As the National Women’s Soccer League prepares to launch its 12th season in March, a cascade of evolutions are afoot. Two new teams are joining the parity-driven pandemonium with Bay FC and Utah Royals bringing the league total to 14. In Kansas City the first-ever sports stadium built solely for women’s sports hosts its first football match on 16 March and under a new broadcast deal 121 matches will be aired across Prime Video, Scripps-owned ION, Paramount+ and ESPN.
And then we have the ambitious vision of Gotham FC and the continued impact of newfound free agency that is helping them create a new super team.
Building a super team in New Jersey/New York?
The first big name to drop on Gotham this off-season was Crystal Dunn. The USA’s incomparable force, a NWSL champion, World Cup champion and Olympian was moving back home to New York at last. Next came the news that the World Cup winner Tierna Davidson was signing from Chicago Red Stars. Soon after Gotham’s national team coup was complete with two further world champions and Team USA Olympians arriving: Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett from OL Reign.
The American soccer-loving world began to wonder: what on earth is going on in Gotham? And in front of a crowded audience at the glamorous Rainbow Room of 30 Rockefeller Plaza this January, Gotham’s general manager, Yael Averbuch West, shed some light at what had happened: “At the end of 2022 we paused and took a moment to really create what we wanted our vision on the field to be and our strategy to get there. And our vision is very clear. It’s a big vision. We want to be the global capital of women’s soccer.” It is a tall order. But having won the Championship in 2023 and with four marquee signings their pursuit of glory will be fascinating to watch.
Now one year into their world-dominating vision – a vision that saw the former Tottenham manager Juan Carlos Amorós join the club and win coach of the year en route to the 2023 NWSL Championship trophy – Averbuch West spoke to me to delve deeper into their plan. It is one that includes results on the field, the style of play, the players they sign, the fans who come back, the staff they hire, the elaborate work behind the scenes and a strategy to liaise and support the development of youth talent in the region. Tying all that together – not peripheral but central to the mission – is the careful curation of a clear identity, and building a brand that all the world can see.
Together with Amorós, Averbuch West tells me they are focused on having “a really clear identity in terms of who we are, a clear style of play, a clear brand where even if you didn’t see the Gotham logo, everyone watching would say, ‘Oh, that’s Gotham.’”
Being in the New York area, there are plenty of nearby teams of resonance that have lent inspiration. “Because of our new ownership, we think of the Giants a lot,” she says. The recognizability and how genuinely loved a brand like that is … you think of the Giants, the Yankees, you see people with those brandings, people with Yankees baseball caps all over the world. But these are brands that transcend knowing the score of the weekend’s game. They’re something where you see the logo and you know what it stands for.”
The New York brand
Brand-building is key to any business, but especially to the success of women’s sports. For decades domestic women’s soccer in the US has aligned its brand with that of the four-time World Cup winning USWNT, a team with enormous cultural sway in the country. As Gotham’s four star-player coup this off-season joins a team already laden with USWNT players – such as Kelley O’Hara, Lynn Williams, Midge Purce and the newly capped Jenna Nighswonger – the marketing possibilities are as high as the potential to turn this club into a national-team-adjacent training ground, just in time for the Olympics. One wonders how quickly the soon-to-be USA manager Emma Hayes comes for a visit.
But during our conversation, and during Gotham’s Rockefeller press conference, Averbuch West and their new signings relayed with empathic vision Gotham’s burgeoning New York-specific brand. They want to embody the spirit of their unique city, and imbue the team with its innovative, achieve-your-dreams-at-all-costs ethos.
Averbuch West says: “I’m from this area and I think it took me living all over the world as a soccer player to really recognize something that I think is very special about … not just this area of the country, but area of the world. And part of it has to do with excellence and high standards. You know, I grew up right outside of New York City. My understanding was that if you want to play soccer, well, you should try to be the best soccer player in the world …”
Averbuch West, as well as Amorós and all four new arrivals, emphasised a belief in that ethos, while caveating that none of it is possible without hard work, humility, constant improvement and executing the small details every day with an elaborate team behind the scenes.
Davidson says: “Something that is really apparent to me is in the city of New York you find a lot of hardworking people that are going after their dreams, that are tirelessly working day to night, day in and day out, and I think that’s what I would like to embody as a player coming to this team. I also think that as a whole, the club is pushing for something greater. And I think that’s what you see from a lot of very great organizations that headquartered themselves in the New York, New Jersey area.”
When discussing her free agency decision-making Sonnett mentioned the clear hunger at Gotham to achieve things. It drew her in. Lavelle expressed the desire to be pushed, to see “growth and development in every realm of my life”, and seeing that possible with Gotham.
Were it not for the autonomy afforded players through free agency – a possibility not available in the NWSL’s former framework – Gotham may not have had the opportunity to draw them in. That the club prioritised being appealing for players, and were rewarded by free-agent interest, puts pressure on other clubs that can only benefit the league.
What Gotham do next is not certain. Though talent, desire and a willingness to get to work is certainly on their side. In the words of Rose Lavelle, when asked if this was a super team: “Nothing’s given, everything is earned”.
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