Can the NWSL ever compete with MLS, NHL, NFL or NBA? - ESPN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For years, the global debate around the NWSL's on-field product has centered around whether it is the best women's soccer league in the world.

Recently, however, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman and an ever-expanding league office have mulled a more provocative question: Can the NWSL — a women's soccer league that is barely a decade old — be one of the best sports leagues in the world? More bluntly: Can it be relevant and compete with MLS and the NHL? Or even the NFL or the NBA?

The answers to those questions might be less important than the fact that they are being asked. That line of thinking suggests the NWSL might finally be embracing that its core ingredient is the most important to the success of any league: it is, above all, entertainment. And the NWSL has an abundance of entertainment.

Saturday's NWSL Championship between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit in Kansas City, Missouri, is a battle of the league's top two teams. Orlando set a record for points (60) and unbeaten games to start a season (23), while both teams won 18 games in the regular season, jointly setting a league record.

Both Orlando and Washington narrowly prevailed last weekend in the most entertaining round of semifinals the NWSL has ever seen. It wasn't just that all four teams played good soccer, and no, it didn't matter that it was women's soccer, either. The two games were sport at its most dramatic, captivating height.

Berman noted as much when she spoke at Audi Field on Saturday. The semifinal sold out in 72 hours. The Spirit's quarterfinal also sold out despite overlapping the Washington Commanders NFL game being played in the area. «There was a time when that wouldn't be in the realm of possibility,» Berman