NWSL has built an audience that fills NFL stadiums. It’s time to dream big on the final venue

NWSL has built an audience that fills NFL stadiums. It’s time to dream big on the final venue

“If there’s a motto that should be branded across women’s sports, it’s: If you build it, they’ll come,” Janine Sonis told a group of reporters after Denver Summit FC welcomed 63,004 people to Empower Field at Mile High last month, smashing the single-game National Women’s Soccer League attendance record.

It is a fitting play on Kevin Costner’s famous line from “Field of Dreams”, especially when describing the NWSL. For a league built from the ashes of two failed ones, it has come a long way in 13 years. 

Doubling in size from its inaugural season, 2026 represents NWSL 4.0, defined by new franchises, Denver Summit and Boston Legacy, increasing valuations and infrastructure gains. The expansion franchises not only added two much-needed markets to the league, but also set a new standard. 

Denver’s record home opener made for a memorable debut on a grand stage, surpassing the 30,000 who attended Boston’s opener at Gillette Stadium two weeks prior, a turnout underscoring the surging popularity of the sport and highlighting the league’s potential.

Those figures raise an increasingly unavoidable question: if a new franchise can fill an NFL stadium for its opener, could the NWSL final do the same?

The answer involves a reimagining of that infrastructure, investment and scalability. 

“The NWSL final has come so far so fast,” Roger Bennett, the founder and CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network, told The Athletic.

His first championship was in 2019, in Cary, North Carolina. “I think there were 10,000 fans or so. We did the live show the night before in a glorified pub. It was lo-fi. It was hearty. But it was most certainly JV.” 

Since that “lo-fi” moment, the league has evolved at remarkable speed. The NWSL secured a record-breaking four-year, $240 million media rights deal spanning CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video, and Scripps Sports — recently expanded further with the addition of free streamer Victory+. At the same time, it has attracted a growing roster of sponsors and partners.

Last year’s championship, in which Gotham FC defeated the Washington Spirit 1-0, drew a record 1.18 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, making it the most-watched match in league history — a 22 percent increase from 2024. The final also served as the centerpiece of a weeklong slate of events that kicked off the Wednesday before with the NWSL Awards and featured a range of activations, including live podcast recordings such as “The Women’s Game”, hosted by former player Sam Mewis on Bennett’s network.

The idea of moving the final to a larger venue, perhaps an NFL stadium, is not just a dream; it has gained traction since Denver’s opener. In fact, it has NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman rethinking what is possible. 

“We are going to continue to explore the best place to host a championship and put other options on the table that might not have otherwise been on our radar because we could not imagine that this could become a reality for the NWSL,” she said ahead of Denver’s home debut. 

Once the league’s biggest concern, filling up stadiums for tentpole events is becoming more common, especially when putting serious marketing dollars behind it. 

In Denver, it was never about finding an audience but activating one that already existed. 

“It was about leaning into the hand-raisers who were already there,” Jen Millet, Denver’s chief marketing officer, told The Athletic. The team built momentum with every milestone, from the initial player announcements and schedule release to the kit reveal. 

In Boston, Sabine Feldmann, the Legacy’s head of marketing, leaned into local pride and a singular message focusing on the date 3/14/26. 

”My goal was for Bostonians to have 3,14, 26, etched in their memory, like muscle memory,” she said. “We were very splashy. Billboards, social media campaigns, everything was date-forward. We wanted everybody to have that date marked on their calendar.” 

The league has already announced the date of the championship, Nov. 21. Now, it faces a set of compelling options, each with trade-offs. 

Keeping the final in a home stadium creates scarcity with only 20,000 to 25,000 available tickets, a guaranteed sellout and an atmosphere that feels both intimate and premium. “But it risks turning away potential new fans who might have become regular attendees,” Dave Wakeman, the founder of Wakeman Consulting, who consults emerging leagues with ticketing strategy, told The Athletic. 

Some of those home markets do offer larger alternatives, like Denver. 

“While we fully understand and respect why the league initially moved toward a neutral-site championship — it allowed for a ‘Super Bowl’ style of planning and a guaranteed runway for broadcast partners — the energy we just witnessed at Empower Field suggests we may be ready for the next evolution,” Millet said. 

“When you reward a patient, deeply engaged fanbase with the chance to host a title match, you aren’t just selling tickets; you are capturing a lightning-in-a-bottle atmosphere that only a true home crowd can provide.

“There is a profound competitive reward in allowing the top-seeded team to earn that home-pitch advantage. It honors the integrity of the 30-game regular season and ensures that the pinnacle of our year is played in a venue vibrating with the kind of organic, ‘die-hard’ energy that defines our sport.” 

Moving the match to a larger venue in an NWSL market offers scale: more seats, more revenue and a bigger stage.

Last year, Bay FC filled Oracle Park for a regular-season game; this season, Gotham FC is following them for their clash against Washington Spirit in New York’s Citi Field, with a capacity of 41,992 seats. The club announced the game in July and is on track to break its club attendance record with months of sales still to come, according to the club’s spokesperson. 

Moving the final to a larger venue does introduce risk. It could dilute the intimate atmosphere that defines the league and raise the possibility of a partially empty stadium.

“I think, with the moment the league is having, you could go both ways,” Feldmann said. “You could go with a local stadium and sell it out right away. Drive that FOMO, right?

“But there’s an awesome opportunity to sell out a massive stadium. If I were charged with selling out an NFL stadium, first of all, I would accept the challenge. I believe in raising the bar high.”

That said, adopting a rotating-host model (similar to the Super Bowl) and announcing venues several years in advance could transform the championship into a premier traveling spectacle. This approach would give fans in different markets the chance to engage, plan, and take part in a broader celebration of the sport, while also unlocking new revenue streams and strengthening the league’s national presence.

The timing may be right, too. According to Deloitte, the global women’s elite sports market will reach at least $3 billion in 2026, a 340 percent increase since 2022.

With significant runway and marketing dollars, filling an NFL venue is not such a far-fetched idea for the league.

“It’s the two best teams in the league, it’s history in the making, because no one wants to look back and think they missed their chance to witness something special,” Feldmann said.

“Then it’s about creating an experience, not just a game. Layer special promotions, performances, fireworks, so there are multiple reasons to come early. If one message doesn’t connect, another will.

“Just like the Super Bowl, people aren’t only going for the game, they’re going for the event.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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