The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) insists that too much of a good thing is just a myth, at least in the context of the sport.
Earlier this month, the league announced its 2027 calendar, which will start one month earlier than usual to account for a two-month mid-season break when many of its athletes will swap club jerseys for country ones at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. It will be the NWSL’s longest season in its 14-year history.
The global tournament comes at a critical time for the NWSL, which has doubled in size over the last decade. As of its 2026 season mid-point, the league saw an average of more than 11,000 fans at each match, a 10% year-over-year increase, and its social media following grew 24% year-over-year to 3.1 million followers across major platforms, according to NWSL data. With 138 NWSL players expected to join national rosters for the Women’s World Cup, the league is preparing to capitalize on an influx of fans.
“That schedule was intentionally designed to position the NWSL at the center of one of the biggest years in the history of women’s soccer,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters this month. “By maintaining our spring to fall calendar, which we decided earlier this year, we’ve created the best possible environment for our players, clubs, partners, and fans to maximize the extraordinary opportunity presented by the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“We know that major tournaments inspire millions of people to follow the sport,” she added. “And our schedule allows us to be part of the lead-in and the lead-out of that big moment.”
But in order for the NWSL to make the most of a jam-packed calendar, it will have to overcome a number of logistical obstacles, from cold climates to maintaining the health of players. Its executives believe the league is ready to meet the moment.
“It means that we can then come back to our regular season on the heels of the Women’s World Cup and ride that momentum,” Sarah Jones Simmer, chief operating officer of the NWSL, told Fortune. “And we will have so many players coming back to our league that will have had success in the Women’s World Cup, and that’s going to be a massive fan acquisition opportunity for us. It’s going to really contribute to the growth of the league.”
How the NWSL is meeting the moment
For the league, preparing to take advantage of the 2027 World Cup has meant pushing up its regular season start by more than a month to Feb. 11, meaning its preseason will begin in the first week of January, just six weeks after the 2026 championship, the shortest offseason in the league’s history.
The regular season will end on Decision Day on Oct. 31, and the 2027 championship will be on Nov. 20. The league will pause play for the World Cup, which falls from June 24 to July 25.
The early start will necessitate navigating the weather, particularly for teams in colder markets, such as Chicago, Denver, and Boston. NWSL players have previously expressed concern about playing in cold weather. The league’s player’s association tabled a vote on a fall-to-spring calendar, with many opposing the measure, citing the climate.
“I think there’s way too many locations that are way too cold. I don’t think we’ve fully thought through what that looks like,” Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman said in April. “If we have snowed-out games—or just the conditions in general—what are the backup plans? Where are the fields we can play at?
“And just fans in general (and) getting to games, I think that would decrease the attendance for games in cold climates. So, for me, I just think we have to be fully prepared and have backup plans if we do potentially decide to do that.”
Simmer said there’s enough geographic diversity in the league to hold games in February because warm weather markets are able to accommodate them. The MLS season typically starts in late February, and front-loads away matches for teams in colder climates, as well as schedules later kickoffs when temperatures peak for the day. For 2027, it will flip its schedule to a summer-to-spring model to better align with the international calendar and sign and retail top talent.
Then there’s the health of the athletes, who will not only have to play in their 30-game schedule, but also compete in the World Cups matches in the middle of their regular season. A study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics in 2025 found that when the 2022 FIFA World Cup was held in the winter instead of its usual summer time, injuries in the Premier League and Bundesliga significantly increased.
“A midseason slot may not be the best time to schedule a World Cup,” the study authors wrote.
The NWSL’s collective bargaining agreement mandates an offseason, and league officials said the league works hard to add policies to accommodate playing conditions, such as adding hydration breaks during hot-weather games.
The league, as it continues to grow, is used to adapting and making game-time decisions. Eleven of the NWSL’s 16 teams share venues with MLS clubs and coordinate schedules to use the facilities that can accommodate more fans. Only the Kansas City Current have their own stadium, financed by co-owners Angie and Chris Long, as well as Patrick and Brittany Mahomes. As more teams look to build out their own infrastructure, the league facilitates how to give its clubs the best possible venues under the constraints.
“We’re working even closer, with not just our clubs and the venues, but also with MLS directly to continue to understand their plans heading into a newer year for them,” Carlin Hudson, NWSL’s vice President of strategy, told Fortune. “We work very hand in hand with our venues that have responsibilities to both MLS and NWSL clubs.”
The high stakes of women’s soccer
Historically, professional soccer in the U.S. has benefitted from the World Cup. Major League Soccer (MLS) is itself a byproduct of the 1994 FIFA tournament, which required the U.S. to establish a professional league in order to host the competition. But the FIFA Men’s World Cup this summer also catalyzed greater interest in the sport, with multiple MLS teams telling Front Office Sports they’ve seen an increase in ticket sales of more than 150% since the start of the global tournament in June. Ratings, however, have stayed mostly flat as the U.S. slowly warms to soccer more broadly.
The NWSL has effectively shaped its business model around the hope that future international events will bring more money back to the league. Those events don’t just include the 2027 Women’s World Cup, but the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as the 2031 FIFA World Cup hosted in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. Berman told CNBC in March that teams are able to turn a profit today, but have instead shifted priorities to growing the league instead.
The average NWSL team is now worth $184 million, according to Sportico, an increase of 77% compared to the estimated valuations in September 2024, and up 179% from 2023. Last year, the 14 teams in the league were worth $2.6 billion combined.
“It’s a choice,” Berman said. “We could be profitable. We could choose to stop investing with a growth mindset. It is a choice on our board and by our owners to continue investing because they believe, from a business perspective, that their dollar invested today will be worth more in the future.”