With two of its big stars back, two new teams joining the fold and an expanded broadcast presence, the National Women’s Soccer League is embarking on its 14th season hoping to benefit from the surge in the popularity of women’s sports and from a summer focused on soccer.

The season begins Friday with the Portland Thorns playing at the Washington Spirit, which has been billed as a showdown between Sophia Wilson and Trinity Rodman.

The two players — two-thirds of the Triple Espresso trio with Mallory Swanson that helped the United States win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics — give the league a boost with their star power.

Wilson, who plays for Portland, was on leave all last season for the birth of her daughter. She signed a one-year contract extension with the Thorns for the 2026 season.

Swanson, who plays for the Chicago Stars, is still working her way back from maternity leave but is expected to rejoin the club at some point this season.

Rodman re-signed with the Spirit after drawn-out contract negotiations that called into question the league’s salary cap and resulted in a new “High Impact Player” policy.

Rodman’s return was a win for the league, which saw some of its high-profile players, including Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson and Sam Coffey, depart last year for European clubs.

There were fears that the salary cap would prevent teams from retaining top players. The HIP rule allows teams to go $1 million over the cap to sign certain players.

The league had the option of raising the salary cap, which stands at $3.7 million for 2026, instead of adopting the more complicated rule. Commissioner Jessica Berman stood by the decision in her preseason remarks this week.

“The mechanism of the High Impact Player rule actually rewards or creates an incentive for clubs to not only go out and sign elite players, but it creates space within the salary cap to surround that player with other top talent,” Berman said.

New Kids on the Block

The league welcomes two new teams this season, the Denver Summit and the Boston Legacy, bringing the NWSL to 16 teams.

Denver opens the season Saturday at Bay FC. The Summit announced that it has sold over 50,000 tickets for the team’s home opener against the Spirit on March 28 at Empower Field at Mile High, home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.

The Legacy opens Saturday at Gillette Stadium against defending NWSL champion Gotham FC. Halftime will feature a performance by hometown group New Kids on the Block.

The league has awarded a 17th expansion team to Atlanta to begin play in 2028. Berman announced this week that another expansion club for 2028 will be awarded later this season.

Where to watch

The NWSL’s broadcast partners include CBS, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps-owned ION. The league expanded its media rights agreements last year, adding a new deal with Victory+ to air 57 games for free this season.

The league will also feature in ESPN’s “Women’s Sports Sundays” this summer.

“We will be working together with the WNBA to make sure that women’s sports, and the NWSL and WNBA in particular, are showing up front and center to the way people think about and plan their weekend of sports content,” Berman said.

Berman said the league’s viewership on traditional broadcast channels was up 20% last season, and up 30% on digital services.

World Cup bump

The United States, Mexico and Canada are hosting the men’s World Cup, soccer’s premier tournament, this summer. The NWSL, which will pause play during a part of the tournament, faces logistical challenges in that two of its teams, the Seattle Reign and the Legacy, will be pushed out of home stadiums or otherwise impacted by the tournament.

The Reign will play three matches in Spokane, Washington, while the Legacy will play seven games in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

But the league also hopes to capitalize on the inevitable attention on soccer.

“I hope, when we look back on the season, that the challenges it created will dwarf in comparison to the opportunities it created because of the benefit and halo effect of the men’s World Cup more broadly,” Berman said. “Our strategy around the summer of soccer is going to be a key area of focus for us.”

A look back

The Kansas City Current finished atop the standings in 2025 with a historic season and won the NWSL Shield, setting regular-season records for points (65), wins (21), home wins (11), road wins (10), shutouts (16) and fewest goals conceded (13).

Gotham FC, the eighth seed in the playoffs, eliminated Kansas City with a 2-1 quarterfinal victory. Gotham went on to defeat the Orlando Pride in the semifinals before a 1-0 victory over the Spirit for the NWSL title.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/13/sophia-wilson-portland-thorns-washington-spirit/