Story time. Did you know that back in the 2024 season, the MLS championship clash between LA Galaxy and NY Red Bulls drew just over 427,000 viewers on Fox Sports. Meanwhile, the NWSL final, featuring the Orlando Pride’s narrow win over Washington Spirit, pulled in a staggering 967,000 viewers on CBS — a 126% higher viewership than MLS. Impressive, right? Hearing those numbers, you’d imagine that both leagues must have thriving fanbases packing the stands week in and week out. But while that might’ve been true not too long ago, the current picture for the NWSL looks far less encouraging.
Take, for instance, Matchday 23 of the NWSL season. Despite some exciting scorelines across the weekend, the turnouts were alarmingly modest in several venues. The clash between Portland Thorns and Bay FC recorded the highest attendance at 21,104, followed by the Washington Spirit’s home game that drew 17,422 fans. However, beyond those two, the numbers dipped steeply — Angel City FC attracted 11,147 on Monday night, Gotham FC brought in 9,752, while North Carolina Courage and Houston Dash saw 7,218 and 6,406, respectively.
The lowest of the round came from Chicago Red Stars, who barely managed 3,710 spectators despite an exciting 2-2 draw against Utah Royals. Renowned ESPN journalist Jeff Kassouf shed light on the situation via X, highlighting that while a few clubs, notably the Spirit, Gotham, Pride, and Courage, have recorded positive attendance trends, the overall league average is trending downward.
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Kassouf noted that external factors like scheduling (with some games held on Mondays) and broader sports attendance patterns could explain part of the dip, but the fact remains: attendance is down in more than half of the NWSL markets, some significantly.
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GRANTED, the LA game was a Monday (again) + there are wider sports attendance trends to factor, BUT average attendance is down in over half of #NWSL markets, some significantly. Spirit/Gotham/Pride/Courage have made gains, but that's not the overall trend. Something to watch. https://t.co/LTpNbWZ7Op

— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) October 7, 2025

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