CLEVELAND — Cleveland is riding a wave of excitement for women's sports after the NCAA Women's Final Four. Now, some are hoping to capitalize on that momentum to generate support to bring a women's professional soccer team to town.
While the eclipse was a main attraction throughout Northeast Ohio Monday, many of the conversations still centered around a weekend full of women’s college basketball.
“I would say in the past three years, it’s caught my attention. It’s obviously getting more [popular],” said Clevelander Robert Singleton.
“The support was always there,” Rita Rochford added. “They’re finally getting the recognition they deserve.”
Powerhouse players, dynamic teams and exciting games have contributed to the sport reaching a mainstream audience. Some say the attention to women’s sports is overdue.
“We’ve had some amazing basketball players over the last 50 years. And it’s almost a shame that they didn’t get the same amount of coverage and the same amount of respect,” said Diana Taurasi, a guard for the Phoenix Mercury and U.S. Women’s National Team.
University of Iowa fan Jennifer Waldron told News 5, “Women’s basketball is here to stay and we are so excited.”
The Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) is hoping the building excitement around basketball translates to other women’s sports, namely women’s professional soccer.
“We’re absolutely at the point right now where we’re going to see significant growth continue,” said CSG co-founder and CEO Michael Murphy.
Murphy also attended several Final Four events with his daughters and said it’s clear there is an appetite for women’s sports in Cleveland.
“What happened here this past weekend was incredible, but what we aim to do is create this sustainable piece of Cleveland’s economy for many decades to come,” he said.
In 2022, CSG launched a bid to bring a professional women’s soccer club to Cleveland. The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is looking to add a 16th team to the league by 2026.
The state has already approved $1 million for a women’s soccer stadium in Cleveland. It would be the first-of-its-kind venue built through a public-private partnership, created specifically for a women’s professional team.
This week, CSG announced it surpassed 12,000 fans who’ve signed a ticket pledge for the theoretical soccer team. Preliminary designs of the stadium estimate it could hold up to 12,500 people.
“We saw clearly here that the world is ready for women's sports, Cleveland's women's sports, over this weekend,” Murphy said.
According to CSG, around 1 million people watched last year’s NWSL championship game, and collective media deals for the league topped $240 million. Cleveland is the last top 20 market in the country without professional soccer, and Murphy said it makes good financial sense for it to cash in on the world’s most popular sport.
“If we're able to build this stadium and launch forward with professional women's soccer here in short course, we think over 30 years it could have as big of an impact on the region as the Rock Hall has had over the last 30 years,” he explained.
Some fans agree Cleveland is ready for professional women’s sports to call The Land home.
Rochford showed off a new bag Monday with “Everyone watches women’s sports” printed on it.
She said, “I’m wearing this today because everyone watches women’s sports and I hope the trend continues.”
The NWSL plans to announce its choice for the 16th team sometime in 2024.
