This week on The IX Sports Podcast Soccer Edition, host Kathleen Gier walks listeners through National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman’s midseason Zoom call with reporters.
The first big news? The NWSL is moving their calendar up to start the season in February.
“This is meant to facilitate the lengthy World Cup break that we’ll have over the summer, but man, it is going to be cold in a lot of NWSL cities, and I know that that has been a big sticking point for the U.S. in terms of calendar change discussions in the past,” Gier explained.
The regular season will start Feb. 11, 2027, just before the National Football League’s (men’s American football) annual Super Bowl.
“Commissioner Berman is well aware of that,” Gier said. “So it is very much on purpose, and that they are hoping for a boost from the NFL traffic with [television network] ABC playing the game and then being able to cross-promote NWSL across the ABC-ESPN family.”
Gier said that leaves “a relatively short off season” between the NWSL Championship on Nov. 21, 2026 followed by and the start of training camp sometime in January.
“Like I said, [I’m] interested to see kind of how players feel about this, whether this is you know even conceivable as a permanent option,” Gier said.
On the call, Gier said, Berman also discussed this year’s attendance numbers halfway through the NWSL season. Teams are averaging 11,174 fans per match this season, which is the second-highest in league history, behind 2024 (11,249).
Gier said she was “particularly interested” to hear from Berman on the league’s stance on the inclusion of transgender athletes.
“Our policies are our practice, which is that every player who plays in this league has been determined to be eligible, and we’re continuing to apply that on a consistent basis,” Berman said. “Any changes to the way we operate, whether it’s in the form of creating a written policy or changing our practice, would be in consultation with our Players Association, and we’re continuing to monitor all of the real-time developments across adjacent or directly relevant institutions that are either making statements or making policy changes in that regard.”
Tune in to the episode to hear a breakdown of the current NWSL standings, a discussion of the NWSL salary cap, and a check-in at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, like WNBA news and PWHL expansion updates.
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