An opportune time to kick off for the Carolina Ascent

CAROLINA ASCENT

Carolina Ascent players celebrate after Vicky Bruce scored the franchise's first goal in a 1-0 win against DC Power Aug. 17 at American Legion Memorial Stadium.

It’s a new day for women’s team sports.

The Carolina Ascent and USL Super League come along at an auspicious time for women’s team sports in the United States when attendance and television viewership are hitting record numbers.
As of mid-June, the WNBA was averaging 1.32 million viewers on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and CBS, and attendance is up 156% over last year.

By late June, the NWSL eclipsed 1 million in attendance for the third straight season but much faster than in the previous two years. It’s an increase of 42% from last season. Six of the league’s 14 teams have set new attendance records, marked by a new single match record of 35,038 in Chicago, breaking a record for professional women’s soccer set in 2001.

The Ascent plays is Ft. Lauderdale United FC Friday at 7:30 p.m. at American Legion Memorial Stadium. The match will also be televised on Peacock.

The Ascent sit alone atop the USL Super League standings with 4 points from two matches. With Tampa Bay two points back, a win will solidify that spot while a draw would mean a Tampa win away to Lexington on Sunday could bring them even.

Through Week 13, more than 7 million viewers had watched games across the league’s national Nielsen-rated broadcast platforms, up 95% from the 2023 season.

It follows a trend marked by the unprecedented success of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

It also marks a dramatic evolution from the Women’s United Soccer Association, the first professional league of its kind in the world, which launched in 2001 on the heels of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup that was hosted and won by the United States. WUSA attendance was primarily driven by whether Mia Hamm, the former USA and North Carolina star who was elevated to mythic proportions through her Nike sponsorship, was playing or not.

Though Caitlin Clark could be characterized as the Mia Ham of hoops with attendance 105% higher when she plays, the WNBA is benefitting from a broader appreciation of all their stars and teams, even when Clark isn’t in the building.

Further growth predicted

The latest edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ annual Global Sports Survey has revealed that 85% of sports experts are predicting double-digit growth for women’s sports revenues over the next three to five years.

With unparalleled attendance and viewership of women’s events, the PwC report says that 2023-24 was a record-breaking year “that suggests a positive change in consciousness,” adding that the U.S. Open women’s tennis final and NCAA women’s basketball tournament “significantly outperformed the men’s equivalents.”

“We see more interest commercially, more interest from the fans and there are so many players who haven’t had the chance to play professionally,” Super League President Amanda Vandervort told the Sports Business Journal in April.

The USL Super League’s inaugural season began two weeks ago with teams in Brooklyn, Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, Spokane, Tampa and Washington, D.C. Five of the eight ownership groups also own and operate a team in one of USL’s two men’s pro leagues, USL Championship and USL League One.

Immediate growth is on the horizon. Eight additional markets — Chattanooga, Indianapolis, Jacksonville; Madison, Oakland, Palm Beach, Phoenix, and Tucson — have committed to joining the league in future seasons. To maintain Division 1 status, the league must begin with eight teams and have 10 by year four.

Officially, the NWSL and Super League are on the same level. Initially planned to be a second division level league, USL leaders and club owners aggressively switched their stance last year to go after topflight sanctioning from U.S. Soccer, which required more investment to equal their ambition. It required the league to meet a higher set of standards, such as market size (75% of teams must play in markets of at least 750,000 people); collective ownership net worth (at least $25 million per club); and stadium capacity (at least 5,000 seats).

By comparison, Major League Soccer, the country’s only top tier men’s league, has a minimum stadium capacity of 15,000, an ownership net worth of at least $70 million, and “broadcast or cable television contract(s) that provide(s) for the telecasting of all regular season games as well as the championship game or series,” according to the Pro League Standards of the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2023.

A third-division level men’s league such as USL One, which includes the Charlotte Independence, requires a minimum stadium capacity of 1,000 seats and collective ownership net worth of at least $10 million per club.

While they are both first division leagues, their seasons will partially overlap as the Super League is matching up with the European calendar that begins play in August and runs into the spring. The NWSL aligns with the MLS and USL men’s calendars that begin at the end of winter/early spring and run into the fall.

“The NWSL has been incredibly successful, and look where they are after 12 seasons,” Vandervort told The Athletic in May. “They’ve had 12 years to build and grow to where they are. I have nothing but compliments and confidence for them.

“We’re just launching the Super League this year and we’re doing it differently. I think that people will start to see the Super League not in a comparative way, but because I think we’re doing something innovative and special and looking towards the future.”

The Super League will open opportunities for players not drafted by the NWSL and for those who want to dictate where they play as there won’t be a Super League draft at all. Players can sign where they want. Both leagues allow up to seven international players per team. Salaries will depend on team ownership.

As of the new collective bargaining agreement between the NWSL and its players association, there is no limit for an individual maximum annual salary, and the league-minimum salary will more than double over the course of the CBA, from $48,500 in 2025 to $82,500 in 2030.

Minimum salaries for the Super League have not been disclosed. Super League players are not represented by a union.

“We feel that the Super League offers something unique, special and different for owners, investors and players that sets us apart in both the domestic landscape and the global landscape,” Vandervort, a former MLS executive, told the Charlotte-based Sports Business Journal.

While Vandervort declined to share specifics about player compensation, she did say it would include salaries, housing and health care that is competitive with the NWSL and other top leagues.

“We want to participate in the global marketplace, allow our owners to manage their budgets how they see fit and have our players earn the compensation they deserve,” Vandervort told SBJ.

“It's a new opportunity in the business community to invest in something that we think has the opportunity to really lead in a global marketplace. And that’s really what we’re thinking about — not just today, but tomorrow and the future of women’s professional sports.

National team connections

Charlotte native Taylor Suarez, 19, is with the U.S. U20 Women’s National Team at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia. The former Ardrey Kell star now plays for Florida State. She previously represented the U.S. at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India.

Former North Carolina All-American Ally Sentnor, now with the Utah Royals in the NWSL, is also on the U.S. team along with current Tar Heel Maddie Dahlien.

The Americans dropped their first match to Spain 1-0 last Sunday and defeated Morocco 2-0 on Wednesday. Dahlien scored the second goal in that match. Next up is Paraguay on Saturday. The match will be televised on FS2.

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