Fan engagement, merchandise and tifos – what WSL can learn from NWSL

As the lights went down on Barcelona’s famous Champions League win back in May, the biggest question in my head was “What now?”. For the first time in two years, we were looking at a three-month football-less gap. Yes, the Olympics were on the horizon but without the involvement of Team GB, opportunities were limited.
Our eyes immediately turned to the US. There was little surprise from friends and family when we announced that a busman’s holiday was the only real solution to the problem of having time off. The NWSL has been a source of interest for years. A visit to Angel City on our return from last year’s World Cup gave us a taste for the league and left us with a desire to learn more.
While the WSL has grown immeasurably so too has domestic football in the US. When I was young, many players headed stateside, first to the renowned college system before heading into “Women’s Professional Soccer”, the then pro-league that folded in 2012. From here the NWSL was born and, despite encountering some obstacles, the league is thriving. The money involved is eye-watering. Whether it’s expansion side Bay FC breaking the world transfer record twice, Bob Iger and Willow Bay’s recent acquisition of a controlling stake in Angel City for $250m (£191m) or the $60m-per-season multiyear broadcasting deal, there is no doubt that it is enjoying growing success.
With the Women’s Professional Leagues’ takeover of the WSL and Championship this summer, it seemed the perfect opportunity to explore everything the NWSL has to offer from a fan perspective. We embarked on a five-week tour, visiting six stadia, watched 10 of the 12 teams, enjoyed our first tailgating experience and had conversations with multiple fans. What did I learn from our experiences? What would I like to see implemented back home? Were there any surprises?
The thing that is immediately apparent is that the US excels at hosting sport. From football to baseball to basketball, organisations prioritise the event as a whole and the spectators who walk through their gates. Over a million fans had attended NWSL games by July and it was clear to see why. Some do it better than others but all-in-all the fan experience is incomparable to anywhere I have visited in Europe.
Their success comes from providing multiple hooks to invite people in. One of these is the range of merchandise and accessibility to it. Sports fans love to spend money but when I look at the WSL, it has been historically difficult even to get a shirt with a women’s player on the back. My eyes lit up on entering the Portland Thorns’ Providence Park store where every sort of hat, scarf and t-shirt adorned the rails for supporters to purchase. On visiting the Snapdragon in San Diego, I bought a home shirt (if you’ve seen their wavy one, you’ll understand why) before being directed through a seamless service that saw me take home my printed kit by the end of the game.
Clubs evidently have strong groundings in their communities. Being generally independent of an MLS side, they have had to work hard to build foundations and cannot afford the complacency we can sometimes see from English teams. Bay FC’s PayPal Park has a dedicated area for local food trucks to do business providing a whole range of cuisines and cocktails. The good weather certainly helps but it encourages people to spend more time in the stadium and ultimately spend more money, increasing revenue both for the club and the neighbourhood. When tailgating with the San Diego Sirens, we learned that some of their food is donated by local businesses, building strong connections between fans and the surrounding area.
Every ground has a designated home end where supporters’ organisations set up. Tifos, drums, colourful smoke and continuous chants are the order of the day, a chance for supporters to generate an atmosphere. Clubs supplement this with pre-match entertainment, mainly consisting of fireworks and the national anthem, which I am pretty sure would not translate over here.
Despite the successes, however, experiencing the league in person showed that not everything is perfect. Work needs to be done to the on-pitch product – that will be controversial to say in some quarters but there is a marked difference. There is also disparity in enthusiasm generated around teams. It was surprising to discover that current champions Gotham FC and Seattle Reign, an original team of the league, appeared to struggle with building their fan bases. There will be multiple and individual reasons for this but there is also evidently space for growth.
A month in the US confirmed how much room there is for the women’s game to grow. There is an emerging appetite for women’s sport as a whole which feels a bit ahead of where we are at in England. Here, we have only just dipped our toes into developing a culture around a sport that it is fighting to emerge from the shadow of the men’s game. It is not about copying and pasting what works in the NWSL onto English football – some of it clearly will not translate – but it is important for stakeholders to have the space to learn from elsewhere if the sport is to fulfil its audience potential.
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