(San Diego) Saturday’s North American Women’s Soccer Championship (NWSL) final in San Diego offers a dream farewell to superstar Megan Rapinoe as her sport enters a new era with the signing of a record broadcast rights deal.
Thanks to its victory (1-0) over the San Diego Wave FC on Sunday in the semi-finals, Seattle’s OL Reign extended the career of Rapinoe, 38, by a few days with Saturday’s final against NJ/NY Gotham FC , in Southern California.
“This is really going to be my very last (match). It’s the dream ending, all that’s left to do is win,” said Rapinoe.
The emblematic attacker, feminist activist and committed in particular to LGBT rights, has the opportunity to win a trophy that is missing from her list of achievements.
Double world champion (2015 and 2019), 2012 Olympic champion and named best player in the world in 2019, Megan Rapinoe said goodbye to Team USA in September after 17 years, 203 caps and 63 goals, but on a last missed World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand (elimination in 1/8 finals).
The biggest football star in the United States will finish in a club match, at a time when the American championship, created in 2012, enters a new dimension, particularly financial.
The NWSL announced Thursday that it had sold its broadcast rights for $240 million over four years to several partners (ESPN, CBS, Prime Video and Scripps), or forty times more money than the current contract.
The contract provides for the broadcast of 118 matches per season instead of 30.
“This agreement fundamentally changes things for our championship and the players who step foot on its lawns every weekend. We have taken care to make matches available to fans and a new audience […] while generating revenue that our players deserve and that our investors hope for,” commented NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.
Last match of the old era, the Gotham-OL Reign poster pits two “surprise” teams, respectively 6th and 4th in the regular season, who were able to win away in the semi-finals of the playoffs against the best clubs of the season so far (Portland and San Diego).
In addition to Rapinoe, Ali Krieger (39), captain of Gotham and another historic figure in North American women’s football (108 caps, two World Cup victories) is also playing her last match.
Enough to give headaches to ex-star basketball player Sue Bird, partner of Rapinoe, but also shareholder of Gotham, who ironically announced on her social networks that she was looking for a double-sided jersey for the match.