After three years, the hit Apple TV show Ted Lasso finally returned last week for its highly anticipated fourth season, as the show shifts focus from a men’s soccer team, the fictitious AFC Richmond Greyhounds, to the club’s newly-formed women’s side.
Watching the beloved characters—like Ted Lasso himself, team owner Rebecca Welton and the spunky Keeley Jones—back on the screens was exciting for fans of the show, but NWSL fans got a treat of their own in Episode 1, which premiered on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Lasso, Welton, Jones and Leslie Higgins attended a Kansas City Current vs. Gotham FC match at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., to experience what it was like to be around dedicated women’s soccer fans.
The atmosphere of CPKC Stadium is what gave Jones, played by Juno Temple, the realization and the confidence that a women’s team would thrive in England. It was eye-opening for the cast and crew to see how ecstatic women’s soccer fans can be.
“Juno said, ‘I cried when I walked in [CPKC Stadium].’ Not Keeley, the actual Juno Temple,” Current co-owner Chris Long told The Athletic’s Asli Pelit. “It makes us really proud to have created something that can evoke so much joy.”
What Chris and Angie Long did back in 2022, when they invested in the building of CPKC Stadium, the first stadium built solely for a women’s soccer team in the United States, is similar to what the characters in Ted Lasso are looking to achieve this season. Welton, played by Hannah Waddingham, wants to fund and create a women’s soccer team, knowing that the investment will pay off since it clearly has in the United States, and specifically in Kansas City.
“It is a little bit proof of concept,” Current co-owner Angie Long told ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf. “Everything that we’ve built, even a show like Ted Lasso, is seeing it. So, I think it’s an endorsement. But again, what it means for sport, for women’s soccer is huge.”
During a press conference last week, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman also noted the significance of Ted Lasso showcasing the Current’s monumental strides in the sport in terms of making investments.
“I think everybody knows how proud we are of the Kansas City Current and their investment, in particular, and infrastructure, and to have that moment on display for the world to see in what has been a cultural phenomenon with Ted Lasso is really exciting,” Berman said.
Although CPKC Stadium and the soccer match were both only shown for a few minutes in the episode, the Current and Gotham definitely left their marks. The crowd, even if it was set up for the show, roared as Current star Temwa Chaŵinga scored a goal against Gotham. This scene proved how excited women’s soccer fans are, and how welcoming the sport can be for new fans (in the case of the show, the three AFC Richmond employees).
The NWSL and Ted Lasso’s partnership of sorts has translated off the screen, too. Various players, including some of the Gotham stars featured in the show, attended the red carpet premieres of Ted Lasso in New York City and Los Angeles. Players from the Boston Legacy and Angel City also attended the premieres. The Ted Lasso cast has returned the favor, too, by recently attending a Gotham vs. San Diego Wave match and an Angel City vs. Racing Louisville match. In previous NWSL seasons, they’ve been sighted in Kansas City, too.
“It was really cool,” Gotham forward Jordynn Dudley said about the premiere, via the NWSL. “We got to dress up, and it was really fun. I love that this new season is about women’s soccer. It’s going to be great, and it’s going to show so many things that people don’t necessarily know about behind the scenes.”
The NWSL overall has gotten a big boost from featuring in the first episode of Ted Lasso, but the Current is reaping many of the benefits from more exposure. The Ted Lasso cast can’t seem to stay away from Kansas City as some of the actors—like Jason Sudeikis, who plays Lasso, Temple, and Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard—returned to CPKC Stadium to promote the show’s premiere. The Current even hosted a Ted Lasso Night back on July 11 to debut a trailer for fans in attendance.
The Current’s cameo in Ted Lasso definitely helped grow its audience. After the show premiered on Wednesday, the team reached one million followers across its social media platforms. Fans of the show seemed interested in learning more about the Current and the NWSL in general—a win-win for everyone involved.
Current midfielder Rocky Rodríguez, who appeared in the match shown in the first episode, spoke last week about how incredible it’s been to be included in something so massive and important for growing women’s soccer across the world.
“It’s really exciting to be in a show. I got tagged a lot, and I was like ‘Yay, I made the show,’” Rodríguez told reporters. “I think it’s awesome. Hopefully, the more that women’s soccer grows and more the club grows, the better, obviously. Women’s sports are just as awesome. I hope that the wave continues, and being in a show like this, it’s only helping.”
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Women’s soccer in the United States is taking center stage right now, that’s for sure. The sport grew in popularity this summer thanks to the Men’s FIFA World Cup being played across North America. Fans in the United States became more invested in the sport, and the NWSL’s return during the knockout rounds helped bring in more eyes for the league.
Next year, the Women’s FIFA World Cup will take place in Brazil, which will only continue to attract more fans across the world. NWSL stars will play for their home countries, and that will bring fans to become interested in the league.
The NWSL appearing in Ted Lasso only adds to the ongoing boom the league is experiencing right now. Current coach Chris Armas loved that his team got to be part of the magnification of women’s soccer.
“[The Current’s cameo] will help the sport grow, just more attention on the sport, especially momentum from the World Cup now and with the Women’s World Cup next year,” Armas told reporters last week. “Anytime a show like this can really celebrate the sport, and more specifically, the women’s sport and women’s soccer, it will help it grow. It will get more followers, more interest in it, more people who might take a peek and say ‘Hey, this is pretty good stuff’ in our league and specifically in Kansas City.”
Apart from the first episode’s focus on being reintroduced to the famous characters, the episode was essentially a love letter to Kansas City. Sudeikis went back to his personal roots as he grew up in Overland Park, Kan. The show highlights the city’s most notable monuments in one montage of Lasso driving—we see snippets of the World War I Memorial, the Kauffman Center and the KC Wheel. The characters fall in love with Gates Bar-B-Q, so much so that Welton repeatedly gets Gates sauce on her shirt. Then, of course, the show put a spotlight on the city’s trailblazing women’s soccer club.
