New and Emerging Leagues in Sports and Entertainment: Part 2

Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan celebrates a scored goal during her first season with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave FC (Credit: San Diego Wave FC).

Piggybacking off our piece on successful new leagues in sports and entertainment, we’re back with our second edition. While these leagues aren’t in year one or two, these organizations have been around for far less than the traditional major sports leagues in North America.

So let’s discuss these other leagues and how they got here, specifically with two soccer leagues, a fellow women’s sports league that continues to break barriers, and a racing organization that we’re sure you’ve heard of that’s striving for a better environment for all.

1/ United Soccer League (USL)

• Started in 1986 with both men’s and women’s leagues.
• Over 200 teams are under the U.S. Soccer Federation and US Adult Soccer Association.
• The USL oversees several soccer leagues, including the USL Championship, USL League One and Two, Youth Super Y League, and USL W League.
• The new league for 2022 is the USL W League (pre-professional women’s soccer) and the organization is looking to add another women-based league with the USL Super League coming in 2023.
• The USL’s media rights deal with ESPN broadcasts games on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes, and now has expanded to ESPN International. The ESPN International deal helped bring the USL to nearly 60 million homes (over 45 million digitally) across 55 territories. ESPN’s deals with the USL have tripled the number of USL games being televised.
• Teams throughout the league are being invested by major sports figures like Marshawn Lynch, as well as former soccer stars Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, and DaMarcus Beasley.
• The USL recently inked a league-wide ticketing deal with SeatGeak

The oldest of these emerging leagues, the USL began its play in the 1980s and started as an indoor soccer organization known as the Southwest Indoor Soccer League. Today, its top three levels of play are broken up like collegiate sports and are separated into three divisions to coincide with the United States soccer league system (Divisions I, II, and III).

The USL continues to seek expansion and has an exclusive rights deal with USL NOLA on its docket. Milwaukee was awarded an expansion franchise and will play in the USL Championship (the second-highest level of men’s soccer in the country). The hope is to also bring a USL Championship team on the men’s side to New Orleans by 2025. USL League One announced recently that Santa Barbara Sky FC is another expansion team that plans to begin to play in 2024. There is no word yet on what the club will do in terms of its women’s team.

Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow is also helping the league expand, as he now works with an ownership group led by Ricky Caplin that is looking to bring a team to Tebow’s hometown of Jacksonville by 2025.

One thing the USL continues to do as well is expanding the women’s soccer game. Recently, Sarah Brady was given the title of USL Academy Director for the women’s pathway. The intent of the program is to discover talent on the girls’ side throughout the country, while also creating a pipeline from the youth leagues up in a “youth-to-pro” player-development structure, according to the league website.

The league also just created a Northwest Division for the USL W League by adding Capital FC Atletica, OVF Alliance, Lane United FC and Oly Town FC. Having been a part of the USL system in the past in League Two, these four squads will make the jump to the USL’s top women’s league in 2023.

The USL as an entity has also grown due to the partnerships it’s maintained. The collective of soccer leagues currently is partnering with sports retailer Puma, the Konami eFootball video game, payment processing company Shift4, and sports hotel/housing program HotelPlanner, among others.

Also helping the USL is its connection with ESPN, as all league matches are broadcasted on the leading sports network and its family of outlets including ESPN+ and ESPN 3. The USL has also opened USL Productions to not only distribute league games but also provide original content about teams, coaches, and players within the league.

Why USL?

Outside of expanding women’s soccer, the USL is a league that is looking to connect with a younger crowd. According to uslchampionship.com, the league’s fan base is comprised of 64% of people aged 18–44. The league also is trying to do its best on and off the field, particularly with its USL 20/20 program, which was implemented to improve the quality of the league as a whole. The USL has a reputation for fostering strong partnerships and having stable organizational leadership under President Jake Edwards, CEO Alec Papadakis, and Chairman Robert Hoskins.

Where are the jobs:

Based in Tampa Bay, Fla., the USL’s headquarters has several positions available at the moment and has over 50 professionals on staff spanning 12 departments with varying sections. Those departments are Media, Partnership Marketing, Club Services, Communications & Public Relations, Creative Services, Digital Services, Finance, Sporting Development, Legal, Operations, Social Media, and the People division.

The USL has those positions available today on TeamWork Online.

2/ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)

• Starting play in 2012, the NWSL is the successor to past women’s soccer leagues — Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) and Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA).
• 12 teams in the league, all based throughout the United States. The teams in the NWSL also own the league.
• The NWSL is streamed as a part of the Paramount+ package — along with CBS Sports Network — which has a subscriber base of over 60 million.
• The league is also looking to expand with the hopes of adding two teams by 2024. However, the NWSL will be considering the recent Roe Vs. Wade decision in terms of where it plans to base these expansion teams.
• Also with the expansion teams, the impending ownership group for the potential Bay Area-based franchise is headed by four former women’s soccer players — Aly Wagner, Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, and Danielle Slaton. Of the investors in this group, 70% are women.
• Nike, one of the NWSL’s founding partners, just extended its apparel supply deal with the league. The Nike deal may be the most significant yet for the NWSL following a rough patch during the pandemic. Other NWSL partners include Verizon, Budweiser, and Mastercard

The NWSL is the US’s top women’s soccer league and its longest-running yet. Now 10 seasons into play, the NWSL is the first US women’s soccer league to run for more than three years. A part of making that happen was U.S. Soccer, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) paying the player salaries of their respective national team players. Not only did that allow for high-end talent to play on the field, but it also allowed teams to stay under the salary cap.

The NWSL has also trailblazed in other areas. It was the first US women’s soccer league to have nine or more teams in the league (the Houston Dash was added in 2014, which was backed by MLS’s Houston Dynamos) but also the league was the first to return to play amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The NWSL made its return in 2020 with the NWSL Challenge Cup and NWSL Fall Series as special competitions that had altered formats to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Also, going into the 2022 season, it was announced that all NWSL players are represented by the NWSLPA players’ union. This cleared the way for the league and the players’ union to enter their first collective bargaining agreement together.

The final game of the 2022 season brought on a first-time occurrence for the league. The NWSL Championship game was broadcasted in its first primetime broadcast spot on Oct. 29 on CBS, Paramount+, and internationally on Twitch. The game’s lead sponsor was Ally Financial and it was also presented by Budweiser. The high-profile partners and primetime slot did wonders for the NWSL, as it produced a league-record 915,000 viewers for the match and a 71% increase in viewership from the 2021 championship game.

Why NWSL?

The NWSL is a league that is still up-and-coming having been around 10 years, but it has already pioneered women’s soccer in the United States. One of the pioneering pieces is the fact that the league is majority women-owned. A major factor in the NWSL’s success is the stability it’s provided in comparison to its predecessors, specifically when it comes to expenses and revenue. Plus the league’s popularity continues to grow, which showed when the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup Final garnered a league-record 653,000 viewers, all the way to its record figure for the 2022 championship game.

The league prides itself on the connection it has with its homegrown community as well. And with expansion on the horizon, you may be able to take part in a league that’s now established, but for teams who are looking to ingrain themselves amongst their peers.

Where are the jobs:

If you’re looking for roles within the NWSL, you can find them right here on TeamWork Online. The NWSL’s headquarters are based in New York City, so that note must be considered for potential candidates.

The league has roles in many departments as well; Memberships, Player Experience, Accounting, Analytics, Sports Science, Ticket Sales, Events, and more. The NWSL and its teams also have roles in all careers-levels: from internships and entry-level roles to manager, director, and senior-level positions.

3/ WNBA

• Another league that is still establishing itself with much success, this professional women’s basketball league has been playing since 1997.
• What has helped the league grow is its backing from the NBA. It was also founded by former NBA Commissioner David Stern.
• As it stands as a women-only league, it is now the longest-tenured women’s sports league in the United States.
• The league raised roughly $75 million in its first funding round in February 2022, as the WNBA followed up from its 25th anniversary season in 2021.
• The 2022 season was the WNBA’s most televised and most promoted season with longtime partner ESPN. This led to several viewership records across the board.
• The 2022 WNBA postseason was the league’s most-watched in 15 years.
• Digital investment platform Stackwell (which is intended to eliminate the racial wealth gap) has begun a new partnership with the league, specifically with the Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics. The partnership is set to aid with community engagement that will also provide $250K for local communities.
• Other WNBA partners include Kaiser Permanente, U.S. Bank, and Amazon’s Prime Video.
• Expansion is on the horizon, as WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert noted that she will announce two new expansion cities by the end of 2022.
• The league will bump up teams from a 36-game slate to a 40-game schedule in 2023.
• In terms of in-game sponsorships, the WNBA has taken from many European sports with teams donning partners on their respective jerseys.
• FanDuel partnered with the WNBA to become the league’s official sportsbook and daily fantasy sports partner. This deal allows FanDuel TV to air WNBA highlights, launch WNBA-themed games on their apps, and will provide betting odds on WNBA digital content in the future.
• The WNBA will also be broadcasted on the newly-launched Women’s Sports Network and is available on FuboTV, Tubi, Amazon Freevee, Sports.tv, and LG Channels for LG Smart TVs, among others.

While the on-court absence of one of the league’s top stars was a constant theme throughout the season, the WNBA made more waves on and off the court in 2022. Even something that may seem trivial like the latest WNBA Finals competitors — the Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun — getting charter flights that offered amenities for the first time, is another positive step in the league’s direction.

The league often referred to as “the W” has expansion efforts that are worth noting. With roughly 10 cities still being mulled over, the WNBA could add to its 12-team league with its first new franchise since 2008 (the Atlanta Dream). The hope is to get those teams playing by 2024, but by no later than 2025. One of the cities being pushed frequently is Portland — which is a market that’s already supported the Portland Trailblazers since 1970 — as well as San Francisco and Oakland in California’s Bay Area, which have both been homes to the Golden State Warriors.

One thing that must be noted is the WNBA’s visibility. According to ESPN, the 2022 season was a major success there and it was evident in viewership. That can be attributed to programming like the WNBA’s first-ever draft lottery special, WNBA Countdown during the postseason, All-Star weekend coverage, and extended coverage for the WNBA Draft, not to mention more WNBA-focused posts on ESPN’s social platforms. Let’s take a look at the high marks the 2022 season brought:

• The 2022 WNBA All-Star game was the league’s most viewed in seven years (53% increase).
• The 2022 WNBA Draft was the most watched for the league since 2004 (20% increase).
• It was the league’s most-viewed full season and regular season in 16 and 14 years, respectively, with 22% and 20% increases.
• The opening round of the playoffs saw a 50% increase in viewership and was the league’s most-viewed opening round since 2007.

This all comes after the WNBA’S 25th anniversary season, which brought forth the Commissioner’s Cup. The event — which is presented by cryptocurrency company Coinbase as the naming rights partner — is an in-season tournament that runs through the first half of regular season play and gives players the chance to earn anything between an extra $10K and at least $30K (on the winning side) in extra funds.

The WNBA has also been one of the industry leaders in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In 2021, the league formed the WNBA Social Justice Council to “educate, amplify and mobilize for action” and focus on “engaging educators, activists, community and business leaders with players, team and league staff, and fans,” according to the league’s website. The group is comprised of 15 women, including current players and league executives, as well as outside council advisors.

This year, the WNBA celebrated LGBTQ+ Pride Month with community events, special ticket packages, in-arena experiences, Pride-themed Twitter spaces, and Pride merchandise with Fanatics. The Fanatics merchandise was all to benefit GLSEN.

Why the WNBA?

Not only is it a league known for high-level basketball, but it is also one that has shown constant growth over the last two decades. Its popularity has grown so much that its viewership in 2022 was higher than both MLS and the NHL’s 2021 campaigns. Also, it may just be the most progressive league in all of sports. According to the annual TIDES Report, the WNBA has received at least an overall A-grade in terms of racial and gender hires from 2005 to 2021, and could be in line for another A following the 2022 season.

Where are the jobs?

The WNBA offseason is upon us, so more openings throughout the league will be available in due time. But in the meantime, TeamWork has WNBA jobs listed under its NBA jobs section.

TeamWork partners with several WNBA teams: the Aces, Sun, Dream, Mystics, Dallas Wings, and Indiana Fever.

4/ NASCAR

• Began in 1948 and has had a Southern influence due to its creation and residency in Daytona Beach, Fla.
• The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season started off with the inaugural Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Of those in attendance, roughly 70% were first-time NASCAR ticket buyers (NBC Sports).
• Despite inflation, NASCAR’s sales academy helped the organization see a ticket sale increase of over 20% from 2021 (Forbes).
• The 2022 season may have been NASCAR’s most competitive yet — there were 19 winners across 36 races, including five first-time winners, and rookie Austin Cindric won the Daytona 500.
• After five sellouts in 2021, NASCAR saw nine in 2022, including at Daytona International Raceway and Phoenix Raceway. Atlanta Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway had their biggest attendances since 2014 and 2017, respectively (Forbes).
• For the 2023 season, there will be 21 NASCAR Cup Series races aired on FOX and NBC, the most since 2009 (NASCAR.com).

The 2022 season was one that NASCAR will look back to in its history. There were many talking points throughout, but one of the major ones was how competitive the racing was on the track. This led to strong viewership — the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship from Phoenix Raceway was NASCAR’s most-watched title race in three years and it was the most-streamed Cup Series race in NBC Sports’ history with a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 3.355 million viewers (up 2% from 2021 and 8% from 2020, respectively). And while it was not an increase from 2021, NASCAR’s season-long viewership was over a TAD of 2.45 million once again (NBC Sports).

The Next Gen car was a point of discussion in 2022, as the once-size-fits-all vehicles produced NASCAR’s closest stock car model in over 50 years. It also was designed to mitigate the gap between big and small race teams and cut down costs on maintaining vehicles. NASCAR’s Research & Development Center plans to add rear clip design and new rear bumpers to the Next Gen cars in 2023.

NASCAR is also it's doing its best to fight against non-inclusive practices. The top racing organization made good on a tough situation involving BIPOC driver Bubba Wallace in 2020, which led to banning the Confederate Flag from all tracks. NASCAR has doubled down on its diversity efforts and has strived to make for a more inclusive culture in the world of racing. Here are some of the initiatives it has brought forth since then:

NASCAR Diversity Internship Program:

• Paid internship, specifically for diverse undergraduate and graduate students (must be at least a sophomore and hold a 3.0 GPA)

NASCAR Drive for Diversity program:

• Academy-style training program to train drivers for the track and beyond. Also competing in developmental racing series including NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, INEX Legend Cars, and the ARCA Menards under Rev Racing
• For pit crew members, the program is targeted towards aspiring BIPOC and female crew. The hope is to develop these up-and-comers and give them the requisite tools to work in the pits for one of NASCAR’s three national racing series

NASCAR Supplier Diversity:

• The top racing organization is recognizing and making a concerted effort to include diverse suppliers for its cars, tracks, and other things pertaining to its events. These diverse suppliers include minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, LGBTQ-owned businesses, disabled-owned businesses, and veteran-owned ones as well.

Why NASCAR?

Even as an organization just wrapping up its 74th season, NASCAR is still looking to improve. Rather than relying on the fan base it's been connected to for years, NASCAR has been intentional about attracting younger fans, which has been helped by ticketing and an even pricing rate over the last five years. And again, it cannot be overstated how important it’s been seeing NASCAR’s DEI efforts over the last two years.

Where are the jobs?

NASCAR currently has various roles throughout its organization, including in Ticket Sales and in the Legal sector. But stay tuned, as more positions come available closer to the start of the 2023 season in February.

What did we learn?

One of the best parts of seeing these three leagues thrive is the fact that they are women-based sports leagues. The chatter of women’s sports not being able to generate enough buzz has become a myth seeing the streaming deals and viewership figures for the leagues, and with how each league has partnered with numerous industry-leading organizations outside of sports.

All of which are expanding, all of which are growing in popularity, and each league is generating revenue to better compensate its players. And, most importantly, each league is doing its part to make for a more Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive world of sports and entertainment.

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