Mario: Welcome to Casual
FC Presents Back Passes.
This is our new ongoing series that
helps provide the cliff notes, the lore,
and the history of wo so in the US with
various other things along the way.
There might be some interviews,
there might be some, uh, deep dives.
There might be some soapboxing.
You never know.
So we're your hosts.
Um, I'm Mario Salazar, along with my
two co-hosts here, Angela Morales and
Eva Friedman into the time machine.
We go for our very first
episode of Back Passes.
We're going to give you the
treacherous walk down memory
lane giving newer fans like me.
I am learning a lot in this episode
of the NWSL Quick history lesson
of where did it start, where did
it fall, how did it get back up?
You know, the whole bootstrap thing.
And then how we are where we are today.
it's really fascinating and I'd love
to hear from these two time vaults
of knowledge exactly where we are.
kick it away.
Eva: So we're gonna start at what
I'm calling affectionately before
the beginning because there is very
little known about all of this,
but history and it's important.
so the first documentation of a women's
soccer league in this country is
from 1919 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
this was just high school students,
barely professional, barely amateur.
and that's much all we about it.
I don't think, I could not
find anything else about this.
if you
Mario: Just,
Eva: and
Mario: just that it's there.
Angela: yeah.
Eva: Yeah.
If you're a better researcher than
me and you find something, call
Mario: Put it in the comments.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: Yes.
Angela: Let link us in
the comments, please.
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: to know.
Eva: Yeah, we would love
to hear more about it.
and that is through, US Soccer Federation.
They have those documents
and that documentation.
Then we jump to 1950
to the Craig League St.
Louis, Missouri.
it's called the Craig League because
of its founder, father Walter Craig.
There were four teams.
There were 70 players across all
four teams between the ages of
16 and 22, And the four teams.
The four teams were the Bobby
Sockers, which I personally
would love to know more about.
the bombers, co-eds, and the flyers.
This lasted for two seasons, which
is interesting considering the lore
that we are about to get into, and
weird, like kind of three season
only curse that had a choke hold
on women's soccer in America for
Angela: decades.
Eva: All, all the time
before the NWSL happened.
Yeah.
And then, so that's 1950.
So 1950 to 1952, and then there's
nothing until the first college
varsity game in women's soccer in 1976.
So we have these huge periods of
time where like there, there's
nothing but people were trying.
Mm-hmm.
And have it for like literally a hundred
years there has been interest to some
degree in women's soccer in this country.
Angela: Yep.
now that we're at the official, like
beginning of officially large scale,
organized soccer in the us get into the
forming of the women's national team.
So it was formed in 1983, but they didn't
actually play their first games until
1985, which feels crazy given how quickly
they went from being formed to winning.
it just immediately it was like, and okay,
but when you think about other countries
and how women were barred from playing, it
makes a lot of sense because if you have.
level of interest, any level of
investment, you're going to be light
years ahead of countries where people
legitimately just can't play for reasons.
And I put heavy air quotes on
those reasons because men, 99%
of the time or the reasons,
Mario: yeah.
I'm, I, I am sorry for my,
Angela: your brethren need
Mario: my brethren.
Angela: so national team doesn't actually
play till the eighties, mid eighties
at that, and then there still isn't
a league, like a professional league
for these women to practice and to
play in to get their reps in because
yes, a national team plays a decent
amount, but at the time, one, there
weren't a lot of other national teams.
There wasn't funding in that.
you, we talk about it all the time in
our regular season stuff that you need
the reps, you need practice and practice
in game and all the normal sports things
to happen in order to excel long term.
So we again, jumped forward another decade
1995 when the USLW League was formed,
and that ran from 1995 to 2015, but
that was a semi-pro league, so it wasn't
officially a professional league again.
So we're still like up
and down and up and down.
allowed collegiate players to participate
and still maintain their collegiate
eligibility, which is a huge deal
because you blink the wrong way and they
ripped that eligibility away from you.
It began as a single tier league and
then transitioned to the two, the second
tier, but then it went back down to the
first tier in 2008 there were 41 teams,
Mario: Wow.
Angela: year in 2015, there are three
conferences with six teams each.
So it went from 41 teams
down to 18, as you can see,
Mario: Yeah,
Angela: it was revived
Mario: I mean, I totally did
math that fast in my head.
Angela: that's what I'm here for
sometimes, but it was revived again
as another league, but then it
also evolved into the WPSL, which
is an amateur league that is still
running that we'll talk about.
In the future?
'cause there's more to
talk about down there.
Mario: So in between the running of the
USLW league, we have the WUSA, which is
a league that ran between 2000 to 2003.
So again, we're talking about this three
season, curse that is going, you're
gonna start seeing the pattern, right?
So this is the first league that
had all players that were paid as
professionals as opposed to the USLW
league that we were just talking
about, where they're all semi-pro.
So this is a big jump in, the kind
of wo, so history in the US and we
have notable founding players in
this, names that you're probably
going to recognize in all of this.
we have Michelle Akers, we have
Brandy Chastain, Julie Foudy, Mia
Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Kate Markgraf.
Angela: No
Mario: Did I say that right?
Eva: big
Mario: No big deal.
No big deal.
Name.
Angela: a handful of you
may have heard of maybe
Mario: Yeah.
Eva: influential in of
the protections for women.
Angela: Yes.
Eva: In
Mario: Yeah.
Eva: and national team.
Mario: And you might've heard of us
talk about them maybe once or twice on
the podcast before, yeah, completely.
they're beginning of everything in the
US and yeah, that's just who started it?
Eva: Yeah.
And this was just like.
It was, I was really tortured choosing
the names to list for the notable founding
players because all of them are notable.
Yeah.
And if you look it up yourself,
you'll understand why I was
very stressed out about well,
how do I leave out this person?
How do I leave out that person?
so it's not out of
disrespect, it's out of love.
so the commissioner of WSA was
Tony DeCicco, who also coached the
women's national team a minute.
if you are active on, women's soccer,
social media, you may recognize the
name from his son, Anthony DeCicco, who
posts a lot of great commentary and, as
well of League of Games and everything.
And he's a great person to, kind
of follow on on the social medias
if you're interested in that.
there were eight teams in wsa.
There was Atlanta Beat, Breakers,
my beloved Boston Break.
Boston Breakers, just to be
clear, Carolina Courage, New
York Power, Philadelphia Charge,
San Diego Spirit, San Jose Cyber
Rays, and the Washington Freedom.
Mario: I, I will say there's a,
Eva: didn't look up where the
cyber Rays name came from.
I'll say with my chest that
I should have had that little
fact with me for recording.
Mario: I will, I mean.
Be American soccer as it is.
you gotta, you gotta kind of
miss the, the, like A YSO naming
of names a little bit, right?
Because 'cause like everything,
everything has gone to fc, oh, we
we're the, we're the football club,
or we're the sporting club, or, you
know, it's well kind of miss the
Boston breakers or like the cyber rays,
Eva: The, and like the Boston
Breakers had quite a life, like
they were, they made it to the NWSL.
Yeah.
Like they
Angela: transcended leagues.
Eva: We had them and then we
mistreated them and we lost them.
And they were the little
team that couldn't.
Mm-hmm.
And no matter who they signed, no
matter who they brought in the, this
team just could not get it together.
But that's for another back
passes episode, because I would
love to talk at length about the
endearing little team that couldn't.
So anyway, those were the teams.
It was eight teams in WUSA and, and Yeah.
And
Mario: It only only lasted three seasons.
Eva: yeah, as quickly as it came.
Angela: It went,
Eva: it, it left the way it came.
Angela: And
Eva: and women playing soccer.
Angela: Yeah.
And we get to do this again.
We're gonna fast forward
another, what, six years or so
in 2009 when the WPS came to be.
it ran from 2009 to 2011 and those of you
who were in Los Angeles know this is when
Marta played for the Los Angeles Soul.
Like this is that era.
This is when the national team
players were starting to have this
weird crossover with, league play and
everything was messy af nobody was
getting paid whole bunch of shenanigans.
There are wild stories out of this league
from Abby Wamback, from Christen, from
like Christen Press from So many players
are like, oh yeah, that, that occurred.
That was a time Some people don't talk
about it because it was like that.
Mario: Oh no.
Angela: are like, oh, I will
air every dirt piece of dirty
laundry that is owned by this era.
Eva: That person being Ella Maar.
Angela: Yes.
And there's so much, this is another
future episode, but the league itself
crumbled onto itself due to a lack
of resources and financing, which is
the biggest issue overall for these
leagues to maintain their longevity.
there were also a lot of legal
battles with the owner of one team,
the notorious magic jack team.
And the hard part with this is this is
one of those instances where ownership is
yeah, women's soccer, we're all for it.
We're gonna do it.
Here's all these things.
Some of it's a little sketchy,
most of it's a lot sketchy, and
there's a lot of, how do you say.
Abuses along the lines.
Eva: He, if you don't
mind me interjecting.
Yeah, go for it.
He was quoted directly as saying
you can't just treat women like
you can't abuse and mistreat women.
But then he also asked
players to call him daddy.
So
Angela: that's the, the general
perspective and the, the magic jack
team, the short, the very short
version, is that owner, I'm not even
gonna say his name 'cause I don't feel
like he deserves to be said out loud.
no power to you?
Eva: No.
Angela: the, they claim to care
about the game and the players,
but they didn't market them they
refuse to actually put the work in.
Which has been the biggest
hindrance to women's sports
in general for the forevers.
he, there was a lot of asking of
sexual questions and favors a refusal
of physical care for injuries.
no rehab, no.
Just keep playing.
You can probably ask a lot
of those players knees and
backs and necks and legs,
Eva: faces,
Angela: faces, how
they're doing not great.
There are careers that were ended
in that league because of that.
There's a lot of sad things out
of the WPS when it was something
that could been super great.
while the last couple leagues have been
running, there's still an undercurrent
of the WPSL, the WPSL is like cruising
quietly as a semi-pro league all
over the country as it stands today.
'cause it's still an active league today.
It was formed in 1998.
They're entering their 28th season year
are currently 200 active teams across 38
different states, which is freaking dope.
Mario: That's awesome.
I
Angela: different conferences,
there's levels, like there's,
it's such a cool semi-pro league.
And the neat thing is players like
Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy
and Shannon Box and Alex Morgan
have all played in the WPSL.
There are dozens of other players
that have CO that we know that
have come out of this league.
But again, we're just highlighting
a couple because we wanna
make sure people understand.
But the wildest part is,
so the WPS folds, right?
And the WPSL says, alright, sick.
We can finally this elite
level that we've wanted to do.
We now have the opportunity
without competition.
But, but that was in 2012.
So they said, okay, we're
gonna create the WPSL Elite.
It runs for one season because in 2012 the
NWSL was founded and kicked off in 2013.
So it doesn't, so much like stopping and
starting throughout the history in the
course of wo cell leagues, which is crazy.
Mario: That Honestly.
like I said, I have my two
resources of knowledge here that
honestly I am learning tons from.
and I purposely did not fully read
our, notes and stuff because I did want
to learn and listen, this makes me a
little sad knowing that there could have
been a crazy ass, like the, the, the
traditional soccer pyramid would've,
could've come out of this, right?
Eva: Mm-hmm.
Mario: we had that WPSL elite like, top
league, the Premier League as it were.
And then we could, we could have
totally had promotion relegation
from the beginning there, 200 teams.
Like it would've been so much mores.
Angela: like you could have a tra like
quote unquote traditional European setup
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: in promotion Reation,
but in an American way
Eva: because
Angela: it wouldn't be quite the same.
'cause why would we do that?
Eva: No.
And if you think about the, like the
NWSL as it exists now, like the pure
chaos, like the pure unfilled, like
it's basically like those games.
This league is like just like
stabbing herself with an EpiPen,
like in Broad City, like Abby Stabs
herself and she jumps up on the
table and just tells adrenaline.
Yeah.
And that's what this league is.
like to imagine that with Pro L.
Because you'd end up with a 12 team tie.
Yeah.
For that last place.
Yeah.
And all the games would go to pks.
They would all have to be
like 30 pks before anyone won.
to try and do Pro Rail with like just it.
Angela: It would be a lot.
Eva: It would just break all of us.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: And it would break the players.
And
Angela: no extra time.
Eva: Just, I think all of our blood
pressures would be like 20 to 30
points higher on a constant basis.
Angela: Likely,
Eva: yeah.
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So with all of that, the NWSL
is formed now the NWSL in
its current iteration, right?
We are, we are up to,
almost up to present day.
Right.
there's even different eras within
the NWSL itself, so we're gonna
Eva: there's books,
Mario: Yeah.
Eva: I think at this point.
Mario: So I'm gonna start off with,
the early days, the YouTube days.
Okay, so the NWSL was founded in 2012
and they started playing in 2013.
so this period kind of roughly
goes from like 2013 to 2021.
the players were, you know, a lot of
them played for their national, teams.
So from the us, Canada, and Mexico.
a lot of them were paid by their
federation and not necessarily
the NWSL team themselves.
there was probably a whole, go get, like
as Angela was saying, you need to get
minutes, you need to get playing time.
This, probably a good way for those
national teams to get out there.
Players.
Yet there was this kind of, from
the beginning, kind of from the
get go with, you know, the coconut
shell game of where's the money
and who's the money coming from.
they basically had a distribution
system of, of allocating players, Each
team can only have a certain number
of national team players and a certain
number of international players.
And that's something that came out, didn't
really even stop till pretty recently.
but given that, you know, the beginning
of the, the league, any beginning of any
type of league and stuff like that, you're
gonna have to find funding somewhere.
And that also means players
aren't necessarily gonna get
paid, what they need, right?
I mean, you're a startup, so
a lot of those players ended
up getting paid like $5,000.
Imagine being a professional
player, playing for what is now
a professional league and then
only getting paid five grand.
you're definitely in the, you
gotta have a second, third job.
You know, you're, you're
essentially a semi-pro player.
'cause
Angela: yep.
Mario: yeah.
Angela: Yeah.
And if we go back to it, the, I think
the biggest and most well known example
of this is Sarah Gorden in Chicago.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: There's a reason why
Sarah Gorden is a model also.
And it was because she needed to make
sure that her and Kayden had a place to
live and food to eat and make sure, 'cause
the, the league was not paying the bills.
Mario: Yeah.
Eva: Yeah.
She couldn't like she had to
bring her child to practice.
Angela: Yeah.
Could
Eva: not afford childcare.
Like just a, such a disaster.
Angela: Yeah.
And
Eva: like such a clear indication
that there really were not enough
women involved up at the top.
Not that women save
everything all the time.
'cause that's another thing
you learn with the NWSL.
They don't.
Yeah, we don't.
But a lot of, just a lot of really obvious
looked over issues and things that need
to be addressed in a women's sports
league were just completely non-existent.
Angela: Yeah.
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: kind of applies to the, the CBA
negotiations that came in the future.
The players campaigned
on more side hustles.
That was the, there, I mean,
breaking tee sold shirts.
I might have bought one, I don't remember.
But like was a kind of thing where, no,
this was the whole association was like,
we just don't, you want us to be elite
athletes and then we still have to be
like real estate agents and firefighters
and res like cancer researchers.
Like all these, like you have a
full, whole ass day job while also
competing for your national team
or playing professional sports.
This would never have been allowed on
the men's side, absolutely 0% ever.
Eva: And also no union.
Angela: Yeah.
At this point, no players
association, no union, no nothing.
So
Eva: just
Mario: Yeah.
Eva: negative protections all around.
Mario: Yeah.
So all the hallmarks of the crappy
side of startups, basically.
but what they do get right in all of
the examples that we've shown already is
they break the three year curse, right?
I mean, they're around
now, so they broke it.
it's the only women's, yeah, it's the
only women's league at this point to
break that three year curse in the us.
there was, I can't, I am sure there
was so many nerves and, and like
kind of, it's, it's like you open
the door and now you're, you're in,
full color oz after that third year.
'cause it's like we.
Eva: player, every interview at year three
was like, is the league gonna survive?
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: What do we do?
What do we need to keep the
year like the league alive?
And then it gets to year four, and all of
us are just like, nobody spooked the bear.
Angela: Yeah.
Don't say
Eva: anything.
Don't like, don't talk about it.
No, no, no.
We don't.
Don't say the numbers, like just everyone.
Just shut the fuck up.
move.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: Don't make any sudden moves.
It's all gonna be okay.
Mario: Yeah.
with all of that, as we were saying,
this is the YouTube era, most of the
games were on YouTube, with, there
was only a handful of games on in,
on the Fox Sports Channel on ESPN.
I imagine they were at like ungodly
hours or weird, times where like
it was like a week later and then
they showed the game or something.
So it's not like it was
the most accessible thing,
especially in the early days.
but the first game was
played April 13th, 2013.
It was the Portland Thorns
versus, FC Kansas City.
Eva: Yeah.
Which then turned into the Utah Royals,
which then became the Kansas City current.
But again, that's another
episode of back passes.
Angela: Yeah.
There's too much to go into with that
Eva: and the, I mean it for a while,
like it was only the, the playoffs
and then the championship that would
be shown on like ESPN or whatever.
So you'd be like, you could
theoretically, you could be scrolling
through your TV guide and be like,
oh, hey, women's soccer, cool.
I didn't know we had a leak.
And then turn it on and
it's the season's over.
See you next year maybe.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: And that's not like
conducive to anything.
But what was great, like being on
YouTube not the best for obvious
reasons, because it's a lack of a media
deal, so the money and everything.
But it was really great because
the games were so easy to find.
You weren't having to open 10 million
apps, you weren't having to open Instagram
graphics to see, okay, well last week
it was on, it was on channel one.
And this week it's an odd number of
the month, so it's gonna be on channel
four, but, oh wait, it's also a player's
birthday, so that means it's on the
second option, but it's a full moon,
so maybe it could be the sixth option.
Like it was just always in one place.
Angela: Yeah,
Eva: which was really nice.
And the games were easy
to watch afterwards.
Like replay, like we,
Angela: I mean, there's still games, like
a lot of those games are still on YouTube.
Eva: Yeah.
A couple weeks ago we watched the
2017, semi-final between Portland
and Western New York Flash, which
became North Carolina courage.
and it was awesome.
So that was really cool,
especially because.
The internet fan base was
really, really just like
Angela: popping,
Eva: popping so unhinged.
There was, you had the Twitter fan base,
but then you had the Tumblr fan base.
so having the games on YouTube,
you were getting gif of stupid shit
that happened in games so fast.
Like it felt like I would blink and then
look at my computer and it was there.
Angela: Yeah.
it was, was very much if you were of
late teens, early twenties age in the
early s into the early 2000 tens, peak
internet was wo so internet, and it
was beautiful and it was wonderful.
But the league is still going.
Eva: Yeah.
It, it wasn't perfect,
but it was fun as hell.
Angela: Mm-hmm.
Eva: then we get the lifetime deal,
which brings us to the lifetime era.
And this is, was wild in the moment.
It's wild in retrospect.
But I think it was a really, I
understood the thought process
and still we talk about like the
marketing and who are we marketing to?
Are we marketing to little girls?
Are we marketing to families?
Are we marketing to the 20 somethings
who wanna come have a couple
beers and get rowdy and have fun?
who are we marketing this lead to?
And so the lifetime deal was
super interesting because
Lifetime doesn't have sports.
It's lifetime.
Like the sport is who killed
the woman in this movie?
Angela: it's not like it's, it's Christmas
movies, murder mysteries, and Snapped.
Eva: Yeah.
Like Shhe isn't hitting three
Mario: Snapped
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: And, and so they do this
deal with Lifetime Lifetime's
gonna show one game a week.
And like, you kind of see the vision of
well this is an untapped demographic.
the women who watch Lifetime
aren't necessarily likely in these
people's minds to also be sports fans.
Now we know
Angela: we contain multitudes.
Eva: Yeah.
We're so much more evolved now
and we understand that we can
Mario: you,
Eva: interests.
Mario: you mean?
You're not just some bullet points
to be like marketing to this person
Eva: though like my head kind of
looks like one we're not, but what?
look, I'm It's like a circle.
It's, yeah.
Like especially with the hair not
being like the swoop anymore, The
we're, it's like kind of confusing,
but it's kind of exciting, but it's
also kind of like, what the fuck?
Like this, there's no way this is
gonna work, but maybe it could.
And Lifetime actually gets
a lot of things right.
And the biggest thing that they do,
which interestingly enough is what the
whole Casual FC podcast was built on.
They start telling stories about players.
Yep.
And so every week there's a game, and
before the game and during halftime, they
air a prerecorded segment about one player
participating in that game for the day.
So they did.
And these are all still on YouTube.
I highly recommend looking them up.
they did a re one of my favorites
that like I always can recall off the
top of my head is, Dani Weatherholt.
Former Angel, when she played in Orlando.
probably the coolest thing about Dani
Weatherholt is that she is always
getting involved in her community.
Wherever she is playing, she
is from there, like you would
think, it's her hometown.
She cares so much.
she befriended this family that a
bunch of players met at a, at the
Orlando Children's Hospital, and
they did this beautiful segment that
you will absolutely sob through.
Yeah.
About her relationship with this,
young boy who was sick and the joy
that they brought to each other.
Carson Pickett was playing in Seattle
at the time, if I recall correctly,
and there was a segment about her
being, the, on the first and only
player with a limb difference.
there was, I believe there was a
segment about Jess McDonald and,
her being a mom and they just, they
really wanted to appeal to, this
is who you could be rooting for.
these are the people that
you could get invested in.
They really wanted you to care
about the players, still to this
day, I think is like the best thing
that we got from the Lifetime era.
They, they just really gave a shit about
who was on that field and whoever was
doing the camera work for Lifetime.
Really?
They,
Angela: lived for the drum.
Eva: They were like little
chismosas, there were
instances of, and Orlando Defender
giving up a pk and then they would
put their hands on their head and
the camera would zoom in on them.
Mario: It just crashes Zoom all the time.
Eva: Yeah, so sitcom.
I will send clips so that
we can put them here.
We're here or here.
But one of them is, I think the
first one was of Alana Kennedy,
which makes it even better.
Like it very directly appeals to
the Angel City fans and all of us.
it was, it was unique and it was like,
it was cool, but it wasn't 'cause then
also what we also come across GO90 and
it's hard to even talk about without just
getting so upset because, so what happens
is A&E is the parent company to Lifetime,
and they were pushing this app GO90
where you were allegedly able to watch
sports, allegedly the NWSL games could
be found on GO90 oftentimes only on GO90.
And
it wasn't on every device.
There was no tech support.
The app constantly crashed.
tech, like the technical difficulties,
like we would be here until 2027 like
you would just be like sitting on
Twitter and be like, it just my GO90?
Or is it everyone's GO90
And then 10 people would be
like, it's all of our GO90.
it just, did so much damage.
It was really hard to watch these games
and the sound would be bad or you would
turn it on and one of the things that like
we used to do is post like a screenshot
and be like, this is your brain on drugs.
Because it would be like completely
blurry or it would look like you
were watching it in like the 1970s
and like also at this time, Seattle
was wearing highlighter yellow kits.
Not like the ones Washington wore.
These were so aggressive and on this
screen and this terrible, it was so bad.
Like sometimes it would, it would
like physically hurt to watch these
games because like it was just these
yellow blurs like bouncing around like
that you couldn't, it was a disaster.
It was such a disaster.
And it, you can tell who's watched
the league for a long time.
Yeah.
'cause if you say GO90,
like you'll just like,
Angela: it's like a shutter or
Eva: it like Yeah.
It's, it's like SD like
a war flashback of just
Angela: I remember GO90.
Yeah.
Eva: I was there.
I remember that.
And
Mario: New merch.
Eva: yeah, yeah.
yes.
I remember GO90, I remember 90.
Angela: Yes.
Eva: it, it really just eliminated
a lot of, all of our brain cells.
and then.
A&E pulls out and the contract ends the
games move to CBS sports and Twitch.
And what was cool about Twitch
was that for about five minutes,
they allowed select, soccer like
influencers, let's say, to do a co
stream, which means that they could
host a stream of the game as well
interact with comments and everything.
And I'm going to specifically
shout out the Cooligans
Angela: friends of the pod
Eva: friends, friends of the pod
Christian has been on the pod.
Great episode.
If you haven't heard
it, go back and listen.
Send a back pass to that episode.
they're comedians, so they're funny
as hell and they're now unhinged given
free reign to essentially call a game.
And it, it was,
Mario: I need to go find this.
Eva: I can find it.
I would love to watch it again.
was so unhinged.
So now we move out of the lifetime era
into what we are now going to call the
modern day era, which is right now.
Angela: so we, the media deals have gotten
bigger and better and more spread out.
So as as the YouTube days were
the lifetime slash GO90 days.
Now we have a unregulated FCC that
just allows everybody to do everything.
And now we have to have 47 different
streaming networks watch any sport.
But the cool thing was the league
itself progressing in 2017.
players banded together and
created a players association.
was the NWSL pa still in, in big practice
in, and it's a good thing they took the
first steps in 2017 to become a union.
So when you're developing.
This kind of thing.
You started as an association, you
have to vote to become a union, file
all this paperwork, find a union
rep, like it's a whole process, which
is why it takes so long and why so
many places try to union bust, but
we're not gonna get into that today.
The league formally recognized
the players association as
a union in November of 2018.
So they went this whole year, got
everything together, be officially
got their union, like situated league
recognizes it, but the union doesn't
represent everybody just yet because
prior to 2022, the US Women's National
team players weren't included.
they were contracted to the
federation, not the league.
So they weren't included in
the players' union because they
weren't players of the league.
Mario: Wait, they were, they
still weren't players up to 2022.
Angela: Yep.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: It was until
that CBA when they became
Mario: That's wild.
Angela: Yep.
And I think other, different national
team players had, it had already
started to disintegrate that idea,
but in the US it was still, they
were contracted to the federation.
And the federation.
subcontracted to
Mario: them out.
Angela: Yeah.
And that's why there were so many
different player issues with that.
But now as of 2022, the union now reps
every player in the league, regardless
of federation, regardless of national
team status, they, if you are part of
the player association, you're covered
by the union, all that kind of stuff.
While this is happening,
you also have equal rights.
Lawsuit the national team level, you have
so many things happening in the world and
this, pandemic starts, the bubble starts.
That's the, the NWSL bubble
is an episode within itself
because that so much happened.
with the players being in one place,
started happening and interviews
were happening because the pandemic
did crazy things in the sense of
we had time, we had time to sit
down and figure some stuff out.
And with the league, this meant that
players were talking to reporters
and investigations were starting.
And Athletic in September
of 2021 a bombshell.
Eva: Meg Linehan specifically?
Angela: Yes.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: of an article.
I remember getting the,
the like alert on my phone.
I remember texting you because
I was like, is this legit?
And it was like, oh my God.
Eva: Yeah,
Angela: because Sinead Farrelly and Mana
Shim, who have since retired from the NWSL
were very brave in the fact,
Eva: sorry.
And Kaya McCullough.
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah.
Just 'cause Yeah,
Angela: yeah.
Eva: Sorry.
Angela: But
Mario: Rewind.
Angela: them insanely brave in doing
this because they knew it would gut
their careers, whatever they had left of
them, if they wanted to continue playing.
It's incredibly dangerous to make these
kinds of, claims because of the legality
of what's said and what isn't said.
The money of the accused, there's
Mario: Okay.
Angela: involved and in this
case there was, because they
asserted that there were years.
Of harassment, misconduct
and abuse of all kinds.
Eva: All do a lot of it documented.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: A and across teams as that
report from the Athletic and Meg
came out, more and more players
were like, yep, exactly that.
thank you for speaking out
and started thanking them.
So all of a sudden it's being
corroborated across the league,
across the union, across the world
the detriment to the players that's
occurring in the NWSL, which then
leads to the Yates report, which we've
talked about or alluded to a lot.
And I just, I never wanna fully deep dive
into it because it's heartbreaking, truly.
but.
Yates, USDA,
Eva: the Sally Yates.
Angela: The Sally Yates is the
one to do this investigation.
Eva: When that news dropped, by the way.
Yes.
Like we were all like, that
was not on my bingo card.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: Because the
Angela: others gets quote unquote fired
from like, attorney general office of this
country, and immediately says, oh, okay.
There's some women in this league
that are getting screwed over.
Got it.
No problem.
Eva: Oh, and the league has
been covering it up and the
owners have been covering it up
Angela: Yeah,
Eva: and, and you mean this whole
thing is an entire shit show.
Watch this.
Angela: Yeah.
So the Yates investigation uncovered
mountains, mountains of blurred
boundaries, abuse, back to the beginning
of the league with, what's the word?
What's the word when something, oh, with
the alluding to of like previous abuses
that followed players into this league.
So from multiple prior leagues, players
who had been at all different levels
being like, oh yeah, this happened
here when I played on this team.
That's this.
Because the owners were the same.
The people, all the big players, the
puppet masters, the owners, the, the
money holders the same at this point.
So this comes out, coaches, owners, execs
have stepped down, teams have been sold.
It's not perfect by any means.
There are so many things that
still need to get to be rectified
and and reimagined in a lot of
ways, but it is so much better.
Players are getting paid.
That alone was a big deal.
Eva: There's an hr, there's
a harassment policy.
Angela: Yeah.
Eva: Thank you Alex Morgan.
'cause there wasn't until she
showed up and was like, knocked
on the door and was like,
Angela: no,
Eva: are you fucking serious?
what's the, yeah.
What are we doing here?
Angela: So there's a lot that happened
between 2017 with the creation
of the players association, which
then became the union and 2022,
when Yates investigation published
and shifts had to be made legally.
there was, ramifications if teams
weren't sold by a certain time or there
were, timeframes that things had to be
done and changed, which was amazing.
so that kinda led us into where we are
now with the new CBA and players electing
to negotiate early because they're
like, things are already shifting.
We gotta change this again.
I'm assuming it's gonna happen again
probably next year, but at the end of
2023, they also, also, settled a new
broadcast deal, which included CBS
Sports Networks, ESPN and Amazon Prime.
That has now also included
like 14 other things.
But the coolest part is that there
are now games on national tv, no cable
subscription needed on Ion, who is doing a
fantastic job at promoting women's sports.
Because you get, it's Friday.
Yeah, Friday and Saturday nights, back
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: like Doubleheaders
of the NWSL and the WNBA.
So we're in a much more stable
place as a league, as like
the foundation is more stable.
There's way more funding, there's
a bazillion sponsors, there's,
there's much more stability
for the players for the league.
And honestly, I just hope it continues
to improve and we take the, the things
that still need to be fixed, dial it in.
Kind of honestly, like any team
ever, no perfect team, there's no
perfect organization, but the goal
is to continuously improve show up
for the players who are doing the
work in the first place the, there
is no league without the players.
And yeah.
Eva: the product has always been good.
Angela: Yeah.
what?
It's never been that there, it wasn't
good soccer, it just was never marketed.
And now that it is, we're seeing
so much more flood into the league
and flood in from the fan bases.
was a study that came out, oh,
I wanna say 15, 20 years ago.
I remember reading it and
being like, yeah, duh.
That female fans of sports, not
just women's sports, of sports,
were the ones who control the money.
The ones who buy the merch, but
nothing is marketed towards them.
In a lot of cases, even in women's
sports, that's still the case.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: We have the money, we have
the ability to spend it, but you're
not giving us anything to spend it on.
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: So the more we market stuff, the
more the cooler merch that comes out.
I want to buy more merch, but if
it's not cool, I'm not gonna buy it.
Eva: Yeah.
Like I remember like probably a year, like
four or five maybe, there was an interview
with Becki sbr and this was when she was
in Kansas City and she was like, yeah,
we've won two championships back to back.
And I don't think anyone knows
that there's even a team in Kansas
City and like their attendance
numbers would be like 1,473 people.
Angela: Mm-hmm.
Eva: For like to watch
Angela: Becky Sauerbrunn.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: But yeah, when you're getting
playoff games with a thousand people
and players like Becky Sauerbrunn
winning back to back championships
and being like, yeah, I don't
think anybody actually knows.
We have a team here.
That's where the problem lies.
And the cool thing now is
that FC Kansas City, which is.
Long gone, but Kansas City
current is there and everybody
knows the current exists.
Eva: Yeah.
Angela: And that
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: best thing.
that's the best trajectory
you can hope for.
Eva: There's like
marketing in the airport.
Angela: Yeah.
In the airport, in the train
stations, in like everywhere.
And it, it's amazing.
And the most thing, or the
biggest thing we can hope for
hope is that that continues.
Mario: Yeah, I am, I'm glad to be here.
I am glad to.
I, I'm glad to have
Eva: sweet.
Mario: about all of this and,
I mean, honestly, it's what
brought us together, right?
And it's how we're friends now and how
Eva: It's how we're getting married.
Mario: it, it's how it brought you two.
It brought you two together.
Yes.
Eva: Yeah.
Mario: and it's, it's just,
it boggles my mind some of the
things that I just learned, but,
Eva: Oh,
Mario: but,
Eva: you hear the stuff
that you didn't just learn.
Mm-hmm.
Angela: There's
Mario: but yeah.
that's, that's our first
episode of back passes.
Eva: Woo woo.
Mario: Woo.
So if you're here all the way
to this point, you probably
like what you've heard.
Hit subscribe.
this is our new kind of, project
of there's lots more things about
WoSo that we all want to talk about.
And, the, we built casual FC as a angel
city, like fan, like resource basically.
But we've expanded it little by little.
Everything's still Angel City focused,
but you know, there's more stories to
tell and I think this is our avenue
to be able to really get into all
those other things that we want to.
We're gonna go all over the place.
We've got a whole list of ideas,
Angela: That keeps growing.
Mario: that keeps growing.
We have a whole list of, shoot
to the moon type of interviews
that we are gonna try to go for.
as you heard, there's
probably a couple of.
Episode ideas in this episode
already that we've talked about
and soap boxes that we'll get on.
but we really hope that you enjoyed
this kind of format of what we're doing.
let us know what you guys think.
if there's a topic that you'd like to
hear more about and have us deep dive
on and research or just pick their
brains about, yeah, just let us know.
Check us out@casualfc.com
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We're also on YouTube.
Follow us on Casual FC Pod, on
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Join our discord.
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Buy some merch, as Angela said.
There's money out there.
We got the cool stuff.
Do it.
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FC pod just helps us keep doing what we're
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It's the best way to share, what you've
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So with that, thank you for
joining us for the first episode
of Back Passes and see you later.
Eva: Bye bye.