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national-womens-soccer-league/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>national Women’s soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman said she foresees a day with 30 teams in the competition. When that day will come and how the league will get there were details she could not share.
Berman spoke to media on Thursday, when the NWSL officially unveiled Denver as its 16th market, to begin play in next year alongside another expansion team from Boston. The NWSL commissioner has recently been bullish on the league’s ability to expand further — and potentially quickly given the growing interest.
“We also have as a guidepost the other professional leagues, in particular the men’s leagues that are in and around 30 teams, and we see no reason we can’t be that size,” Berman said on Thursday. “How, when, and where we go will be a work in progress, and something that we’re discussing with our board, who, as you can imagine, are very ambitious and aggressive in their growth plans. And so we’ll continue to analyze what makes the most sense for the NWSL moving forward, and we’ll likely have more discussions and news to share sometime in 2025.”
The NWSL has expanded rapidly in recent years, growing from a nine-team league in 2020 with minimal presence on the West Coast, to a 16-team league in 2026 that includes three franchises in California.
Expansion fees and franchise valuations have increased exponentially in that same time period. Expansion has gone from roughly $2 million to a new record set by the group in Denver, which will pay $110 million to enter the league.
Franchise valuations in team sales have grown from $3.5 million in late 2019 to the new record of $250 million set in the sale Angel City FC in 2024.
The additions of Boston and Denver also add major media markets to the NWSL’s profile as the league tries to grow its geographic footprint and attract more sponsors.
“Because of the approach we’ve taken with expansion, we really have an opportunity to understand and assess the demand,” Berman said. “And that demand is quite clear, and is a huge opportunity for us from a growth perspective, and absolutely informs our strategy as we go forward.
“We also know that we have a very large team geographic footprint in our country, and that we occupy just a small slice of those DMAs [Designated Market Area; size of media market] that really can and should have the opportunity to have professional women’s soccer in their communities.”
Denver was awarded the league’s 16th team over competing bids from Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Many general managers (or the equivalent) expressed concern over expanding too quickly when asked in soccer/story/_/id/41089452/nwsl-gm-survey-league-execs-draft-uswnt-rule-breaking-more” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>last year’s anonymous ESPN survey (conducted by this author). Only one person thought 30 was a good number to expand to, with nine of 14 respondents saying that 24 teams or fewer is the right size for the NWSL.
In comparison with professional leagues in the united states, as Berman referenced, the NFL and NHL have 32 teams each, MLB has 30 teams, the NBA is home to 30 teams (with one located in canada), MLS has 30 teams (with three in canada) and the WNBA has 13 teams, with two additional teams set to join in 2026. The USL Super League, another Division 1 women’s soccer league in the U.S., is home to eight clubs.
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