National Women’s Soccer League
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), alongside the United Soccer League (USL) Super League, is one of the two first-tier women’s professional football (soccer) leagues in the United States. The NWSL was founded in November 2012 and the first season was played in 2013. The country’s first women’s professional league, the Women’s United Soccer Association, debuted in 2001; this iteration folded after three seasons and was succeeded by Women’s Professional Soccer from 2007 to 12. The first season of the NWSL consisted of eight teams. There were several expansions over the next decade, and as of the 2025 season there were 14 teams in the league, with plans to add 3 additional teams—2 in 2026, and 1 in 2028.
The NWSL comprised 14 teams in the 2025 season. They are as follows:
- Angel City FC
- Bay FC
- Chicago Stars FC (branded as Chicago Red Stars between 2013 and 2024)
- Houston Dash
- Kansas City Current
- NJ/NY Gotham FC (formerly Sky Blue FC)
- North Carolina Courage
- Orlando Pride
- Portland Thorns FC
- Racing Louisville FC
- San Diego Wave FC
- Seattle Reign FC (branded as OL Reign between 2020–23)
- Utah Royals FC
- Washington Spirit
The league is slated to add Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC as its 15th and 16th teams in 2026, and its 17th team, based in Atlanta, in 2028. The NWSL previously included three teams—the Boston Breakers, FC Kansas City, and Western New York Flash—that are now defunct. The last, Western New York Flash, was purchased by North Carolina FC, a U.S. men’s professional soccer franchise, and rebranded as North Carolina Courage in January 2017.
The NWSL awards the Shield every year to the team that amasses the best record in the regular season. Winners of the Shield are listed in the table below.
| year | winner | points | record |
|---|---|---|---|
| *The 2020 regular season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. | |||
| 2013 | Western New York Flash | 38 | 10–4–8 |
| 2014 | Seattle Reign FC | 54 | 16–2–6 |
| 2015 | Seattle Reign FC | 43 | 13–3–4 |
| 2016 | Portland Thorns FC | 41 | 12–3–5 |
| 2017 | North Carolina Courage | 49 | 16–7–1 |
| 2018 | North Carolina Courage | 54 | 17–1–6 |
| 2019 | North Carolina Courage | 49 | 15–5–4 |
| 2020* | not awarded | n/a | n/a |
| 2021 | Portland Thorns FC | 44 | 13–6–5 |
| 2022 | Seattle Reign | 40 | 11–4–7 |
| 2023 | San Diego Wave FC | 37 | 11–7–4 |
| 2024 | Orlando Pride | 60 | 18–2–6 |
| 2025 | Kansas City Current | 65 | 21–3–2 |
The regular season is followed by a playoff tournament to decide the NWSL Championship. As of 2025 only the North Carolina Courage and Orlando Pride have won the Shield and the Championship in the same season. Winners of the NWSL championship are given below.
| year | winner | runner-up | score |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Won on penalty kicks. | |||
| 2013 | Portland Thorns FC | Western New York Flash | 2–0 |
| 2014 | FC Kansas City | Seattle Reign | 2–1 |
| 2015 | FC Kansas City | Seattle Reign | 1–0 |
| 2016 | Western New York Flash | Washington Spirit | 2–2 (3–2)* |
| 2017 | Portland Thorns FC | North Carolina Courage | 1–0 |
| 2018 | North Carolina Courage | Portland Thorns FC | 3–0 |
| 2019 | North Carolina Courage | Chicago Stars FC | 4–0 |
| 2021 | Washington Spirit | Chicago Stars FC | 2–1 |
| 2022 | Portland Thorns FC | Kansas City Current | 2–0 |
| 2023 | NJ/NY Gotham FC | Seattle Reign | 2–1 |
| 2024 | Orlando Pride | Washington Spirit | 1–0 |
| 2025 | NJ/NY Gotham FC | Washington Spirit | 1–0 |
The 2020 season was impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and saw a new contest, the Challenge Cup. It was played as a tournament, with group stage and knockout matches, between 2020 and 2023. From the 2024 edition onward it was played as a single match between the previous season’s championship and Shield winners, or a replay of the previous season’s championship game if the same team won the Shield and the Championship. Challenge Cup winners are listed below.
| year | winner | runner-up | score |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Won on penalty kicks. | |||
| 2020 | Houston Dash | Chicago Stars FC | 2–0 |
| 2021 | Portland Thorns FC | NJ/NY Gotham FC | 1–1 (6–5)* |
| 2022 | North Carolina Courage | Washington Spirit | 2–1 |
| 2023 | North Carolina Courage | Racing Louisville FC | 2–0 |
| 2024 | San Diego Wave FC | NJ/NY Gotham FC | 1–0 |
| 2025 | Washington Spirit | Orlando Pride | 1–1 (4–2)* |
The league’s popularity has grown steadily. Attendance in the 2023 season broke records. This fueled the desire for expansion, as, in the words of league commissioner Jessica Berman:
Attendance is the rocket fuel that drives all of the growth of everything else that [the league is] building and creates the excitement around [the] game.
In 2023 the NWSL announced its participation in the newly formed Women’s League Forum, a conglomeration of 16 professional women’s football (soccer) leagues across the world which supports the interest of women’s leagues globally. Perhaps most significantly, the league finalized a four-year broadcasting deal worth $240 million. Split across four networks, coverage of the league’s contests was set to generate some 40 times the annual earnings that had accrued in previous years. According to the NWSL, this was the largest broadcasting deal for a women’s sports league in television history.
More developments came in 2024. The league debuted NWSL+, a streaming service devoted to the league’s matches in March of that year. The NWSL’s 2024 season also saw the opening of CPKC Stadium in Missouri. Home to the Kansas City Current, CPKC is the first stadium in the world built specifically for a women’s sports team.