Will the Pandemic Crash the National Women's Soccer League?

  • 5 months ago
With interest at a peak following the World Cup, the NWSL seemed poised to finally make a leap—until COVID-19 stopped the 2020 season before it could begin.

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Transcript
00:00The coronavirus has halted the sports world for two months, and now we are asking the
00:08question, could it crash the National Women's Soccer League?
00:12Joining me now to discuss this is SI's writer, Stephanie Epstein.
00:16Stephanie, there was a ton of interest in women's soccer after the World Cup.
00:20The NWSL even landed a deal with CBS to air games on network TV.
00:26The timing of this virus, though, has changed a lot.
00:29Where does the league stand now?
00:31Yeah, the timing, everyone agrees the timing is really rough because in the United States,
00:35people seem to be really into women's soccer around the time of the World Cup and around
00:40the time of the Olympics.
00:42And for women's soccer, those are staggered such that every three years, there's one and
00:46then the next year is the other.
00:48So that 12 months in between is really important for women's soccer.
00:52And they were really hopeful after their World Cup win and leading into an Olympics in which
00:56they were favored.
00:57They had hoped that they could really gain some momentum among fans.
01:01Unfortunately, this is sort of the opposite is happening right now.
01:04And I think people are, you know, a little bit, they're hopeful, but they're a little
01:08concerned that if this goes on for too long, people might forget about the NWSL.
01:13Right.
01:14They were going into their eighth season of operating.
01:17People involved thought this would be the best stretch yet.
01:19I mean, what do you think?
01:21Is there still a chance for growth?
01:23I think there is a chance for growth.
01:24I think a lot of these teams have done a great job engaging fans, reminding people
01:28that they're here.
01:29They are also missing soccer, a lot of good sort of social content.
01:33And then they, one of the players I spoke to pointed out to me that, you know, women's
01:37soccer, the NWSL is not the only thing that got put on hold.
01:41The Olympics are also on hold.
01:42So they can maintain some of that excitement when we finally do see the Olympics.
01:47Good point.
01:48Very good point.
01:49Stephanie, thank you so much for your insight.
01:50We appreciate it.
01:51Thanks for having me.