Remember that visibility =/= attendance. That's specifically why I focused on the playoffs in my post. People are well aware of the teams even if they aren't attending each week. (Special events in general, like this new Cup, will get people that don't go weekly.) Also, the previous year of LMFX playoffs drew better than last fall. Besides, even if LMXF gets about 1/5 of what NWSL does on average, it's still a top three league worldwide for average attendance - only FAWSL exists between NWSL and LMXF, and there's a big drop to #4 after that. (In fact, LMXF outdrew FAWSL for most of the two's existence, with FAWSL only recently seeing an attendance bump.) That's not "nearly invisible" by any means.
Did it? From what I'm seeing the Fall of 22 was a major outlier for them. Spring 23 averaged 12675 and that was inflated due to the 2nd leg of the final have 58156 show up, meaning the first 13 playoff games averaged 9177. Fall 22 saw a 19298 average for the playoffs. Spring 22 saw 10065 with 40462 for the final, so the first 13 averaged 7727. Being top 3 isn't impressive when the numbers are so low. There's certainly room to grow, but if nobody is watching most of the time then the league is nearly invisible even if they're doing better than others. A few of the teams still only have Facebook broadcasts in Mexico and 7 have no US presence at all.
NWSL re-launched it's website recently. I'm not sure I like it, or at least I'm having to re-learn where to find info on it. (I still haven't found some of the info that I look for...)
The website redesign is brutal. The worst part is there's almost always one of the live games whose score isn't being shown and you have to click the back arrow to see it. I forgot NC and Seattle were playing just now because going to the website had that score off to the left as if it was a finished game.
Speaking of merchandise, Not all players have a Barbie doll with their number on it https://www.oregonlive.com/portland...sinclair-gets-her-own-custom-barbie-doll.html
NWSL renames its end-of-season Community Impact Award after Lauren Holiday: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5515283/2024/05/23/lauren-holiday-nwsl-community-impact-award/
The sale of the Reign has officially gone through. They are now majority-owned by the Carlyle Group, with the Seattle Sounders as minority (and managing) owners, and Sounders-majority-owner Adrian Hanauer as new Reign chairman. The Predmores sold their portion of the team a while ago, but Tony Parker still has 3% of the team in the new deal. https://www.sounderatheart.com/2024/06/seattle-reign-sale-sounders-carlyle-complete/ https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40365403/seattle-sounders-group-seattle-reign-purchase In related news, the sale of the Wave is apparently ongoing with a "two part-transaction" (instead of completed in march as previously reported) with a value between $113 million and $120 million. For reference, the Reign's sale now was "just" $58 million, which itself is an insane ROI for the OL Groupe's original $3.5 million purchase several years ago.
Portland appealed Smith's bench-red-card, and not only did the league deny they appeal, they deemed it "frivolous", which in rulespeak means that Portland now cannot appeal any red card until 2026! https://equalizersoccer.com/2024/06/18/nwsl-denies-portland-thorns-appeal-of-sophia-smith-red-card/
I did not know there was a rule on attempted time wasting, as distinguished from time wasting. Can anyone find the rule? I can't, although it may be somewhere.
I know the article explicitly mentions an "attempt at time wasting", but after all wasn't it, at least in some measure, a successful attempt? And anyway, couldn't the YC actually have to do with sportsmanship? Actually I am not sure if "unsportsmanlike conduct" is mentioned in the rules ad a YC worthy infraction, but I guess so.
From Law 12, bold mine: Referees must caution players who delay the restart of play by: appearing to take a throw-in but suddenly leaving it to a team-mate to take delaying leaving the field of play when being substituted excessively delaying a restart kicking or carrying the ball away, or provoking a confrontation by deliberately touching the ball after the referee has stopped play taking a free kick from the wrong position to force a retake
If you read this carefully, the bullet points apply only if the condition in the opening phrase is met: "...players who delay the restart of play by: ...." This means that the player must have delayed the restart of play. So an attempted delay that in fact does not delay does not violate the rule. I wondered about this, because it appeared to me that Smith retrieved the ball and gave it to Muller as soon as Muller was ready to receive it. Maybe there was a delay of a second or two. I guess technically that would fit within the rule. But I am not sure play would have been able to begin any earlier if Smith simply had not touched the ball at all and instead allowed it to roll where it wanted. Maybe this point was made in the initial appeal and the decision was there was an actual delay. I would love to see the written appeal decision. But whatever the decision on that point, given the specific language of the rule and what I observed on the video, it seems unlikely to me that the appeal meets the "frivolous" test. But then, I am a retired attorney who specialized in drafting and interpreting rules, some of them very technical and complex.
I would interpret it as those bullet points being considered inherently delaying actions. To give a caution for this offense, the referee must immediately determine that the caution is deserved and show the card. If she waits for the restart to happen in order to verify it really gets delayed, then at that point it's too late to give the caution. As for what Smith actually did, Muller was walking toward the ball and about two strides away from it before Smith touched it. Smith grabbed the ball and put it behind herself under the bench. At that point Muller was standing right where the ball used to be and had to wait a beat for Smith to retrieve the ball (possibly a different ball?). It wasn't a huge amount of time, but it was an action that served no sporting purpose, and it made it more difficult for the active participants in the game to do a timely restart. IMO also the threshold for deserving a caution for delaying tactics should be lower for non-participating personnel, who really shouldn't be doing anything that affects game play. If they are helpful by getting the ball to a throw-in quicker, fine, but anything that skirts the line, they should just not be doing it at all.
I've bolded the problem with your assertion here. Even you have admitted that Smith delayed the restart of the game. There is no time frame requirement in the rules, just that there was a delay in the restart by carrying the ball. If you watch the replay, Smith grabs the ball and pushes it under the bench. As a player on the bench, there is no reason why she would do that other than to delay restart of the game. Could the referee have let it slide? For sure, but there is a lot less tolerance for players on the bench interfering with the game, so its understandable why the referee had zero tolerance when they may have been more lenient for a player on the field.
2024 championship details have been announced: CPKC Stadium, Saturday November 24th, 8pmET Not a bad choice IMO, but sad that it's so attendance-limiting. But it's the current crown jewel of NWSL, plus if you wanted to pick a stadium of a team likely to win the Shield, ORL doesn't draw well yet and WAS already hosted recently, so that leaves KC.
CNBC is reporting that Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay are close to buying Angel City FC for a $250M valuation. That would make Angel City far and away the most valuable women's sports team on the planet.
Side note I was just made aware of: this year's Shield leaders have more points at the season's summer break (ORL, 38pts, 16g/26) than last year's Shield winners earned overall (SD, 37pts, 22g)
Temwa Chawinga (KC) has won PotM for June, following Barbra Banda (ORL, May) and Bia Zanaratto (KC, March/April)
MLS taking ownership of NWSL? Can confirm the MLS offer for NWSL and WPSL rumor is mostly true. Been confirmed by 4 separate sources at this point.— Dan Vaughn (@THEDanVaughn) July 14, 2024
A representative from the #NWSL denied a report that there is a “standing offer” for MLS to purchase the NWSL (via @THEDanVaughn), saying there’s absolutely nothing to the rumor.— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) July 14, 2024
Alright, I replied in the expansion thread before seeing these posts, but based on the above, it looks to me like MLS made an offer looking at the women's leagues as an investment - probably seeing how much the two leagues are poised to continue growing. Read another way, they're cold-calling an offer now because they know they probably won't be able to for much longer by being priced out. The fact that NWSL is shutting down the talk tells me that they didn't solicit the offer and they aren't entertaining it at all, probably because MLS is trying to "get in" to the investment opportunity as low as they can. Not to mention that a quick Xitter search seems to suggest that no one (outside of maybe the MLS offices) thinks this is a good idea for any parties involved.