NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird

That's What She Said with Sarah Spain

ESPN Radio

Sports

3.9 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2021

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A couple of commishes cuttin' it up. Sarah talks to National Women's Soccer League commissioner Lisa Baird about how she had to react to the pandemic on her second day on the job, the success of the Challenge Cup, the league's relationship with US Soccer and how it's changed recently, and how she's trying to grow the league both in terms of audience and franchise expansion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get started today, I wanted to tell you about Around the Rim Presents I'm Speaking,
0:05.2	hosted by Lachina Robinson, an interview series focusing on Black women across sports,
0:09.7	entertainment, and culture who are refusing to be silent right now and who want real change.
0:15.0	Episode 1 features a conversation Robinson has with Netflix Chief Marketing Officer
0:19.2	Bozema St. John, and WNBA Player and Activist Natasha Cloud. If you've never heard Bozema
0:24.4	speak, you got to get on that podcast. She's incredible. That's Around the Rim Presents I'm Speaking.
0:30.6	Listen wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to That's What She Said with Sarah Spain,
0:40.5	a podcast about, well, whatever the hell I want, actors and musicians, athletes,
0:45.8	comedians, neuroscientists, wine experts. If I find somebody interesting, I'm bringing them to
0:51.0	you. We'll talk about how they became who they are, how they found success,
0:55.2	battled failures, and how they ended up here talking to me. Hi, I'm Lisa Beard, and my
1:00.5	dilemma is in one year we solved a lot with the NWSL, but one thing we didn't solve, which is
1:08.1	what the fans keep crying for and some of the media is what should be the regular season trophy
1:14.9	for the NWSL. Oh my gosh, yes, this is very important, of course, for when my red stars are
1:20.7	hoisting the trophy after winning the championship this year. Okay, so we of course have the NWSL
1:26.2	shield. That's just for points at the end of the season. We need the championship trophy to have
1:30.4	a name, and it should be instantly recognizable like Stanley or the Lombardi or the Shiva.
1:37.6	Check out the show the league if you didn't get that reference. So of course, we could name it after
1:43.2	an all-time great player in women's soccer, Amia Hamm, Michelle Acres of Marta and Abby Womback,
1:50.3	a Christine Sinclair, a Sam Kerr who's got the most goals in NWSL history, but it feels like also
1:56.4	for a league that's not a decade old yet. If you name the trophy after someone, it's sort of like a
2:01.7	contemporary. Usually that kind of honor comes much later for someone as a player or coach. So maybe
	...

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