The NWSL has broken new ground by becoming the first US women’s professional soccer competition to survive beyond three seasons, bringing an air of cautious optimism to the league’s front office.

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has broken new ground by becoming the first US women’s professional soccer competition to survive beyond three seasons. The milestone has brought with it an air of cautious optimism to the league’s front office, giving rise to talk of further expansion at a time when the profile of women's soccer in the US is at an all-time high.

Today, several of the NWSL’s top stars are enjoying household-name status while the USA’s continued international success, including victory at last year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada, has garnered a welcome spike in league spectator numbers. The Orlando Pride, a new addition to the league for this season, set an attendance record of 23,403 for their inaugural home opener against the Houston Dash in April.

Still, commissioner Jeff Plush knows it remains early days. Having led the league since January 2015, the former Major League Soccer (MLS) executive and board member is well aware of the lingering need to become a self-sustaining entity, one that is free from national federation subsidies and capable of securing commercial partners wiling to invest in raising the profile of women’s soccer across the US.

As the new NWSL season gathered momentum in late April, SportsPro caught up with Plush to talk franchise expansion, commercial growth, and the outlook for the beautiful game in women’s soccer’s dominant market.

SP: Firstly, congratulations on becoming the first US women’s pro league to survive beyond three seasons. What does that say about the current health and profile of women’s soccer in the US?

JP: Thank you. This is something we’re certainly very excited about and very bullish on our future. It certainly speaks to the quality of the young women who work and play at such a high level within our league. The popularity of women’s soccer in the United States is fantastic and probably the envy of the world. We’re excited about what that means for our future. Clearly, we still are in the process of building as a league, and that’s going to continue to be a process. We’re in a fourth season and while we’re excited about that, we also know there is still plenty of work to be done. But we’re in business and equally excited about what our future holds.

You’ve expanded into Florida this year with the addition of the Orlando Pride. What does that team and that market bring to the league and what was it about Orlando that made it an attractive place to expand into?

I think any time you look at expansion you start with strength of ownership, quality of ownership, and the type of operators that they are. Orlando operates at such a high level. But also the fact that as this is a small league and a small boardroom, how they’re going to add value to the boardroom and be a partner. They certainly tick all those boxes in a very meaningful way.

Beyond that, certainly, geography is always nice. As you know, we have such a big country here and frankly so many people, boys and girls, playing soccer across the United States. The ability to get our product into other parts of the country is really, long-term, very beneficial to us. Florida is a vibrant market and clearly ten teams was of particular interest to us; to get us to an even number of teams, so no more bye weeks, just operationally made a lot of sense.

In terms of further expansion, which markets are of particular interest to you? How are talks progressing wth potential owners and host cities?

My thoughts and our collective thoughts on expansion are: we are certainly very excited about the prospect of expansion. Its part of the process of wanting to improve on the next steps, knowing that we have lots of considerations. Part of that is commercial, part of that is geography and how that relates to both sponsorship and media rights and values. Part of it, though, is about which markets will be most likely to really be a supporter at the gate.

Like I said, it all comes down to ownership, getting the right people to add value to the board and value to the proposition that we’re undertaking and our long-term strategies to grow. I’m fairly confident we’ll be ambitious to expand and probably looking to expand by two clubs in the next round.

Plush believes the owners of Orlando Pride, the NWSL's newest franchise, "tick all those boxes in a very meaningful way".

So would you look at expanding to 12 teams as early as next season?

I think that will be opened up for a little bit of dialogue. I think the important thing is to do it right. Clearly, if we’re able to find the next two partners that we’re excited to have in our ranks in really short order, then 2017 is more than viable. But if it took longer, I would have to say that the right market and the right partners is more important than the timing of when we come to fruition on those conversations.

It’s no secret that we’re quite empty in the western United States. You think that Portland and Seattle have certainly been very successful in the Pacific Northwest but then we have nothing until you get to either Chicago, Kansas or Houston in the middle of the country. I think western expansion would certainly make a lot of sense from a geography point of view, and they have attractive markets and not only very successful clubs at the highest men’s level, but also very successful in growing participation at the grassroots level as well.

How financially stable is the league today?

It is stable because, I think, full credit to everyone we associate with who run it in a way that is stable. That means we have to continue to build our businesses and grow commercial revenues, both at the local and national level. While we do that we’ll continue to invest in our league and our players and our coaching and training methods - all those things. We’re where we probably expected to be two weeks into our fourth season, but we will continue to build and grow from where we are today. I think we’re very positive on where we’re going in that respect.

Four years in, the NWSL remains heavily subsidised by the US, Canadian and Mexican federations. Do you see a time when the league is able to stand on its own two feet?

There are two different things, I guess. We are really pleased and very appreciative of the support we have from our federation partners. It's incredibly important. Certainly, from a league office point of view, our mission is to get to a point where we are self-sustaining and I think that can happen and will happen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we would choose to be self-sustaining if we could continue to have a great partner, as we do.

I think it's always nice to be able to be creating enough momentum in the marketplace and having a strong enough business that you can do whatever you choose to do, to continue to make decisions for your business, but no question that we wouldn't be where we are today without the support of our federation partners. Its such a strong partnership, well beyond the financial contribution. Its bigger than just that and so they’re a very meaningful part of how we anticipate growing.

"The women’s game continues to grow and many of the national FAs want the best for it, and that’s a good thing."

You recently went on record saying the NWSL needs more sponsors. How are things developing on that front?

They’re developing fine, I would say. It takes a while; it probably is taking longer in certain categories than I would like. But that doesn't mean there is a lack of interest and opportunity for us. Sometimes the sponsor marketplace takes longer, and to be fair we continue to round out our offering. As we look at our offering and get prepared to try and offer other markets, that’s only going to be more helpful in conversations we have with soccer sponsors, as we become more and more of a national property all the time.

Would you like to see more sponsors that are currently backing the men’s game - through Soccer United Marketing (SUM), for example - coming across and showing their support for the women’s game?

Certainly we’d love to see more of those sponsors, or those types of sponsors, I guess. Those categories are incredibly beneficial. At the end of the day, we need people who want to be involved with us, want to help us build something substantive, and do it for all the right reasons. I think that’s where we’re working incredibly hard in having success in lots of areas.

This is an area where we need to have more success but we need to do it in partnership with people. Sponsors who are looking to make a significant and material impact on the league, on the quality of the opportunity for young women, and do it with the types of individuals that they’ll find that they can really grow and partner with, I think that they should look long and hard at us.

​You recently renewed your national TV deal with Fox, who are now covering production costs for the first time. What does that deal say about the league’s appeal for broadcasters and also viewer appetite for NWSL soccer?

Two things: clearly we’re very pleased with the Fox relationship and the extension of that deal. We’re excited to have those games on up to our championship. It speaks to the quality of our product and, certainly, women’s soccer, the value and visibility and ratings and all those things, obviously don’t have what the Women’s World Cup has, and that is clearly demonstrating that there’s an appetite for this type of content. If we continue to build our profile and build our league and round out our more mature offering, which it will be in half a dozen years or so, we’re excited about that.

I also think there is tremendous opportunity for us in the media stakes, not just live games but other types of content that we are in discussions with having deployed across multiple platforms, knowing that our players and part of the demographic that watches us consume content on a seemingly 24-hour a day basis. I think there is a lot more that can be done with our players and with our content.

Since the Fox deal is non-exclusive, will you be adding another national TV partner this season?

We’re always looking to add more partners; what form they take, or what type of distribution outlet, is still to be determined. I think there are lots of different ways that that can go. As you know, the marketplace has changed dramatically; it's no longer just linear deals, it's so different. We’re excited about how our content can be consumed across lots of different platforms and bringing a really unique offer to the marketplace.

23,403 fans turned out for the Pride's inaugural home opener in April, setting a new NWSL attendance record.

What is international uptake like currently, both in terms of coverage and viewership?

We’ve been really pleased. We get a lot of enquiries from media outlets around the world. We certainly have a lot of countries around the world where we have people coming to our website to take down the streams of our live matches. I think that’s compelling and as you know in your life, the reality is there is no sport like soccer globally - it's the global leader and its viable in every market around the world.

The women’s game continues to grow and many of the national FAs want the best for it, and that’s a good thing. Fifa can and will do more, I believe, and with the continued focus at the Fifa level, and people like Moya Dodd getting more and more stature, which I think she deserves and it's well-earned, that is only going to enhance our opportunities on a global level. We’re pretty confident that we’re a leader in that and we will continue to be so, but we say that very humbly and know that there’s more for us to do.

What is your stance on the ongoing pay dispute between members of the US women’s national team and US Soccer? You are clearly in a delicate position given your ties to both parties, but do you generally feel the international stars are fairly compensated based on their success?

As you can imagine, I am in little bit of a challenging situation so I won’t comment specifically on that situation at all. It would frankly be irresponsible of me to. But what I would say is that we’re strong believers in working to create a platform where our players can earn money and have a training environment that they can be excited about, and that’s what we go to work to do every day, to try to build something that has long-term sustainability, to deliver an opportunity for young women for generations to come to live and work doing something that they love. That’s what our endeavour is. It's what we’re committed to do and we feel very strongly that we’re making positive steps forward on that.

What are your priorities for the next 12 months?

I think it's to continue to build on the momentum we have. I think that’ll come in a couple different areas. We certainly want to look to build on our expansion opportunities over the next 12 months. With that, it kind of works hand in glove with the opportunities to grow our commercial arm in both sponsorship and media. To strategically grow on expansion will lead us to bigger and better opportunities on the commercial side of things. Those are the key things for us as a business.

Clearly, we’re still building our business, building a brand, telling our story, so I’ll continue to work as hard as I can to tell that story in every opportunity I get a chance to. I want people to pay attention to our league and to pay attention to the young women in it because we’re incredibly excited and proud of the people within this league, coming to work hard every day and playing at a really high level and delivering a really compelling product.

If they choose to come out in person and to pay really good money to come and watch us, or consume it on video through additional streams, either way its an important product. We’re excited for it, and we’ll only continue to enhance that over the next 12 months.

Where would you like the league to be in ten years’ time? What does success look like to you?

For me, we oftentimes talk about ten years down the road when we’re sitting here on the precipice of a 2026 Fifa World Cup - and maybe that will be held in the United States - we’d be extremely excited to be a league at that point that is getting real close to a 15th year in existence. I’m able to imagine that that might very well have 16 clubs in it, in a pretty broad national footprint, and with that, north of 300 young women playing professionally and probably supplemented with an integrated academy system.

I think that would be something I would certainly be excited to be a part of and take a lot of pride in helping to get from where we are today to where I think we can be in ten years.

Plush was speaking to SportsPro's Americas Editor, Michael Long (@_MichaelLong).