East Region Referees Congratulations to the referee crew for the NWSL Final: Referee: Ekaterina "Katja" Koroleva AR1: Jennifer Garner AR2: Katarzyna Wasiak Fourth: Anya Voight Reserve Assistant Referee: Tiffini Turpin VAR: Kevin Broadley AVAR: Maggie Short Katja returns from the Women's World Cup to lead the NWSL Final crew. She, along with highly experienced ARs Jennifer Garner (third NWSL Final) and Katarzyna Wasiak (2022 NWSL Challenge Cup, NWSL Playoffs) and rising star Anya Voight (NWSL Challenge Cup Semifinals). Tiffini Turpin, one of our newer FIFA Panel Assistant Referees, has worked the 2023 Challenge Cup Final and did 20 regular season games this year. Kevin Broadley has field experience as a long time PRO II referee and NWSL / MLS VAR. Maggie Short has also been a stalwart on the NWSL field, now taking charge of the final as AVAR.
Whoa, this is a gigantic mess to decipher. Here's the new NWSL TV deal-o-rama. https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/nws...bs-sports-espn-prime-video-and-scripps-sports
I wouldn't mind the games being on multiple platforms if if was simulcast stuff... You need to have at least one platform where you can watch the majority of the games. I guess we'll be waiting to see how NWSL's in-house platform will work. (I know ION is technically over-the-air, but I don't think it's common to access.) I'm somewhat indifferent to the playoff expansion. If you're not going to do exactly half, I guess slightly more than half is better than slightly less, but eh.
ESPN & the @NWSL reach a multiyear media rights agreement beginning with the 2024 season⚽️ English, Spanish & Portuguese-language rights in the U.S. & Latin America⚽️ 20 games per season, all available on @ESPNPlus in English & SpanishMore: https://t.co/9UEzL0FzQj | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/aPxe3N0Wqe— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 9, 2023
Is that the same programming as the regular channel? I thought the FAST services got a channel full of the VOD content that ION has.
Emina Ekic going back to the club where she was sent on loan and where she broke her ankle: Melbourne City FC in Australia. I'm guessing this time it's a permanent move though since she signed a 2 year deal.
In the Live TV section there's a channel called ION. I'll leave it to another time to verify it's the same as the broadcast network.
I checked earlier today and it looks like it's the same. Same episodes of Hawaii Five-O tonight. The interesting part is the Tubi feed has programming overnight that's different than the infomercials that air on the local station and the YouTube TV feed.
It's the same Ion. I watched WNBA games on it this past season since I can't pull in the local Ion affiliate on antenna where I live.
Not-so-small bummer about the new TV deal: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38884681/big-nwsl-championship-sign-where-league-go (The overall article is great, lots of fun stuff and good information, but this above point was what I felt deserved a highlight - er, lowlight?)
Interesting look at 2023 attendances: https://equalizersoccer.com/2023/11...p-but-the-gap-from-top-to-bottom-is-widening/ The big point of the article is that we can't use single one-off games as true evidence of growth unless teams can learn to make those games more regular occurrences.
Gotta Doom-and-Gloom it somehow. Pfumpf Not even 5 years ago, we'd be thrilled, ecstatic, astounded, to hear Sky Blue was averaging 5 or 6,000 fans per game, as they are now (rebranded as NJ/NY/Gotham/ whatever)
Good news: NWSL will break for the Olympics Side note: apparently NWSL will host their own international tournament (I assume for clubs, not NTs) during that time
I should've just gone to the NWSL site instead of relying on FB... Here are the details we know so far about the international tournament: Yes, it is for clubs, and holy heck is it gonna be a big tournament if it's gonna include at least all 14 NWSL clubs - I can't imagine it'd be "just" 16 clubs since that would mean only 2 international participants.
Profile of the owners of the new Boston club, written by a former colleague of mine: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2023/12/14/boston-womens-soccer-partners/
Sounds like the next season's MLS schedule will drop this Wednesday, so people will start asking about the NWSL schedule pretty soon I guess if those MLS stadium dates are set.
How much do the Red Stars and Wave have to work around the rugby teams at their respective stadiums or do they get first choice of dates?
No clue. I thought Red Stars were #1 at Bridgeview after the Fire left, and the Wave now #3 after the school district and MLS team, so I think WoSo comes before rubgy at both, but I honestly didn't even know rugby was at either location.
The sale of the Thorns is now final. Price: $63m New owners: RAJ Sports (Lisa Bhathal Merage will act as lead owner for the Thorns) As a reminder, Thorns have a lease agreement to stay at Providence Park through 2035, so moving is and always was off the table. More details for those who subscribe: https://theathletic.com/5177529/2024/01/03/portland-thorns-bhathal-nwsl/
Another detail of the sale that I find annoying.. The Merritt's $1m fine was linked to the sale of the Thorns. So, while the sale price is $63m, $62m goes to Paulson and $1m goes to the league. I'd much rather Paulson had to pay the fine earlier so there was at least some measure of pain for him. Further: An #NWSL source confirms that the $1 million fine to the Portland Thorns (under Merritt Paulson/Peregrine Sports) that was issued in January 2023 was collected by the league via the closing of the Thorns sale. The fine money goes to league systemic reform initiatives. https://t.co/oIFJUq1sBc— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) January 3, 2024
Bombshell News: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/nat...nces-competition-updates-ahead-of-2024-season The salary cap is DOUBLING this year ($1.375m to $2.75m) and Allocation Money is being phased out by 2026