It’s time for the sixth edition of the NWSL Challenge Cup, the ceremonial season start that’s now celebrated with a one-game showdown between the top two teams from the season prior. Sit tight — the regular-season NWSL kickoff is one week away, but tonight’s 8 p.m. ET game is the season appetizer you don’t want to miss. Pass the nachos.

Yesterday, Scripps Sports shared plans to expand on its NWSL coverage for the upcoming 2025 season. After reaching more than 20M unique viewers in its first season covering the league, the company’s Ion network is doubling down on its NWSL investment with revamped studio production.

Last Wednesday, Prime Video announced the March 6th premiere date of For The Win, the docuseries covering the 2024 NWSL playoffs. While sports documentaries have been a mainstay in men’s sports for years, women’s soccer is now getting movie star treatment as media companies and brands recognize the market interest in covering the pitch.

The NWSL kicked off an expansive content partnership with youth sports media brand Overtime yesterday, marking the Gen Z–driven company’s first deal with a pro women’s league. By partnering with the popular social media brand, the NWSL will be able to meet younger soccer fans where they are and cultivate new fandom within the next generation.

Yesterday, NJ/NY Gotham FC inked a multiyear deal with Dove that includes a back-of-jersey sponsorship, reportedly breaking the NWSL’s $500K record for a back-of-jersey logo deal. After years of low turnout, the NYC–adjacent NWSL team has finally been able to take advantage of being in the biggest metro area thanks to big-name signings and on-field success.

Global interest in women’s soccer is rising, making for an increasingly competitive international market. And as covered in last week’s episode of The GIST of It, the women’s side differs from the men’s: The NWSL has historically had top billing when it comes to developing and recruiting talent.

The 2025 NWSL season is less than two months away, and this offseason has already been perhaps the most dramatic ever. The college draft is gone and free agents have more, well, agency than ever before. It’s all because of the league’s landmark 2024 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that went into effect last July and granted significant power to the players.

Private equity (PE) giant and Bay FC majority owner Sixth Street is launching a new multi-club women’s soccer organization called Bay Collective. Similar to trailblazer Michele Kang’s Kynisca, the collective aims to foster growth in women’s soccer by investing in clubs worldwide while also creating opportunities to further capitalize on the women’s game.

On Friday, Deloitte released its third annual Deloitte Football Money League report profiling 15 top revenue-generating women’s soccer clubs during the 2023–2024 season. Deloitte’s data included leagues throughout most of Europe, Brazil, and Japan, but didn’t include data from the U.S. or Australia.

Per Sportico, Denver beat out competing NWSL cities Cincinnati and Cleveland to secure the league’s 16th franchise yesterday. Investors reportedly paid an expansion fee of $110M, which more than doubles the previous NWSL record and marks the biggest expansion fee in U.S. women’s sports history.

Netflix pulled off quite the heist on Friday by acquiring the U.S. media rights for the 2027 and 2031 editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC). It will be Netflix’s first time covering an entire sports tournament and marks FIFA’s biggest deal with a streamer, not to mention it’s the first time the WWC’s U.S. rights were sold separately from the men’s FIFA World Cup.

In addition to sweetening the pot for Europe’s national teams, UEFA has been committed to creating a holistic ecosystem for women’s soccer at the club level. On Monday, the organization shared details around the Women’s Europa Cup, a second-tier club competition hoping to drive domestic investment in the women’s game across Europe.