Ex-USWNT player Lauren Holiday calls for ‘harmonised’ women’s calendar | Women’s football

Double Olympic gold medalist and 2015 World Cup winner Lauren Holiday has called for global harmonization of the women’s football calendar to help the sport grow.

That could echo a recent decision by Major League Soccer to move to a fall-to-spring European schedule starting in July 2027. Holiday, a former USWNT forward, thinks women’s soccer could follow their lead, or do the opposite and have everyone play during the summer.

“I think either model could work, it just depends on the investment behind it, who is supporting it in the broadcast world and who is airing it in prime time?” said Holiday, speaking after the investment group she chairs, Mercury13, completed the majority purchase of Spanish club FC Badalona Women.

The National Women’s Soccer League season in the United States begins this weekend and runs through October, while most European leagues are scheduled from September to May.

Given the commercial power of the NWSL, the most likely change would be for European leagues to adopt the American calendar. The NWSL’s national television contracts with ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime and Scripps are worth a combined $60 million per season, while the England Women’s Super League, Europe’s largest league, has a national television contract worth $17.5 million each season.

The WSL has also struggled to secure attractive broadcast slots from its rights partner, Sky Sports, which prioritizes Premier League and EFL matches.

As a result, viewing figures for early kick-offs this season have been low, with the Guardian reporting that an average audience of just 59,000 watched live coverage of Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Liverpool on a Saturday lunchtime in December.

“I see huge benefits to having a harmonized global calendar because of the talent pathway and how you could move players around,” Holiday told the Guardian. “I think it would be so much easier if everyone followed the same schedule.

“Does it make sense for the United States to be on the same timeline as everyone else? It would be interesting to see how that would work, and I would like to see it.”

Mercury13 also owns Bristol City Women, who are pushing for promotion from the WSL2, and FC Como Women in Serie A.

The women-only fund secured a significant investment from Avenue Sports, a global private equity fund that has raised more than $1 billion. Avenue previously held a stake in EFL Championship club Ipswich Town and supported Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL Golf League.

Holiday set Badalona, ​​who are now eighth in Liga F and face Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semi-final this week, an ambitious target of Champions League qualification.

Based in Portland, the 37-year-old says the NWSL still sets the standard globally due to the depth of the 16-team competition, but believes European leagues are quickly closing the gap.

“Badalona can be a major competitor in the European landscape,” Holiday said. “I think we have a good team, and if we keep pushing we can reach the Champions League. Would that be amazing?

“Badalona is close to Barcelona, ​​but they also have the infrastructure already in place. There is such a rich talent pool in Spain. I just think the league will continue to grow.

“I think that’s showing in the NWSL. It’s continually gotten more and more competitive. I think that’s happening in the WSL, and I think other leagues are going to continue to develop and grow in the same way and at the same rate.

“The gap is closing quickly, that’s for sure. I think the difference is that in the NWSL the disparity between clubs is smaller and it’s a lot more competitive across the league. In the WSL and La Liga there are three or four top teams and then the rest kind of diminishes.

“I think it comes down to the talent pathway and development. Women’s soccer is the sport of choice for girls in America, and we have the college pathway and the club pathway to college, which is a huge advantage. I think we’re going to see that more and more in Europe.”