National Women's Soccer League. Amanda Duffy sat down on Thursday to speak with NWSL Media about the state of the league as its fifth season wraps up this weekend. Photo: Andy Mead/isiphotos. Orlando, Florida — On Thursday, NWSL Managing Director of Operations Amanda Duffy sat down with NWSL Media’s Meg Linehan and Jacqueline Purdy to address a number of topics and to discuss the state of the National Women’s Soccer League ahead of the NWSL Championship between the North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns FC (Saturday, 4: 3. ET, Lifetime). Biggest successes in 2. There’s a few important successes from year five.

One, I think we just had a successful season five in general. I know we’re going to talk about season five being a historical year and every season that the NWSL exists after year three. It becomes just that much longer of a league, more stable of a league. So from that standpoint, just acknowledging that we’ve successfully completed a fifth season as a women’s professional league is important just to note and set that tone. When we look at some of the attendance successes that have been here in the league, and the continued success in Portland, overall from a league perspective from an accumulative number across the season, we’re trending in a very good direction.

The move and transition of ownership to North Carolina, and the launch of the North Carolina Courage, which is a historical women’s soccer brand. I think they did a wonderful job in launching and getting off the ground on very short notice. Of course, with a roster that’s very similar to last year’s Western New York Flash and then having that piece together and that continued success they’ve had on the field, and they’re back here at the Championship is an important piece to the success of this season. I think there’s a few things that we can look at this year, but certainly with on the field and some of the records that were set, and attendance that continues to grow, a lot of our markets are key pieces that we look at.

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Expectations for the 2. NWSL Championship: I think the really neat thing about Orlando is there’s a soccer culture here. With or without Orlando in the Championship, we always knew this was going to be a good environment, because there is a culture, there is a fan base. And as the fan base in the NWSL grows, and the support individually with our teams grows, we know that just helps the attendance and the environment at a Championship event while it’s a neutral site hosted event. So I think when we look at the teams that are in the Championship, we’ve got the top two teams coming into it. The top two out of the regular season standings, both teams are playing well right now, which is is just going to make on the field a competitively balanced competition, an exciting competition. When a champion is named, it will truly represent the team that has comprehensively, start to finish, across the season, put together the best season in the league.

Off the field, I think we’re going to have a great attendance, anywhere from seven to ten thousand is where we’ll be. It will create a nice environment in a stadium that has a lot of neat features, a lot of cool features for the fans in that environment.

The atmosphere is going to be good. I think it’s going to be a good crowd, and everyone’s excited to see this year represented. On having players like Marta and Mallory Pugh join the NWSL, as well as Sam Kerr’s breakout season: It took it to the next level. Having the top players globally playing in NWSL just continues to enhance and accelerate the level of play, the level of competition in NWSL. From the development of players domestically and internationally that are playing against the best, it just continues to help accelerate the development of our players. For the youth players in the United States, and those that are aspiring to play at the professional level, it just sets a great standard and such an exciting environment for a young player to really want to be a part of. On players like Nadia Nadim and Amandine Henry leaving: I think that’s what one of the things that we as a league will need to continue to talk about, continue to talk about, continue to grow in the off- the- field aspects of our business.

They’ve certainly been — the two that you just named — two huge players that have certainly had an impact in the league and were a part of, a couple of years ago, showing that they can come into this league and they can be successful and that this is a league that globally, all players want to be a part of. We’ll continue to see that trend. This past off- season, we more than doubled our minimum salary and made some big important increases in that piece of it.

As that continues to grow, that’s going to help players want to be here and want to be a part of the NWSL. That’s going to be a key piece we continue to focus on off- the- field, but also, in the individual markets, just making sure there’s a connection with the market, that there continues to be a growth in fan bases and support at that level for those players and those clubs to thrive in their individual markets. That just helps the league overall continue to grow. On whether the NWSL will see Designated Players or Homegrown Players, like MLS: We’re not ready for it. There’s still some strides we have to make in other areas to really position these teams and position our ownerships to be able to take on increases, that when you talk about a Designated Player type salary or even Homegrown Player salaries that are usually different than, or at least in the MLS model, than what the minimum salary is.

It impacts the overall spend. Watch Racing Extinction Online Goodvideohost. So there’s some other areas with our ownership that we really have to make sure are stable and are in the right place before we can really take on some big changes like that. Understanding the benefit of those players in the league, we want to make those strides and we want to do it as quickly as possible. When the league was launched, the priority was, let’s do this at a pace and in a way that keeps the league around. I think that’s been done, I think that’s been executed well, which is why we’re wrapping up a season five and looking at season six.

But I don’t think we’re ready to take the bigger jumps yet, to get into those type of salaries and financial requirements that increase greater spend that keep those players over here. On players like Maddy Evans, Amanda Da. Costa and Elli Reed retiring: It’s a combination of both, but for us if you want to keep players in the league longer, more focus needs to be on the lower side right now than on the higher side, than on the upper end. If everything is growing incrementally that allows players to play an extra year, or extra couple of years, rather than these young players coming out of college and only able to do this for two or three years because they’re making $1. If we can continue to work on that and build on the lower end to get this to a threshold and a level that allows players to be able to live on a salary that they’re making while they’re still playing, think that’s certainly the goal of the league and the ownerships, and at the right time, when it makes sense to also introduce the other ancillary mechanisms that allow players to stay in at the higher level, and we feel like the league’s in that stable position as it continues to grow, then we’ll introduce it at that right time.

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