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Even though I was in Portland last week, I missed the celebration of Tobin Heath, who played her last game for the Thorns almost exactly four years ago. Saturday night, she finally got her proper sendoff, nutmeg and all.
Today:
👷 The importance of infrastructure
🏟️ A storied venue’s record crowd
🗓️ World Cup schedule set
First, progress you can see and feel …
Construction Zone: Building with purpose
We live in a digital world, and as much as I love, say, an e-newsletter that lands in hundreds of thousands of inboxes, women’s sports continue to show us why finding physical permanence matters.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said as much last week while on a panel in Portland during “Epicenter Week,” an event focused on advancing women’s sports and celebrating the opening of the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, the new joint training facility for the WNBA’s Fire and NWSL’s Thorns.
“There’s nothing like physical infrastructure to convey a sense of permanence and trust in the system, because you know that it’s not fleeting,” Berman said.
Standing on Nike’s campus in Beaverton, Ore., where Berman’s commissioner panel was one of many, I could see the importance of tangibility amid gray, white, and black buildings that honor some of the brand’s top athletes on the 400-acre campus.
It was only reinforced the next day by Lisa and Alex Bhathal, sibling owners of the Fire and Thorns, on a tour of their $150 million performance center. The first-of-its-kind facility was built by women, for women — even the finishing touches were hand-selected by Thorns players Sophia Wilson and Morgan Weaver. With a mostly dark exterior and light-walled rooms inside, the facility is meant to symbolize the athletes that will soon occupy it, offering:
Two full-sized outdoor soccer fields (one turf, one grass) and two indoor basketball courts in the 17,000-square-foot gymnasium.
A weight room, two full-size dressing rooms (intentionally not called locker rooms), conference rooms and a shared recovery room with multiple hot and cold tubs and an underwater treadmill.
Mindful features like two nursing rooms, showers with stalls and a meditation room complete with forest imagery on the ceiling.
Honestly, it was overwhelming to see the intentionality. But some of that emotion was also about how long it took to get to this point. I couldn’t help but think back to a quote I read while editing Asli Pelit’s story about what “Ted Lasso” gets right about resources in women’s soccer.
Former Paris-Saint Germain goalkeeper Arianna Criscione described the first time the women’s team got names on their lockers:
“I took mine home; they are still on my mother’s refrigerator. It was the first time I’d ever had something like that, and I was so happy. Taking home a magnet that said ‘Arianna Criscione’ with the PSG logo felt like a really big deal.”
Nearly three-quarters of NWSL teams now have dedicated facilities of some kind, with Kansas City’s CPKC Stadium leading the way … for now. Over to Meg for more on where things stand in the league.
Meg’s Corner: A must-have for player recruitment
Infrastructure, like dedicated training facilities, is an easy thing to point to in the NWSL. It’s big. Visible. Expensive! Plus, it’s deeply tied to a team’s valuation and ability to recruit and retain players. It’s not a precise indicator of a team’s ambitions, but it has been a fairly accurate barometer for the teams that have changed ownership or joined the league since 2021 (see: Angel City, Bay FC and the Current).
NWSL clubs swear infrastructure isn’t just a key to success on the field, but a reflection of their identity as an organization. That doesn’t come easily.
Stadiums are hard to build in a timely fashion (just ask the Summit and especially the Legacy), but looking at the ongoing situations of Louisville, Chicago and Gotham is the more instructive view of the overall state of the NWSL infrastructure:
Racing shares a stadium and a training facility (built in 2021) with the men’s USL side, which could complicate any potential relocation.
The Stars plan to open their own 10-acre facility next year — something more within their control than the long-running issues around building a stadium to call home.
Gotham announced they are moving into Etihad Park in 2028, sharing the grounds with MLS team NYCFC. They also plan to build a new $35 million training facility where the New York Red Bulls used to train.
Meanwhile, the Spirit are the most interesting outliers of this pattern:
They do not control Audi Field despite their considerable success in the building and also share a training facility with D.C. United.
They have their own space in the training facility, but are ultimately tenants in both places. Washington has been actively looking for space for a training facility since Michele Kang bought the team and is currently closer than it’s ever been to securing it. Stay tuned.
The Spirit don’t receive any of the economic benefits from playing in D.C. United’s stadium either — Audi may be rowdy, but the Spirit aren’t walking away with a bag. It’s another clear example of the importance of owning your grounds. Knowing Kang, it’s only a matter of time.
News to Know
Georgia draws record crowd
Speaking of infrastructure, the University of Georgia’s women’s soccer team drew an NCAA-record 25,433 fans to Sanford Stadium last week, including football coach Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs put on a scoring clinic, defeating James Madison 6-0. They also beat the previous NCAA women’s soccer attendance record (14,410) by more than 10,000 fans.
“We had an opportunity to celebrate one of the best moments in women’s soccer ever,” coach Keidane McAlpine said after the game. Lucky for locals, they’ll also have an NWSL team soon enough, with one coming to Atlanta in 2028.
I won’t say it was a full-circle moment, because the story isn’t over, but Sanford Stadium was also the site of the USWNT’s first gold medal win, defeating China in the 1996 Olympic final. That match drew 76,481 fans, then the record for a women’s sporting event.
And if you need any more convincing of how impressive the feat last week was, it was 98 degrees at kickoff!
Full World Cup match schedule announced
There are 303 days until the World Cup in Brazil, but who’s counting? (We are!) And now we know the full schedule of matches and where they will be played. FIFA shared the update last week, confirming that the hosts will kick things off at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracanã Stadium on June 24. The final will take place in the same building on July 25. You can see the full footprint here.
Gotham’s dominance and Lavelle’s injury
Gotham has been the definition of dominant this season. As of today, Opta gives them an 80.1 percent chance to win the NWSL Shield (a first in club history). But those chances might depend on the extent of Rose Lavelle’s apparent head injury after the USWNT midfielder left yesterday’s game against Angel City in the 37th minute. The 31-year-old was down for several minutes before walking off on her own. The club has yet to share a formal update on her status.
Related: Former Gotham striker Esther González, who agreed to terminate her contract last month to attend to “personal matters in Spain,” has already joined a new team, Saudi club Al Qadsiah.
First Looks
An exciting beginning: Union Berlin believes in goddesses, and they seem to have found one that believes right back. Megan Feringa traveled to Germany last Friday to witness the beginning of history. Her piece on coach Marie-Louise Eta is worth your time.
A complicated tournament: Yes, the U-20 World Cup is still happening in Poland next week despite the ongoing beef between FIFA and UEFA. There are some notable absences from the U.S. roster as clubs weren’t required to release players. Coach Vicky Jepson still made sure to personally call every player she picked, the ones she didn’t and the ones whose teams refused to release them.
Balling out: Ashley Sanchez is having a season few get to experience — a second breakout. The 27-year-old midfielder’s late-game winner Saturday for the Courage against the Legacy puts her atop the Golden Boot race with 13 goals in 20 games. At this point, it would be negligent not to call her into the next U.S. squad, especially with injuries to Catarina Macario and Olivia Moultrie, and even questions around Lindsey Heaps.
Jump scare: The Stars have a new-ish tradition of ringing a six-foot steam whistle before and after games. The honor after a victory usually goes to the player of the match. We haven’t seen many Chicago wins this season, so I think it’s only fair to forgive Mallory Swanson for not knowing what was about to happen after pulling the lever to commemorate her goal in the Stars’ 3-2 win over Louisville yesterday.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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