February 27, 2024

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Women’s soccer is navigating the impact of an upstart professional league. … The long-term prospects of the NHL in Winnipeg are coming into question. … Wayne Gretzky boosts a hockey trading card auction. … And we look back at the U.S. bobsled team that snapped a 62-year gold-medal drought.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

With the NWSL Thriving, Is There More Room at the Top in Women’s Pro Soccer? [[link removed]]

Florida Times-Union

The NWSL begins its new season in less than three weeks, fresh off record attendance [[link removed]] last year and landmark $240 million media rights deals. It’s a monumental time for women’s soccer—so much so that another professional league is getting ready to launch.

But does that make sense? Is there enough room for two top-tier women’s competitions?

Since its 2012 founding, the NWSL has steadily captured the attention of new fans. This season, two expansion franchises in Utah and the Bay Area are launching, with the latter paying north of $50 million for a spot in the league, which plans to grow to 16 clubs by ’26.

Now, enter the USL Super League.

Just over two weeks ago, the league announced its intentions to compete at the highest level of professional women’s soccer, after the U.S. Soccer Federation gave it Division I status. To earn that distinction, 75% of its teams must play in major metropolitan markets (population of 750,000 or more) and stadiums have to fit at least 5,000 fans. The USL Super League checked those boxes and joined NWSL atop the women’s soccer pyramid.

Set to debut in August, the league will differentiate itself from the NWSL’s March-November schedule by running on international soccer’s traditional fall-to-spring calendar. Eight founding teams will be based in Brooklyn, Charlotte, Dallas–Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, Spokane, Tampa Bay, and Washington, D.C. A complete schedule, broadcast partners, and player salary details have yet to be announced.

In the meantime, the biggest question is: Can this work?

Two Is Better Than One?

So far, league leaders are playing nice.

“We congratulate the USL in their efforts to launch a professional league,” the NWSL said in a statement. “As the most competitive women’s league in the world, there are limited roster spots available in the NWSL. More opportunities to compete professionally is a good thing and we’re interested to see how a new league might contribute to the continued growth of our game.” I.e., we’re the top dog and not too concerned about this right now.

When asked about the NWSL during a recent conference call, USL Super League president Amanda Vandervort (above, left) said: “We’re excited about where they are in their growth and development. And we’re excited to join the movement of women’s professional soccer. We’ve been really public about the opportunity to potentially have a U.S. Open Cup or create some sort of competition.” Makes sense. Of course, putting itself on equal footing with the NWSL is a good strategy for the USL.

Clearly, neither league wants to come out and wage war against the other. And maybe they don’t have to. “I don’t expect that they’re trying to alienate anyone,” Kanika Corley, an Akerman LLP lawyer focused on sports and private equity, says of the USL. “Because they have to rely upon the strength of, and they have to champion [the] NWSL in order to get those fans to continue to carry over.”

Corley thinks there’s not only enough talent to supply two women’s leagues but also interested investors who may be intrigued by “easier in-the-door opportunities” with USL franchises at a lower buy-in value.

Too Early for Merger Talk?

Disjointedness has recently plagued some women’s sports—take hockey, for example. The NHL wouldn’t fully back the Premier Hockey Federation or the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association until they merged [[link removed]] and the PWHL was formed. Now with NHL approval [[link removed]], that league continues to set new attendance records [[link removed]'s,Canada-Finland%20game%20in%20Ottawa.].

That doesn’t mean the USL is simply looking to force a merger with the NWSL, though. “From a legal perspective, it would be a bad idea if the goal ultimately was to undermine competition because then you’re just going to find yourself being challenged by the DOJ for potential antitrust issues,” Corley tells Front Office Sports.

One USL club leader thinks the new league can fill an important void in pro women’s soccer. “Business model–wise, I don’t think it’s sustainable for a league like the NWSL to pop up at 28 teams,” says Deon Graham, the cofounder and CEO of USL’s Fort Lauderdale team. “So, us coming in and having another foundation of play gives the younger player more opportunities to see the field and develop.”

Graham tells FOS that most pro teams in South Florida—including Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami—have already expressed a willingness to collaborate, before the USL team even hits the pitch. Support like that will be key for the league as it gets off the ground and looks to find its footing alongside the NWSL.

Trouble in Winnipeg As Bettman Plans Visit for Ailing Jets [[link removed]]

Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL’s smallest and perhaps most overlooked market is sounding the alarms, and league commissioner Gary Bettman is paying attention.

Despite sporting the third-best record in the Western Conference, the Jets currently have the league’s lowest attendance (not counting the Coyotes, who are playing temporarily in the 5,000-seat Mullet Arena). The Jets’ home average [[link removed]] of 13,140 is down by 6% from a year ago. And given the team’s Canada Life Center is also the smallest in the league outside of Mullet Arena with a capacity of 15,321, the Jets already had little margin for error.

A season-ticket base of 13,700 in 2021 has fallen this season to 9,500, and a prior waiting list for tickets has evaporated.

“I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say, ‘We’ve got to get back to 13,000,’” Jets chair and co-owner Mark Chipman told The Athletic [[link removed]]. “This place we find ourselves in right now, it’s not going to work over the long haul. It just isn’t.”

In addition to the arena challenges, Winnipeg also stands as the smallest of the NHL’s seven Canadian media markets, holding a metro population of about 850,000—a figure less than one-seventh the size of Toronto, and is also smaller than all of the league’s American team markets.

Bettman is scheduled to travel to Winnipeg on Tuesday and will conduct a series of meetings with local politicians, corporate sponsors, and media, as well as fans in a “fireside chat” before the Jets’ home game against the Blues.

As Winnipeg regained an NHL franchise in 2011, ending a 15-year absence from the league, Bettman said then, “It isn’t going to work very well unless this building is sold out every night.” No relocation threats have been issued surrounding the Winnipeg situation. But the problems there are arising as a growing number of U.S. markets are openly coveting a league franchise, including Atlanta, Houston, and Salt Lake City [[link removed]].

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ONE BIG FIG The Great Find

Porter Binks/USA TODAY NETWORK

$3.72 million

Amount that a case of 44-year-old hockey cards sold for at auction [[link removed]] Sunday. The 1979–80 set of O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, which includes Wayne Gretzky’s rookie card, was found [[link removed]] by a Saskatchewan family in its attic. The case, purchased by a Canadian bidder who wished to remain anonymous, could have as many as 25 to 27 cards of the Great One, but there’s no guarantee. Depending on the condition of the card, a mint condition Gretzky rookie card could be worth as much as $3.75 million.

TIME CAPSULE Feb. 27, 2010: Sledding Into Glory

Russell Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

On this day 14 years ago: Steve Holcomb led the U.S. four-man bobsled team to its first Olympic gold medal since 1948. Following the historic win in Vancouver, Holcomb became an in-demand celebrity and endorser, and he even appeared in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue. The common denominator in all that activity was how the public quickly gravitated toward Holcomb’s approachable, everyman quality and his status as a former soldier in the Utah National Guard.

Four years later in Sochi, Holcomb was not able to repeat the victory, earning bronze medals in both two- and four-man competition (later upgraded to silver after findings of Russian doping). He also became a prominent figure in an ongoing debate about the financial burdens [[link removed]] Olympic hopefuls accumulate in pursuit of glory. Holcomb unexpectedly died in 2017 at age 37, with his initial autopsy finding a combination of alcohol and prescription sleeping pills in his system. His mental health challenges, candidly detailed in a ’12 autobiography, served as an important forerunner to similar issues later voiced by other Olympic stars such as Michael Phelps and Simone Biles and also helped inspire the ’20 HBO Sports documentary The Weight of Gold.

Conversation Starters In case you missed it, the Clippers unveiled new logos, uniforms, and official team colors. What do you think of their new look? Let us know [[link removed]]. Sprinter Noah Lyles has signed a record deal [[link removed]] with Adidas through the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. From new to old, big to small, Autotrader has almost any car you can imagine. Find the car [[link removed][InsertCachebusterHere]PA__;dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;ltd=;dc_tdv=1] you’re looking for on Autotrader.* Editors’ Picks The Wemby Rookie Card Market Hasn’t Matched the Wemby Hype Machine. Why? [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]A cooling market and Fanatics autograph deal leaves big-money collectors waiting. Sham Gods: The Rapidly Growing World of Sports Impersonators on X [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]Fake Schefters and Wojs, fabricated trade demands, and borrowed profile pictures. Nevada Group Prepares Injunction to Block A’s Stadium From Moving Forward [[link removed]]by Owen Poindexter [[link removed]]The Nevada State Education Association is preparing an injunction to block the state from carrying out activities toward funding a stadium for the Oakland A’s. DISCLAIMER

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