Does the NWSL know what soccer fans want?

Full Time with Meg Linehan: A show about women's soccer

The Athletic

News, Soccer, Sports News, Sports

4.8 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The NWSL is coveting new eyeballs and growth. But, after an announcement that the league would be establishing a "league supporter's group" as a sponsorship collaboration with an energy drink named Unwell, many are wondering if the NWSL actually understands soccer fans. This week, Full Time hosts Tamerra Griffin and Meg Linehan discuss tension in the relationship between the league and its supporters. With the help of voices from four different NWSL supporter's groups from across the country, Tamerra and Meg unpack what values are most important to key community stakeholders and where the NWSL might well be falling short. _______________ Articles mentioned on the show: Full Time Newsletter: Feeling ‘Unwell’ about a brand activation Fan who used hateful language toward Barba Banda banned by Gotham FC NWSL missed a chance to help Barbra Banda amid bad-faith attacks. More are inevitable State of the League: Before the NWSL can take on the world, it must find its place in the U.S. _______________ HOSTS: Tamerra Griffin, Meg Linehan GUESTS: Jaimie Calderon, Tina Ettlin, Douglas Reyes-Ceron, Kirsten Ross PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen _______________ Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram and TikTok: @tafulltime Subscribe to the Full Time newsletter here Visit the Yahoo Women's Sports hub here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, welcome back to full-time presented by Amazon Business.
0:17.0	Coming up on today's show, Meg and I are getting out the question, does the NWSL truly understand its fan base?
0:26.2	But the two of us are not the only ones unpacking that question.
0:29.4	In order to do that, we have roped in some leaders among supporters groups across the league to lend us their minds, their thoughts, their opinions, their reactions to some recent news in the culture of
0:42.4	NWSL supportership.
0:44.7	But there's so much to get into, so much to unpack.
0:48.3	And we personally are so thrilled and pumped to be hosting this particular episode. Meg, how are you doing? I'm good.
0:56.6	I'm good. It is, it's trying to be spring in Vermont. The season's going. You know,
1:04.0	everything's happening. But yeah, I mean, this episode, I think, is so fun. And it's honestly
1:08.9	kind of unlike anything else that we have done on this
1:12.2	version of full time. And I think both of us went in having some thoughts and we ended up
1:20.0	uncovering a lot of stuff that maybe shouldn't be that surprising, but it's still really cool
1:24.3	and interesting to hear. As much as people, I think, can get into frustration,
1:30.4	what I think we saw out of these supporters groups and the conversations we had has just been
1:34.8	like so interesting and honestly refreshing. Totally agree. I mean, one of the benefits, I think,
1:42.4	in our full-time universe, full-time verse, as we've started calling it, is that with the addition of full-time focus and full-time review, it opens up even more space for us on this weekly show to dive deep into topics and, I think, to explore more facets of the league that sometimes go underappreciated, unnoticed. And I think this episode
2:02.9	really speaks to that. So I feel proud to even be able to dive into this and have these
2:08.5	conversations. They are so, so, so, so rich. And honestly, I already know that bits of this
2:14.0	are going to end up in the full-time newsletter, which I hope you're all subscribed to. If you're not, it's not too late.
2:19.0	It is free.
2:20.3	And it's really the place to go if you cannot get enough of the three podcasts a week, of the stories that we're posting and publishing on the athletic.
2:28.0	Make sure that you're subscribed to that newsletter.
	...

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