Also this week, we present Part 1 of our look at recent sponsorship and marketing reports on the NWSL, women’s football leagues in general and women’s sports in the U.S. This week we look at a recent report by Sponsor United: NWSL Partnerships Report 2024 & 2025.
Qatar is in talks with FIFA to host the first Women’s Club World Cup in January 2028.
Qatar is the only nation that has been mentioned in the media as a possible host for the first Women’s Club World Cup in January (5-30) of 2028. The first Women’s Club World Cup will feature 16 teams, including at least five from Europe and two each from Asia, Africa, South America and North America.
A club from each of those five confederations and one from Oceania will play in a qualifying tournament to determine the final three entrants. The competition is due to take place every four years. FIFA has not said yet if they will run a formal bidding process among interested nations for the hosting rights. They also have not finalized the specific qualification process among the confederations.
I question this plan, which sounds like it is well on its way to being finalized by FIFA, as Qatar will be a long and difficult trip for most competing teams and their fans. The 2026 FIFA Women’s Champions Cup finals will be held in London at the end of this month. France (2019 WWC), Germany (2011 WWC) and Spain (matches in the last two Women’s Nations League Finals) have all hosted major women’s tournaments. Another difficulty with Qatar is that their support of women’s football to date has been abysmal at best.
Their women’s national team was formed in 2009 when Qatar was preparing to bid for the 2022 World Cup, but after a few matches, they have not played an official match for 12 years and do not have a FIFA ranking. They played the NWSL’s Washington Spirit in an exhibition in 2020 but there have been no national team matches documented since a 5-0 win over Afghanistan at home in 2021. Qatar have not entered their league champions in the last two Asian Women’s Champions League qualifiers.
If Qatar does host the women’s club finals in 2028, then FIFA should insist that Qatar commits to developing the women’s game, including consistent funding and support for their WNT as well as their senior league and youth structures. That should be the minimum requirement. We would still have the issue of little global impact from the tournament and not really helping to build the women’s game, like the last two Women’s EURO have done in Switzerland and England, respectively. There is also concern about the country’s opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and the potential impact on players and fans.
Qatar certainly is experienced in hosting major FIFA international tournaments as well as regional events (AFC Asian Cup and Arab Cup). Since their 2022 World Cup finals, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup (for men) was held in Al-Rayyan last month (Paris Saint-Germain defeated Flamengo) and the second edition of the men’s Finalissima between the European champions, Spain, and the South American champions, Argentina, will take place in Doha in March. The question remains, is Qatar the best choice for the first FIFA Women’s World Club Cup, given its antipathy towards the women’s game? FIFA needs to take into account the best opportunity to energize the women’s game regionally and globally, which is what we all want.
Saudi Arabia in recent years has committed to developing their women’s national team and has spent lavish sums on their Women’s Premier League, importing talent from all over the world, while their teams have participated in their last two Women’s Champions League (Al-Nassr, who won the previous two editions of their domestic league). Saudi Arabia has been mentioned as another possible option for the Women’s Club Cup but it is committed to hosting the four-team Spanish Super Cup in January 2028. They are a good model for Qatar to follow in terms of their recent support for the women’s game.
The timing of the tournament highlights the growing issue of fixture congestion in the women’s game. There will be no clash with the Women’s Champions League calendar but many domestic European leagues will be affected and may have to introduce a longer winter break. The Australian, Mexican and Japanese leagues are among other established domestic competitions likely to be affected as well as the start of pre-season training in the NWSL. In England the WSL, which currently has a winter break from mid-December to early January, has said that the January 2028 window “could be catastrophic” for the league’s schedule.
A WSL spokesperson said that the league is firmly against the dates and have complained to FIFA. The WSL further said that they believe clubs and players are also opposed to the schedule, but the league stopped short of calling for a boycott or threatening to withdraw English teams from the competition, adding: “We are not against the introduction of new tournaments in principle (but) those dates would have an impact on five WSL match rounds.” The WSL would prefer it to be held during the northern hemisphere’s summer months instead.
I think the WSL is taking this too far, also given that we are early in 2026 and they have two years to modify their schedule. Also, point of fact is that we are talking about one or two teams at most from a league participating, so I think they are focused on the wrong things here. I am more concerned with the lack of women’s football development in Qatar; if this tournament finally ends up kickstarting the game locally and furthering its grow in West Asia, then I am on board. Otherwise, it should be moved elsewhere where they can gain more crowd support, media attention and spur further advancement for the women’s game.
FIFA Announced Three FIFA Series 2026 Women’s Football Groups involving 12 national teams.
FIFA, in a recent media release, has confirmed the full line-up of hosts and the composition of the groups for the FIFA Series 2026: “marking a significant milestone in the continued expansion of the initiative for men’s and women’s national teams.” The FIFA Series 2026 will feature 48 national teams competing in 12 groups of four teams each during the international match window in March and April.
FIFA added: “With 48 participating teams—representing almost 25% of FIFA’s 211 Member Associations—nearly a quarter of the global football community will take part in the FIFA Series. Forty-eight national teams from all six FIFA confederations are) set to compete, representing almost a quarter of the) global football community. Eleven FIFA Member Associations will) host 12 groups engaging both men’s and women’s national teams, with Rwanda hosting two groups. The initiative will include nine men’s groups and three women’s groups, with all six FIFA confederations represented, underlining the truly global nature of the FIFA Series.”
The host nations for the men’s groups are Australia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Rwanda and Uzbekistan. The women’s tournaments will be held in Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire and Thailand.
FIFA emphasized: “The FIFA Series 2026 brings together national teams with a wide range of competitive profiles, reinforcing its development-driven design. For the women’s, the Series will involve teams ranked as highly Brazil (ranked 7th) all the way to Turks and Caicos (ranked 194th). This diversity reflects FIFA’s commitment to creating meaningful international bouts for representative teams of Member Associations at all stages of development.
"The FIFA Series also continues to support holistic football development off the pitch. Hosting and Participating Member Associations benefit from hands-on experience in event delivery, operational planning, referee development and competition organisation, mirroring the conditions of major international tournaments and strengthening capacity across multiple functional areas. The FIFA Series 2026 remains fully aligned with FIFA’s Strategic Objectives for the Global Game: 2023-2027, providing national teams with opportunities for cross-confederation competition without adding fixtures to the international match calendar, while promoting technical growth, organisational development and global exchange.”
Women’s Groups Lineups
Brazil (CONMEBOL)
Brazil (host)
Canada
Korea Republic
Zambia
Note: all four nations participated in the 2023 WWC Finals, while Brazil will host the 2027 WWC Finals.
Côte d’Ivoire (CAF)
Côte d’Ivoire (host)
Mauritania
Pakistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Thailand (AFC)
Congo DR
Nepal
OFC team to be determined later.
Thailand (host)
Sponsor United: NWSL Partnerships Report 2024 & 2025
This week we are reviewing a 15 page document by Sponsor United: NWSL Partnerships Report 2024 & 2025. This report is loaded with interesting insights and presents a great benchmark for where sponsorships currently are in the league and what sectors are under-served, in order to create targets for teams and the league in the future.
The NWSL has seen their teams gain rapid growth of financial value and interest from a range of financial investors, when a decade ago league teams were putting players up with host families and even in rooms in retirement centers to save money. Where we are today was unimaginable even 6-7 years ago to long-term followers of the league, as the league tended to think about surviving year-to-year.
The report emphasized that: “The NWSL has evolved from a niche property into a major force in U.S. sports, driven by the success of the U.S. Women’s National Team, holding the record World Cup wins, and surging investment in women’s sports globally. While the NWSL and WNBA are similar in total sponsorship spend and number of active brand partners (see our recent WNBA report), the average NWSL deal commands 18% more—about $27,000—despite the league being less than half the age of the WNBA. The NWSL generated even more revenue per team when factoring the fact that the NWSL plays fewer league games in a season. (Page 3).
This is a fascinating figure and shows that the NWSL is the benchmark women’s professional sports league in the U.S. for all other professional leagues. The WNBA is currently in a fractious offseason battle between their players union and league officials—including their barely tolerated league commissioner Cathy Englebert. If there is a lockout, it could damage the 29-year-old league and give more opportunities to new basketball leagues such as Unrivaled, a 3 x 3 off-season loop that started in 2025, and was founded by a couple of WNBA players.
This reporter is based in a WNBA city—Phoenix, Arizona with the Mercury, who are an institution in the city with three title wins since 1997—with traditionally strong attendance, but some teams are struggling and the relationship with the league and players is quite adversarial, which largely has not been the case over the few years in the NWSL. Another pro football league started a year ago in the U.S.—the USL Super League—but is largely viewed as a second division league and the NWSL has sent a number of younger players to Super League sides on loan agreements.
On pages 3-5, the report details some of the key takeaways from the report: “Team Sponsorship Revenue Reaches $75M aggregate. Fueled by 441 sponsorship deals in 2024, NWSL teams saw an +8% year-over-year lift. Two new expansion teams, Bay FC and the Utah Royals, boosted the league’s brand roster by 9% to 401 as the league celebrated its 12th season. However, revenue remains concentrated, with the top three teams driving 46% of total league sponsorships, a dynamic that represents both opportunity and risk.
“2024 Welcomed 200 New Brand Partners. Among the Top 10 new sponsors by total spend, 3 brands— CPKC (a railway company), United Way (a charity), and Sixth Street (an investment firm which also owns Bay FC)—allocated over 90% of their total sports sponsorship budgets to the NWSL. While expansion teams partially contributed, 50% of the league’s Top 15 highest-spending deals came from new partners.
“Ali Riley Claims the NWSL Endorsement Throne. With 11 active brand deals (recently retired American-born New Zealand international) Ali Riley now leads all NWSL players in endorsements, despite ranking 35th among players in Instagram followers. Her rise comes in the wake of Alex Morgan’s retirement, whose 23-deal peak in 2021 marked the last era of endorsement dominance. USWNT stars Mallory Swanson (10), Sophia Smith (9), and Alyssa Thompson (8)—(now Chelsea)—trail closely behind, highlighting Riley’s unique position as a non-USWNT player atop the leaderboard.”
(Page 3) Riley is a very bright, Stanford grad energetic and always open to talk with the media—she has done some broadcasting of late with the World 7’s Football Tournament in Florida (see our column last month: The Week in Women's Football: World Sevens review; Rodman dilemma; Northern SL look back - TribalFootball.com).
Some of the key findings of the report include:
Total Spend—$75 million
Total Brands—401
Total Deals—441
Unique Categories—167 (+16% since 2022)
Teams—5.4 million average revenue per team
Deals—$170,000 average spend/deal
Categories—$151K average category deal size (Page 5)
On Page 5, the report also presented the League’s Top 10 Deals that were worth over 1$Million:
Kansas City Current—CPKC and United Way
Angel City FC—Door dash and BMO Bank
Bay FC—Sutter Health
New Jersey/New York Gotham FC—Car Max
Portland Thorns—Providence Health
Washington Spirit—CVS Health
Utah Royals—America First Credit Union
Seattle Reign—Black Future Co-op Fund
“As it progresses in its 13th season, the league’s $75M in total team sponsorships, a $240M media deal, and aggressive expansion efforts signal a league no longer just growing, but transforming. 2024 Growth Metrics (show a) +16% increase in sponsorship deals (2023 to 2024).” (Page 4)
On page 6, there were specific information on sponsors by Sector Category:
“Healthcare Sees Big Wins with Jersey Patches and Naming Rights The category that led in sponsorship spend and deal volume was fueled by major new investments from Sutter Health with their jersey patch debut for expansion club Bay FC, while The University of Kansas Health System secured naming rights to KC Current’s training facility as its official healthcare provider.
“Finance Scales Sponsorship with Regional Banks & Credit Unions. The category was led by a mix of national players and regional banks. New deals with America First Credit Union, Wintrust Financial, and Sixth Street drove significant investment, with only a few brands allocating over $1M each. Credit unions and wealth management firms accounted for the majority of new entries, signaling growing regional alignment with NWSL club markets.
“Transportation Giant Marks History. Transportation was propelled to the top 3 in category spend almost entirely by the landmark naming rights deal between CPKC (the combination of two historic railways—Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS), that is the first and only transnational rail network in North America, moving essential goods across our 20,000-mile network to support economic growth throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico—and the Kansas City Current. As the first purpose-built stadium exclusively for a professional women’s soccer team, CPKC Stadium represents a transformative investment in women’s sports infrastructure.”
By the top 10 categories, the spend by segment is approximately:
Heath care—$20 million
Finance—over $10 million
Transport—over $5 million
Consumer Services and Alcohol—between $5 and $10 million
Nonprofits/Charities, Auto, Retail, Consumer Products and Non-Alcohol were between $3 and 5 million for team sponsorship revenues. (Page 6)
On Page 7, the report presented more details on individual companies, including summaries on CPKC and Sixth Street: “CPKC claimed naming rights to the first stadium in the world purpose built for a women’s professional sports team, home of the Kansas City Current. Massive milestone for the Canadian brand that only had a North American pro sports deal with the Calgary Flames—98% of sponsorship went to NWSL compared to Michelob Ultra at 1% and about 700K.
“Sixth Street isn’t just backing Bay FC; they helped build it. As co-founders and primary funders, their sponsorship (separate from ownership) includes jersey branding, stadium signage, and app presence. It’s a rare example of investor-turned-sponsor, signaling long term belief in both the club’s business and cultural potential as a next-gen NWSL powerhouse—about half a million dollars.”
Sixth Street has shown an impressive level of belief in Bay FC, but the idea of an investor as sponsor limits a diversity in funding sources and company activities, as well as new ideas coming into the club.
On Page 8, the report looks at some individual player stats for branded engagements, social media followers and year-over-year follower growth, including the following league players:
Sophia Wilson (Portland Thorns) had 4.9 million in branded engagements and 6.6 million social media followers, which showed a +40% follower growth from the past year.
Veteran U.S. international forward Sydney Leroux (Angel City) had 106,000 in branded engagements and 3.5 million social media followers but a -2% decline in follower growth over the past year.
Venezuelan international Denya Castellanos (ex-Bay FC and now with the Portland Thorns) had 45,000 branded engagements but 3.81 million social media followers; she had come back to the States (where she played at Florida State University) from Europe and saw a -2% year-over-year decline in follower growth, but has such a strong base of followers Since her time at Florida State and as a youth international, she had always prioritized her vast internet following.
Trinity Rodman has 156,000 branded engagements and 871,000 social media followers, with 67% growth in the latter. Currently, her social media followers is over one million (1,010,000).
On Page 9, looking at the number of individual players and their deals:
Ali Riley leads with 11 deals (down 3 from the previous year) including with DoorDash, Klarna, Ascent Protein.
U.S. international Mallory Swanson of Chicago was second with 10 deals (an increase of 2 over the past 12 months) including with AT&T, Frito Lay and Visa.
Sophia Wilson was fourth with 8 deals (down 2), including with Ally Financial, Chipotle and Clif Bar. She missed all of 2025 with an injury but used her player contract option to stay with the Thorns for 2026.
Mexican international Maria Sanchez had 6 deals (down 3), including with Wells Fargo Bank, IKEA and Ford; she now is at UANL Tigres in Monterrey, moving from San Diego for the 2025-26 Apertura season.
On page 10, the report looked at NWSL sponsor leaders by team:
1 Racing Louisville FC 94
2 North Carolina Courage 61
3 Kansas City Current 47
4 Angel City FC 43
5 Orlando Pride 36
The 2025 NWSL Shield and League Champions lead all of the teams in Social Media Followers, almost doubling second place Portland, with the change from the previous year shown in parentheses:
1 Orlando Pride 905,000 (+12%)
2 Portland Thorns FC 565,000 (+1%)
3 Angel City FC 525,000 (+7%)
4 San Diego Wave FC 500,000 (+25%)
5 Kansas City Current 465,000 (+42%)
“While Racing Louisville FC leads the league in total sponsorship deals and Orlando Pride tops social media followership, the economics behind these numbers reveal a deeper story. Sponsorship revenue in the NWSL is highly concentrated—just three teams (Angel City FC, Kansas City Current, San Diego Wave FC ) drove 46% of total league revenue. This creates both a growth opportunity and a structural risk for the league’s financial stability.
“Angel City FC exemplifies the power of engagement and monetization. On a per-game basis, the club outperformed 15 MLS teams and 25 MLB (Major League Baseball) teams in sponsorship revenue. Their ability to convert fandom into value is unmatched—Angel City generates $29 per social follower, compared to $8 for the New York Yankees and $13 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.” (Page 10).
On page 13, the report emphasizes that a number of team assets can be leveraged by teams for their sponsorship:
Signage
Property Rights and Exposure
Venue and Events
Digital Media
Social Media
The report concluded with its methodological approach on page 15: “This report offers an in-depth analysis of brand sponsorships, endorsements, and social engagement across NWSL teams and its players for the 2024 and 2025 season, encompassing more than 401 brands, 441 sponsorship deals, and 4,130 social posts from the team accounts.
In addition to traditional sponsorship deals, the total number of team deals could also include individual brands that are part of a parent company portfolio; deals signed at the league level (but that include team signage); and/or sponsorship deals signed through third-party agencies. This report used data from January 1, 2024 through August 1, 2025.
Page 2 presented information on the report’s developer Sponsor United: “Launched in 2018, Sponsor United is the leading global sports and entertainment sponsorship intelligence platform, delivering actionable data and insights to build stronger marketing partnerships. We provide unrivaled knowledge across the sponsorship and media landscape so our clients can make impactful decisions that drive business.
With over 422,000 brand and rights holder profiles, 2.5 million deals, and 21.1 million data points across sports, entertainment, media, and talent, our SaaS platform enables brands, rights holders, and agencies to partner more effectively. By delivering real-time trends, on demand research, and the most comprehensive data available, we connect the entire sponsorship ecosystem and are rewriting the partnership playbook.” Sponsor United also uses an advanced AI tool for their clients.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey