Hello Sunshine and welcome to a special edition of the State of the Union

Podcast and welcome to NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.

Jessica, welcome. All right, so you were appointed back in March, but you started

officially about a week ago. You come from an

NHL background and a lacrosse, a National Lacrosse League background. We can see

the beautiful lacrosse stick behind you and the soccer ball all there.

Tell me what did those experiences bring to you in terms of what you were doing with

NWSL?

Well, I've been saying for the last several weeks that I feel like I've been working my entire career to prepare me for this moment.

I spent 13 years at the National Hockey League working right beside Gary Betman and Bill Daly watching how they scaled the

NHL from what was in 2006 when I joined the NHL some thought of still as a niche property to what it is today.

And then in 2019 when I joined the NLL as the deputy commissioner had the opportunity to really apply what I learned in what was a

scaled league into a challenger property and the NWSL is really a unique combination of the experiences that I've had in both of those leagues

with some other ingredients that I think really paved the way for unprecedented growth for women's soccer in this country.

All right, so take me back to the search and your interview process,

because I'm almost fascinated to find out what people thought of it

and how they went about it.

This search also, for the first time I think included

NWSL players and players' association leaders

and obviously the board.

What was the interview process like for you?

And I guess, how did you woo them?

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