Professional Women's Soccer - The Seattle Reign

Hello March Madness!   My brackets for the men's NCAA basketball tournament are hanging on by a thread and UConn Women's Basketball is on a roll!  There have been so many awesome basketball games and there's still a week left to go! I openly admit that I love basketball, but soccer has started to steal a tiny place in my heart.  I think it has something to do with the fact that it's played outside and the weather is starting to get nicer. And soccer players are insanely athletic!

Last night I attended the Seattle Reign season opener versus the Washington Spirit.  For those of you who don't know, the Seattle Reign is a member of the National Women's Soccer League.  This is professional women's soccer.  The Reign play at Memorial Stadium which sits in the shadow of the Space Needle, just a stone's throw away from Key Arena where the Seattle Storm plays.  Last month it was announced that the ownership group for the Seattle Storm - Force 10 Sports Management - would be adding management responsibilities for the Seattle Reign to their ever growing portfolio.  Having been around the WNBA for the past decade, I've learned a lot about how the league operates and I know a little bit about the teams and some of their ownership groups.  Over the past few years, I have attended a handful of Reign matches, but, prior to now, hadn't given much thought to how little I knew about the team, their players, the ownership, or the league.   So I did some digging.

The league: The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was launched in 2012 - so 2018 is their 6th season with competition between their nine teams.  It is the longest running professional women's soccer league as the (several) leagues that came before it only lasted up to three seasons.  In 2017, the league averaged about 5,000 tickets sold per game with the Portland Thorns leading the way averaging 17,000.  Interestingly, on the men's side, Major League Soccer games averaged about 21,000 tickets sold per game in 2016 with the Seattle Sounders averaging over 40,000 per game.  Seattle is just a huge sports city!  In the WNBA, ticket sales for the league and the Seattle Storm averaged 7,700 tickets per game.  When looking at salaries, this 2016 article listed limits to NWSL salaries as $37,800 per season.  That's the limit!  WNBA minimum salaries are $35,000 and NWSL minimum salaries, according to this article, were $15,000!  In comparison, the average (men's) MLS salary of $300,000 (median $100,000) is a liveable wage.  The gender discrepancy is appalling.  The best way I can try to help combat this is to attend games and buy an occasional ticket to show my support.

The team: The Seattle Reign is owned by Bill and Teresa Predmore.  Bill Predmore founded the company POP in 1996 - they're a digital marketing solutions company whose website looks like they're doing some really cool stuff.  Fun fact about Mr. Predmore, though, is that from 1993 - 1996, he was Assistant Director/Assistant Editor for the Bill Nye Show.  His wife, Teresa Predmore, played college soccer at Oregon State and a quick google search brought up her twitter account which looks like she does some work with Water 1st which is a super cool organization that helps provide clean water and sanitation to communities who would otherwise not have access to it. (They also look to empower women and help communities own their water works once the system is implemented.)

The players: You can find the Seattle Reign roster here, but a few quick notes worthy of mention.  In last nights season opener, which the Reign won 2-1,  Megan Rapinoe scored in the 7th minute and Jodie Taylor in the 35th.  Megan is a US Women's National Team player and Olympic Gold Medalist and Jodie, born in England, plays for their national team which won a Bronze at the 2015 World Cup.  The team underwent a major overhaul with 12 new players since last season and a coaching change.  In addition to the ones I've already mentioned, the team is full of athletes who have played for numerous national teams including: Allie Long - USA including the 2016 Olympic Games, Nahomi Kawasumi Olympic Bronze medalist for Japan, Rumi Utsugi former Japanese national team member, Theresa Nielson for the Denmark national team, Jess Fishlock plays for the Welsh National Team and Elizabeth Addo plays for Ghana.  I haven't even mentioned how many of their players are on US teams that are U-23!  So much talent.

Who wants to join me for a game?!