Boardroom sits down with league executive Julie Haddon to discuss the huge 2024 campaign while looking ahead to more growth in women’s soccer.
The 2024 NWSL season marked a monumental achievement for the league, shattering multiple viewership records for both in-person attendance and at-home broadcasts. Fans flocked to stadiums in droves, while television ratings soared, reflecting the growing popularity and visibility of women’s professional soccer in the United States.
The league’s continued ascent was fueled by thrilling matchups, a surge in fan engagement, and a heightened spotlight on the incredible talent within the NWSL. As the season closed with another exciting Championship final, where the Orlando Pride won its first-ever title against the Washington Spirit, the league’s achievements leave a forever mark on the sports landscape.
To discuss the strategies behind this unprecedented success and the vision for the future of the NWSL, Boardroom sat down with Julie Haddon, the NWSL’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. Haddon has played a pivotal role in elevating the league’s profile, driving fan engagement, and shaping its marketing initiatives. In this exclusive interview, she shares insights into the league’s record-breaking season and offers a glimpse into what lies ahead for women’s soccer in the US.
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VINCIANE NGOMSI: When it comes to in-person attendance and viewership, the best way to describe this season is record-breaking. How are you planning to capitalize on that going into 2025, and how do you think it’s shaped the perception of women’s soccer in this country?
JULIE HADDON: We had another historic season at the NWSL. We beat attendance records, and we beat viewership records. And what was really exciting was its culmination at the Championship in Kansas City, which was the largest viewership in history we’ve had at the league. We also broke ticket price records for that game. We also broke records in social following this past year, up 280%. In fact, one of the biggest growths was social followers.
Overall, I’d say the first year of our landmark media deal is going very well. The goal at the outset of the season was migrating all of our fans over to these four media platforms and also building our own direct-to-consumer property called NWSL+. So we did that successfully and as we head into 2025, keeping the gas on the growth and fueling the fan engagement is what we’re focused on.
What is going to be exciting for us is tapping into new audiences. When I think around the fact that we have a total addressable audience base of nearly 50 million, we are going to be tapping into soccer enthusiasts that may not be fans of the NWSL. One segment is existing soccer fans, and the other segment [is] young fans that are very much focused on what the league stands for and want to enjoy us because they like the fact that the NWSL is very much a part of culture. So, there are a lot of programs and campaigns and efforts that we’re going to be focusing on as we head into 2025.
VN: How does the NWSL plan to continue capitalizing on the momentum generated by global events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup?
JH: Social is our fastest-growing channel, if you will. When I think about the amount of follower growth over the past year, it’s a triple-digit growth. We have a lot of storytelling focus around both social and digital, and that will be the stars of our game. When you look at somebody like Temwa [Chawinga], Barbara Banda, or Marta, those are the names that may not be on the US National Team but are mega stars within our league. We have so many players that make the NWSL their home outside of just the national team. So, we are focusing on building stars.
When you look at the 2024 Paris Olympics, there were 19 players on [the USWNT] that won gold, but there were 61 total NWSL players on Olympic rosters. NWSL players were on 11 out of 12 teams. For the 2023 World Cup in Australia, it was a similar situation.
But the storytelling and giving a narrative to some of the facts that the best players in the world, not just the US national team, but around the global game, play and make their home inside the NWSL is going to be an important part of driving younger fans because people want to care and hear about the stories and the players. There are so many lines within there about their backgrounds or what makes them part of culture, what makes them part of industries or gaming or music, or different kinds of cross-pollination of where our players’ interests lie both on and off the pitch.
VN: What’s the strategy behind building partnerships with major brands, and how do you ensure those collaborations align with the league’s values and goals?
JH: When I think about the NWSL ecosystem, it’s not just about the broadcast partners, but there are two other important cohorts of partnerships we work with. One is our brand sponsor partners, and those are people like Ally Financial, Adobe, Amazon, CarMax, Deloitte, Google Pixel, Nationwide, and Tiffany & Co. making the trophies. There are just a lot of partners within the NWSL that use their talent and vision to help build our brand and their brand together.
One of my favorite programs that we just wrapped up this past year was an Adobe Stage at the Championship. We had Tori Kelly perform, we had CarMax host the skills challenge, and this was all happening during the NFL game window. There are really some good partnerships we’ve got, and we continue to talk to several brands that reach out to us.
VN: Looking ahead, what are your top priorities for the NWSL over the next 3-5 years, both from a marketing and on-field perspective? How do you envision the relationship between the NWSL and other major global women’s soccer leagues evolving, especially as the competition heats up worldwide?
JH: Oh, that’s a fun question. Whether it’s mainstream mass media through our big linear partners and creative in the form of an advertising or an activation, it’s more one-to-one compared to some of the more performance-based media where we’re putting highlights inside paid social to drive viewers. We are focused on putting holistic full-funnel marketing to drive growth and engagement with our current fans and new fans.
I think with soccer continuing to grow, certainly in America, it’s so accessible for kids, adults, and families as well as our core base that got us this far. I feel very excited about continuing to reach fans where they are and bringing new ones into the ecosystem.
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