Jessica Berman

The NWSL's seventeenth and eighteenth franchises, they're not gonna begin play until twenty twenty-eight, but the league is already soliciting interest from prospective owners for teams nineteen and twenty.

That nugget came from NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.

She was speaking at our Leaders Week event in London.

I think it's really bold for the league to be looking for twenty teams already because I'm not really bullish on what they're be- going to be getting in this next US media rights deal.

And I think those things are very important.

That was NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman, South Carolina and basketball legend Dawn Staley, and eight-time Olympic gold medalist Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce on the stage at Epicenter Summit, the centerpiece of Epicenter Week right here in Portland.

One day, Nike campus, invitation only, commissioners, Olympians, scientists, builders, and some of the biggest names in the game.

It was incredible, and what I loved most was that people didn't just talk about the momentum of women's sports.

The talented Sarah Spain knows how to ask the question everybody else is thinking.

That's one of the things I love about her, so we put her in front of the six major women's sports organizations and let her go.

You'll hear from LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman, and LOVE commissioner Sandra Idan.

Here's Sarah.

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Berman, who is a commissioner of the NWSL, Jason Wright, who's a big investor in, uh, in, women's sports.

And I have to say, there was a lot of buzz around that panel because when we're talking about the promise of sports and, uh, the, the NBA is already really big and there's a ceiling, so that's why Adam Silver's looking to go to, you know, uh, NBA Europe, and that's why he's doing that mid-season, 'cause, you know, maybe they can grow the early season games a, a little bit.

But the ceiling for women's soccer seems to be almost infinite right now.

Yeah, you know, I'm very fascinated by this because, um, there is certainly a lot of enthusiasm around women's soccer.

And at the same time, when some of the people in our world learned that I was gonna be moderating this panel, they got in my ear and they're like, "Look, you have to be honest about this.

This is not a, it's not a fundamentally profitable business." A lot of these teams are losing millions of dollars a year, and so I think there are a lot of people who look at the NFL and the NBA and then come down and they're like, "Okay, what is the business strategy for women's soccer that goes beyond just, like, the enthusiasm, right? And what is the long-term plan?" And I think the answer from Jessica Berman and Jason a- and Carolyn was, like, just like a resounding, um, resounding sense of optimism about where this business can go, and this feeling that truly within the span of a few years when we think about the major sports, um, we're gonna be thinking, not just i- in the United States, we're gonna be thinking not just about soccer, but women's soccer too.

And, and frankly, I will tell you, like, there was a lot that got said on that panel that convinced me, and it's not just about the growth of the sport.

And if you're in the New York area on Tuesday, October the 13th, tickets are still available for our Tuned In event, where you can see Glass, Mike McCarthy, Dan Roberts, and myself interview some of the biggest newsmakers in sports media.

That includes Pablo Torre, ESPN's Chris Berman, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, ESPN Executive Vice President Mike Foss, and even NBC's Mike Tirico, and so many more.

You can register your spot now at frontofficesports.com and we'll see you there next week.

[upbeat music] All right, let's end today with the best commute in sports.

I mean, w- we would need to probably.

You hear that Jessica Berman?

[laughs] Well, moving on from-

Okay, 2020, 2028, Women's Club World Cup, we could host that.

So we talked last week about Malik and the push for the new stadium, and in the back of our heads can't help but linger the threat of relocation of the Courage if they can't find a stadium that suits the league and what it is now.

One of the podcasts that I was listening to this week, they said that one of the things that Jessica Berman is stressing is, A, relocation is a last resort.

B, if it happens, you're not getting out on the cheap.

So there is not a vehicle, they don't want there to be a vehicle set up to where, well, the team's valued at 150 million, and your expansion fee is gonna be pushing 300 million for the next two teams, easy.

And so yeah, there is a sense of-- Again, I, I mean, my thesis of the piece is really the NWSL as it is built today is only, you can only thank the players and the PA for that, right? The league did what it had to do in order to survive, and it had to correct all of this behavior and, you know, there is a very cynical way of looking at it.

I think there's a good faith approach of looking at it of do I think Jessica Berman actively wants to make sure players are safe that are playing in her league? Of course, I do.

Like, you have to, because to think of something else would honestly be unthinkable, right? This is a, a human being who can respect the humanity of the players in her league, but there is also, you know...

She joked about this with me in her office when, when we did our interview of just, like, "I think in my first 100 days I said I, this needs to be a league where the players are proud to play," an infinite number of times.

I mean, as you say, the league has earned no right to trust before they've handled these issues in the past.

And I know that you're going to ask Jessica Berman about this the next time you have a chance.

And I know she ain't going to answer the

question.

Listen, my Brooklyn paisan, Jessica Berman, who just... basically found out that we went to rival high schools in brooklyn so you know maybe that's maybe that's what's in the way it's

yeah

the bedford avenue midwood madison rivalry will play on at the at the highest level of soccer if only