It struck me for the first time a week ago: I need a little break from America. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that I have the freedom to protest, but I still need a quick breather. America was founded by troublemakers. We can pretend they wanted to create a country where all humans were treated equally, but that’s not true. Even if it were true, it would be clear they failed. However, the idea of true equality still exists in the US and I’m proud of the fact that thousands of people head to the center of my city every night to call out local abuses. Unfortunately, there are the federal troops who have interrupted the conversations protesters are trying to have with the city’s police bureau. Then there is the widespread hypocrisy, not just from city leaders but from everyday citizens who ignore the extent of admitted police profiling and view protesting as an annoyance. Most importantly, there is the justified anger and frustration coming from communities of color that continues to be sidelined and ignored. I am not saying anything new here, but the American conscious has decided to make an appearance, and it does feel new to some people. I think overall, it can make a person realize how deeply our country ignores injustice and vilifies those that call it out. That is the precedent. I haven’t even mentioned the curiosity of having a lack of funding for testing and tracking Covid, but a seemingly endless supply of teargas to use on US citizens. America is flailing right now. It is failing to acknowledge, accept or change (you could add almost anything at the end of this sentence). So every once in a while, I need to step away and recharge.

The bright spots of my weeks have been re-watching seasons of Wynonna Earp (revenants over reality) and soccer. All soccer. Any soccer. So far, my Aston Villa somehow managed to save themselves from relegation (quick shout out to the goal line technology failure, super sorry Bournemouth). The Timbers continue to look confident, and even dominant at times, in the MLS is Back Tournament. The Thorns managed to knock out North Carolina, arguably the best women’s team in the world, from the NWSL Challenge Cup and Houston finally got a well deserved moment in the spotlight. This has been my way to recharge… but like so many things of late, the hypocrisy is glaring. 

Hurdles have always been in place when it comes to new sports markets. However, if ESPN can make room to broadcast Korean baseball, the excuses for excluding the NWSL are petty at best. To break down numbers, there are an estimated 120 million homes with access to basic television stations in the United states, with 86 million households still subscribing to cable and around 25 million relying on streaming services (nocable.org). In order to watch the Premier League, the Bundislega or even the NBA Horse Challenge, the majority of people simply need to turn on their televisions. In order to watch the NWSL, however, CBS decided it would immediately limit the amount of potential viewers the NWSL could get by showing matches exclusively over streaming. Yes, in the midst of the pandemic more people have turned to the internet, not only for entertainment but in order to do their jobs. In fact there are over 288 million Americans that have access to the internet, but only four million have CBS All Access service. In spite of that, there were over 527,000 viewers for the opening match of the NWSL Champions Cup (and that’s not taking into account how many people shared passwords). To put that in soccer perspective, there were only around 464,000 viewers for the MLS opener. Imagine if big networks allowed viewership to grow now that the league is better established. 

This isn’t an equal comparison, but I do keep going back to it. In the American Revolution top generals and statesmen, including George Washington, realized that slaves and women made incredible spies. The general population looked at both groups as inferior and allowed them to listen in on important conversations, slip in and out of key households and generally be everywhere without anyone noticing them. Without question, the intelligence gathered by these men and women were a huge reason the Revolution was won. After the war, the men in charge patted themselves on the back for profiting off of the exploitation of these groups, yet never attempted to improve their conditions after the war. In fact, they acknowledged their invaluable efforts but still said they should be grateful for being allowed to take part in the war effort and later became annoyed by their continued calls for more freedoms. 

The NWSL has been a viable economic source for national broadcasters, yet it continues to be passed around from station to station and now to a streaming service – spreading the wealth but never improving the condition of the women they profit off of. Leaving to the side the conversation about salary, I just want to focus on their professional environment. First off, the field conditions are below professional standards, with several women being injured from doing typical soccer moves, like slide-tackling. Turf hurts. The fact that professional athletes are being asked to do their job with the knowledge that they will be physically burned, should be questioned.

Next, the camera work is still under professional standards with few angles to go off of and underwhelming review capabilities. Providing a better visual is important to drawing in a wider audience. Then there are some of the commentators, who have been improving, but more than a few fans can admit to playing drinking games based off of stock comments overused during run of play. Finally, there is the treatment of NWSL fans themselves by broadcasters. These fans have made the most of many things, but they’ve repeatedly been asked to work harder than other fans to find out how to watch their teams – and they have still risen to the occasion. Time and time again viewership records for NWSL games have been smashed, and well exceed viewership of other sports who get TV broadcast time. 

A recent article from ESPN is titled “MLS is Back Tournament Opener Delivers Second Highest MLS Regular Season Audience on ESPN in Three Seasons”. This was in reference to the 464,000 fans who tuned in to the opener. The NWSL not only had over 60,000 more viewers for their opener, a recent press release showed that 653,000 fans tuned into the championship game. 

We are told over and over to keep politics out of sports. To just let the women play. That it’s simply about money and numbers. However, the more I look at the numbers the more I keep thinking there has to be something else. Everything points to female athletes being exploited, used to prop up channels or streaming services with fledgling ratings. They are given less and asked to do more. You can’t just ‘let them play’ anymore. 

Sponsorship has been increasing. Multi-billion dollar corporations see the value in women’s soccer. The fans have shown up, even in Covid times, and made it clear that women’s soccer is a priority for them. It appears broadcasters are making female athletes go above and beyond the average athlete and limiting how much their sport is allowed to grow.

If NWSL matches have consistently shown solid viewership for years, why aren’t they back on TV? What more can they do before they are acknowledged as a viable source of sports entertainment?