The NSWL expects to expand to 16 teams for the 2026 season, commissioner Jessica Berman said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- “We do expect for the 2026 season to add two more teams,” Berman said. “That process will begin later this calendar year, and through the process we ran in 2022 for this round of expansion, we have an incredible amount of interest from qualified investors who want to get in early.”
- The league recently announced that a Bay Area franchise would join the league as team No. 14 in 2024, the same year the Utah Royals return. An expansion bid for Boston has not been formally announced, but the market is expected to land team No. 15 and return the NWSL to one of its original markets.
- The league’s latest expansion teams, Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC, began play last year to bring the NWSL to 12 teams.
Backstory
The Utah and Bay Area expansion teams are backed by big-name ownership groups.
The Royals’ ownership structure includes Real Salt Lake owners Ryan Smith and David Blitzer, via Smith Entertainment Group (which includes the Utah Jazz and RSL, among other properties) and Global Football Holdings (Blizer’s investment group, which has stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils,…
