Three months on, is the NWSL failing to exploit USA's World Cup victory?

In the months following their Women’s World Cup victory, the USA players have been everywhere.

Carli Lloyd’s on television holding a Visa card, or she’s driving an Audi, or she’s hawking Xfinity’s bundling service. Alex Morgan only added to her corporate mastery of American life. And no fewer than seven women from the World Cup champions stood on a platform in the Chelsea Ballroom last week, celebrating their inclusion for the first time in the Fifa video game series.

MLS standouts such as Luis Robles were present at the game’s release party. But Abby Wambach, Sydney Leroux and their team-mates were the stars.

“Well I think that what we’ve found over the summer is that if the media is putting us in USA Today, and the New York Times, and Fox, and ESPN, the media drives the publicity, and the awareness of what we do,” Wambach said, scanning the room she could fairly say she was presiding over. “Obviously, the NWSL is a way for us to also reach out to our fans. But really, our national team has always been what gets us that light, that podium.”

Ah, yes, about that. The National Women’s Soccer League is where 22 of the 23 players from the US National team play – only Wambach, who took the year off from NWSL to prepare for her final World Cup, didn’t figure in the league’s 2015 season. A total of 46 players from the World Cup participated in the NWSL this season.

Yet somehow, in the afterglow of all that success – 26.7 million people tuning into the World Cup final, millions watching each USA game, and even audiences for the non-US games on weekday afternoons that beating other, more established sports – it would appear the NWSL hasn’t added a single new sponsor. Not one.

Ahead of Thursday’s league final, NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush was asked ahead about why the gap exists between the success of individual US players and the league. “I get where you’re going,” he said. “There has been progress, and obviously, that you’re not familiar with. And I would just tell you that we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing. And when we have an announcement, we’ll make it. And we’re looking forward to making it.”

And when asked to confirm that the number of new sponsors was, in fact, zero, Plush replied, “What I’m actually saying is we’re here, I’m here personally to celebrate and support [Seattle Reign coach] Laura [Harvey] and [FC Kansas City defender] Stephanie [Cox, both of whom were also on the conference call], and this great match that we’re having next Thursday. So that’s what I’m happy to take more questions about that.”

So not a great look from the league, which some would say failed to exploit a series of gifts rarely given to a women’s sport, such as the wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup on Fox Sports (although domestic soccer has always been a harder sell than the international version for both the men’s and women’s games). Meanwhile, the league took until 30 June, virtually the end of the tournament, to announce a television deal with Fox Sports, failing to co-brand with the tournament. Even the announcement itself was made in a low-key press release on the afternoon of the USA-Germany semifinal, guaranteeing that even outlets predisposed to cover women’s soccer probably wouldn’t have any room for it.

And so it’s continued: whether it’s the announcement that the NWSL final would be played in Portland regardless of teams involved, something put out in August but decided in April, or the odd lack of recognition, let alone a speech, from Plush at the ceremony honoring the World Cup champions at New York’s City Hall (it was left to Major League Soccer’s Don Garber to make the NWSL case), the league’s conspicuous absence and inability to capitalize on the massive success of its own players has been astounding.

Lest this seem like a business issue, and not a quality of play issue, listen to what the players themselves have to say about how the league can best grow on the field.

“I also think putting more money into it, where we can get better international players, we could get, in America, the best league possible,” Leroux said when asked what will best improve the NWSL moving forward.

And improving the NWSL is the way to keep players thriving, engaged year-round, and avoiding early retirements like Lauren Holiday’s recent decision to step away from the game, not to mention many other similar choices made by non-national team players.

Here’s how Holiday herself explained the financial compensation, in which non-national team players make between $6,842 and $37,800 per season, earlier this month, following an FC Kansas City game against Sky Blue FC: “It has to change,” Holiday said. “We have to make more money. I know we inspired a nation, but it has to be more than that. Business plans have to be better. US Soccer has done a great job of making this league viable. But it’s not good enough yet.”

Which all comes back to the NWSL finding a way to monetize the popularity of the game in a far more comprehensive way than it has.

For Leroux’s part, it seems to all come down to partnering with Major League Soccer clubs, something the Houston Dash and Portland Thorns have done, (Orlando City also appear to be following suit) but has otherwise been missing from the league in its first three seasons.

“You look at the Portland Thorns,” Leroux said. “They’re selling out some of their games. Whereas other teams have maybe 1,500 show up. I think the best thing we can do is connect with MLS teams, and kind of ride their success. For example, Sporting Kansas City has sold out however many games – if FCKC could connect with them, they’d absolutely have more fans. I think that’s a huge part.

“I think when we’re playing off the Portland Thorns. They’re the team we’re playing off of, and that’s what we want for the entire league. If Orlando comes in, think about what they can get. If Seattle connected to the Sounders, think about what they could get. Especially the Pacific north-west is Soccer City. If we can continue to play off that, I don’t think it can get any better.”

At the very least, EA Sports seems to recognize the extent to which the US national team captivated a nation is not only heartwarming, but monumentally profitable.

“What we do is, we transcend sport,” Wambach said. “We’re the all-American team. Back in ‘99, it was long hair. Straight. Married. And now we have this influx of short hair, different sexualities. And for me, we really are a compilation of America. We’re transcending sport. And when kids all across the nation look at our team, whether a girl or a boy, you see confidence, you see success. And it’s something that I really want to build on.”

And so, nearly a third of the team stood atop a platform, besieged by photographers, posing for selfies on their own cameras. They were undeniable superstars, properly recognized, fully celebrated. In a way that it seems their own league has missed, they are not only role models, but also money spinners.

“It shows that corporate America has opened its eyes to move that needle,” Wambach said of her team’s presence. “And I’m really proud to be on this team and do that. And now corporate America is going, ‘Wait, we’ve got something here.’ It’s not just the moral thing to do. The right thing. It’s actually the smart thing, business-wise.”

Now it’s up to the NWSL, whether through more engagement sponsorship or through partnering with the tide-lifting MLS – whose median salaries just reached $100,000 for the first time – to anchor a league that will produce the next great American superstars.

“Exactly,” Leroux said, when this was proposed to her. “And that’s obviously what we want to do. I know Sunil Gulati wants to do that, I know US Soccer wants that. I know we want to be the best league in the world. And obviously, coming off the World Cup, we can say we’re the best team. And now we want the best league.”