monumentally inconvenient to anyone who does not live in Montgomery County. My circle of friends got used to the drive when our kids were playing travel soccer; the SoccerPlex is a former dairy farm turned into a soccer mecca, and the stadium sits on a loop drive with over 20 immaculate grass fields all lined up. In season, it's a hoppin' place, and travel teams in this area will end up playing there a lot.
That said, it is a very cozy, clean, attractive small stadium that seats about 5,500 (including the kids on blankets on the hill behind one of the endzones -- something 'ya don't get to see much anymore in the NFL or MLB). It is small enough that there are no bad seats. A small crowd fills it up nicely and a crowd of 4,000 or more feels electric. It's just an all-around nice stadium experience as well as a relatively cheap ticket. The Spirit played one home game at Audi Field (next to Nats Park on the waterfront) last year and will experiment with two this season. A bigger stadium and more convenient location might do wonders for attendance. (Plus they're playing well this year, after a miserable two year rebuilding slump.)
I've never been to a minor league baseball game, but I'm guessing the NWSL has some similar dynamics in terms of the stadium/attendance synergies. As long as the operation is right-sized, smaller numbers are ok. I would urge the soccer fans on this thread to check out a game or two. There is some good soccer being played, and it's a cheap ticket. It doesn't hurt to give it a try. The league also has a better television contract this year, which can only help in the long run. To make it a success, however, will require one big change in U.S. sports culture: women and girls will have to start buying tickets, instead of relying on their husbands and boyfriends to pay for everything. Women can't expect women's professional sports to succeed unless women support it themselves.
P.S. There are no soccer hooligans in NWSL stadiums. There are too many U-10 to U-13 girls' teams around for anyone to even think of misbehaving. It's really a bit of a throwback to the days when dads could regularly take their kids and their kids' friends to a baseball game without taking out a second mortgage.
And players line up after the game to sign autographs. As I said, it feels like a step back to an earlier era when the sports culture, and a lot else besides, was healthier.
I live in DC. The Spirit play most of their home games at the SoccerPlex in Germantown, which is about four zipcodes out of DC (at least it feels that way).
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In the WPS days, Washington Freedom represented DC area. Abby Wambach was on the team. Sawa, who used to be the captain of the Japanese national team, was also on the team.
You are right about women’s sports needing more support from women...
It is not just some guys who find women’s sports uninteresting...Many women agree with them...