Over 10 months and more than 20 bargaining sessions, the National Women’s Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association have hammered out a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Bargaining committees from each group met in person in Philadelphia from July 8 through July 11 to finalize the deal.

It was supposed to be time off for players as the league took a break before the Olympics. But five athletes forewent vacation to join the PA’s bargaining committee in person: Brianna Pinto (North Carolina Courage), Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit), Dani Weatherholt (Courage), Haley Hopkins (Courage), and Nicole Barnhart (Spirit). Including those five, 43 players served on the bargaining committee, with those unable to make it to Philadelphia joining virtually. NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke, NWSLPA president Tori Huster, two labor counsels, Deborah Willig and Jessica Caggiano, and an economist, Dr. Beth Paulin from La Salle University rounded out the team.

“We had dozens more (players) on the Zoom dipping in and out at all hours of the day and night,” Burke told The Athletic. “We were working till 2 a.m. I think our bodies ascended to another plane at one point… caffeine was having no effect on me.”

Those caffeine-fueled marathon days were just the tip of the…

For the past couple of months, the Chicago Red Stars have been scrambling to find a replacement venue for their September 21 game, which was originally to be played at SeatGeek Stadium, their home venue in Bridgeview.

Chicago music festival Riot Fest announced in June that they would be using SeatGeek’s parking lots that weekend for their event, a move that would have disrupted the Red Stars’ ability to use the stadium, with tens of thousands of people expected to attend the concert.

But in a somewhat anticlimactic but welcome development, the conflict has disappeared on its own: Riot Fest will instead be moving back to the city of Chicago proper, leaving SeatGeek unimpeded for its originally scheduled event, a home game against the San Diego Wave.

Red Stars president Karen Leetzow was obviously pleased with the development, telling The Athletic that Riot Fest organizers had confirmed the move to her in writing on Monday, just as the club was preparing to announce its new emergency alternative venue.

That alternative venue? CPKC Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Current. Leetzow said KC Current president Raven Jemison had called her after hearing the initial report of Riot Fest moving to Bridgeview and offered CPKC as a backup, with KC a 90-minute flight from Chicago.

“We…

The Chicago Red Stars will have to move their September 21 home game against the San Diego Wave due to Riot Fest playing in SeatGeek Stadium from September 20-22. The music festival has historically taken place in Douglass Park and was originally scheduled to play there, but festival organizers announced on Wednesday morning that they would be moving to SeatGeek in Bridgeview. The Red Stars have not yet announced a replacement venue.

Red Stars president Karen Leetzow publicly expressed disappointment with the decision.

“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports,” she said in an official statement. “We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off the pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.”

A statement from Chicago Red Stars President, Karen Leetzow, regarding our September 21st match: pic.twitter.com/FHkmBbhnnB

— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) June 12, 2024

The Red Stars have been attempting to build up their fanbase this year after an offseason ownership change. Last week, the Red Stars played a…

The Chicago Red Stars set the new NWSL attendance record Saturday, with 35,038 fans in attendance for a match at Wrigley Field, home of MLB’s Chicago Cubs. The Red Stars just surpassed the previous record, set by Seattle Reign FC last season for Megan Rapinoe’s final-regular season match in the NWSL, which had 34,130 fans at Lumen Field last October.

We did it, Red Stars fans! The Red Stars Take Over Wrigley Field match, presented by Gallagher, has officially broken the NWSL attendance record. Thank you to every person here at Wrigley Field, our sponsors, and everyone who made it possible to #WitnessHistory #WithTheStars! pic.twitter.com/7bvPcYo3qY

— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) June 9, 2024

The match outdrew the USWNT’s 2019 World Cup Victory Tour game at Soldier Field against Korea Republic, which had a crowd of 33,027.

The NWSL will spend its break during the 2024 Olympics playing a tournament with teams from Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, the leagues announced today.

The NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup will feature all 14 NWSL clubs and six Liga MX Femenil teams with the highest points earned in the 2023 Apertura and Clausura tournaments.

It will feature a group stage commencing on July 19 with a semifinal round ending the week of Aug. 4. The championship match will take place on the weekend of Oct. 25.

The tournament will feature five groups, with the top four teams in terms of points advancing to the semifinals.

A quick look at the NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup tournament groups and format. pic.twitter.com/TztnU0udEO

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 20, 2024

How does this impact the NWSL schedule?

Analysis by Meg Linehan

We always knew the NWSL was planning a summer tournament to overlap with this summer’s Olympic Games, and while the league deserves credit for tapping crossover appeal with Liga MX Femenil, the Summer Cup definitely feels like the 1.0 version of a standalone summer tournament.

To be fair, this has been in the works before CONCACAF announced its new qualifiers for the first FIFA Club World Cup, but three NWSL teams are about to have to pull double…

Alex Pfeiffer became the youngest goalscorer in NWSL history in a thriller Saturday, finishing the KC Current’s fifth goal in the team’s inaugural match at its new stadium., a dramatic 5-4 win over the Portland Thorns.

Pfeiffer came on as a second-half substitute and pounced on a chested-down layoff at the top of the box in the 68th minute to make the score 5-1 Kansas City.

At 16 years, 3 months and 20 days old, Pfeiffer beats the previous record for youngest goalscorer set by the Thorns’ Olivia Moultrie in 2022 by about five months.

Another bit of history today

Alex Pfeiffer becomes the youngest goalscorer in league history at 16 years, 4 months! pic.twitter.com/XgjQmumn7t

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 16, 2024

“It’s huge for any player in her generation,” Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the game. “She’s proved that it’s possible, we proved that all together that it’s possible.”

Portland made things very interesting in the closing stages, scoring three unanswered to make things 5-4, but KC was able to hold on.

Who is Alex Pfeiffer?

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Pfeiffer became the fourth-youngest player to sign in the NWSL when she joined the Current last year, inking her deal at 15 years and 338 days old.

She came to…

By Jeff Rueter, Meg Linehan, Melanie Anzidei and Steph Yang

Welcome to the 2024 season of the National Women’s Soccer League. This season, which kicks off with four matches on Saturday, is different from its predecessors in a few ways — primarily with the addition of two expansion teams, and the league’s biggest broadcast deal to date. The Olympics are also happening, which has prompted the league to take a midseason break and host an international club tournament while the U.S. women’s national team competes in Paris.

How you can watch the NWSL is changing in a major way this season, too. So we’ve put together this preview with everything you’ll need ahead of the regular season kickoff (and Friday night’s Challenge Cup match) from how to watch to major storylines, plus the USWNT and international connections across the 14 teams.

To keep following The Athletic’s NWSL coverage, don’t forget to follow the league and your team(s) of choice by managing your feed. And to make sure you don’t miss any of our coverage, subscribe to our women’s soccer newsletter Full Time. It’s our biggest stories paired with Full Time exclusive insights delivered straight to your inbox every week. With the season starting, we’ll be sending out each edition on Monday to make…

The San Diego Wave will soon be under new ownership, and at a record-breaking price.

Principal owner Ron Burkle has agreed to sell the club to the Levine Leichtman family for an eventual total of $120 million – easily a record outlay for an NWSL club, at nearly double the previous record of $63 million paid by the Bhathal family for the Portland Thorns in a deal finalized earlier in 2024.

Burkle will remain as the principal owner through the end of the 2024 season as part of the deal, which will be completed over the course of two transactions, according to a source briefed on the sale who was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing deal.

The source added that the sale was voted on by the NWSL board earlier this week.

The new ownership group is comprised of Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine, who jointly manage the investment firm Levin Leicthman Capital Partners.

Sportico was first to report news of the Wave’s sale.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Levine Leichtman family to the ownership group of the San Diego Wave,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement to The Athletic. “As longtime supporters of the women’s game, Arthur and Lauren know well the impact that our league can have in our society, and as savvy investors, understand the…

Sign up for Full Time, our weekly women’s soccer newsletter covering all things NWSL and USWNT

In 2024, there isn’t a looming narrative hanging over the NWSL. The league is no longer in the early stages of recovering from a widespread reckoning surrounding player welfare. It’s not a World Cup year either. Yes, the Olympics are coming and the U.S. women’s national team is going through a massive transition with incoming head coach Emma Hayes arriving later this spring, but the NWSL has a bit more clean air compared to 2023.

With that clean air, the league has grown in ways public-facing and behind-the-scenes. In the four months since Gotham FC won its first NWSL Championship at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, the offseason has dominated the conversation with an expansion draft for the two incoming teams, Bay FC and Utah Royals FC, the reigning champion Gotham loading up its roster through aggressive free agency moves and teams across the league going big on international signings, bringing talent like Barbra Banda, Asisat Oshoala and Jessie Fleming to the United States.

Existential challenges also still exist, with the main one being the clash between the international schedule and the NWSL’s footprint as more and more competitions get added each year. CONCACAF alone…

Full Time Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.

Some days you’re more of Trinity Rodman needing space and others you’re the Truly Baby. I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan, Steph Yang, and Melanie Anzidei — welcome to Full Time!

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USWNT News

When will Emma Hayes lead the U.S.?

By the time Emma Hayes takes charge of the USWNT at the end of May, we will have officially waited six months since her hiring announcement. Now we know who Hayes will be game-planning for.

The U.S. will host two friendlies against South Korea on June 1 in Commerce City, Col., and June 4 in St. Paul, Minn.

In the meantime, the U.S. still has a trophy on the line in the Gold Cup after defeating Colombia 3-0 on Sunday.

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USWNT Gold Cup semifinal preview

Last time we talked, things weren’t going so well for the USWNT. The team had just lost to Mexico 2-0 in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup group stage finale, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with second-place finishers from Group B, Colombia.

I won’t lie, I had my doubts about the U.S.’s chances in this one. They were unfounded, as the U.S. won 3-0 and advanced to the Gold Cup semifinal against Canada. Read our instant reaction piece from Sunday here.

The U.S.’s…