There are no other bidders from other FIFA confederations. We also catch up on NWSL expansion franchise news, with coach and player signings for the two new clubs for 2026, the Denver Summit and Boston Legacy, along with the recent announcement of a new franchise in Atlanta which is scheduled to start in 2028.
2031 CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Bid Book—Recommended Cities/Locations for the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
The U.S. Soccer Federation has submitted their bid book to FIFA for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, with the U.S. staging many games but others being held in Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica for a proposed CONCACAF region-wide tournament.
As we have done for past WWC bids, TribalFootball.com analyzed the 273 page document, which was very well produced, both on the graphic and textual side. The bid book has proposed 14 American venues, with seven set to host games on the men’s side in the 2026 World Cup (which also has games in Canada and Mexico) among 20 proposed venues in total within CONCACAF.
The 2031 U.S. sites (with the stadium in paratheses) presented in the 2031 proposal, include seven which will host games for the 2026 men’s World Cup:
Arlington (Dallas-Ft. Worth), Texas (AT&T)
Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz)
East Rutherford, New Jersey (MetLife)
Houston (NRG)
Inglewood, California (Sofi)
Kansas City, Missouri (Arrowhead)
Seattle (Lumen Field).
The seven other presented stadiums for the States are:
Charlotte, North Carolina (Bank of America)
Denver (Empower Field)
Minneapolis (U.S. Bank)
Nashville, Tennessee (Geodis Park)
Orlando, Florida (Camping World)
San Diego (Snapdragon)
Washington, D.C. (proposed planned NFL venue on the original RFK Stadium site).
Note: Orlando and Washington were sites for the 1994 men’s World Cup.
Mexico’s three sites for the 2026 World Cup are also proposed for the women’s tournament:
Mexico City (Azteca)
Guadalajara (Akron)
Monterrey (BBVA)
Torreón (Corona) was also proposed for a fourth site for Mexico.
For two other CONCACAF nations, their national stadiums are proposed:
Kingston, Jamaica
San Jose, Costa Rica.
Still to be determined is how the 104 dates for the 48 teams will be divided among the four countries. In 2026 for the three country World Cup, 78 of the 104 matches will be played in the United States across 11 cities. For the women’s tournament, Brazil 2027 will have 32 teams as did Australia New Zealand in the summer of 2023.
FIFA is expected to approve the 2031 hosts as well as for 2035 tournament in the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) at their next Congress in late April 2026 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
The Bid Book also mentioned 26 additional stadiums in the U.S. as suitable for the 48 national tournament and stated that these cities: “will be equally considered for the purposes of stadium selection.” This reporter is a tad skeptical of this statement because, when the U.S. was bidding for the 2027 WWC games before stepping aside late in the process which ultimately went to Brazil, they had proposed all the stadiums that were hosting 2026 men’s World Cup games except for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and it all seemed to have been done very quickly as a fait accompli, albeit in a rush around U.S. Soccer efforts on the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics, both of which will also be held in the U.S. (see: The Week in Women's Football: Examing USL comps; reviewing each 2027 bid book - Tribal Football and The Week in Women's Football: Brazil win '27 World Cup bid; NWSL check as Seb Hines has Orlando Pride flying - Tribal Football).
These other U.S. venues listed as possibilities include three which will host men’s World Cup games in the summer of 2026:
Foxborough, Massachusetts (Gillette)
Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field)
Santa Clara, California (Levi’s)
Additional sites on the list of possibilities are:
Baltimore (M&T Bank)
Birmingham, Alabama (Protective)
Carson, California (Dignity Health Sports Park) #
Cincinnati (TQL)
Cleveland (Huntington Bank Field)/Columbus, Ohio (Lower.com Field)
Frisco, Texas (Toyota) #
Glendale (Phoenix), Arizona (State Farm)
Harrison, New Jersey (Sports Illustrated—formerly Red Bull Arena) #
Los Angeles (Memorial Coliseum) #
Miami (Chase—Inter Miami’s new permanent stadium which opens in 2026)
Nashville (Nissan) #
New York City (Etihad Park) #
Orlando (Inter & Co) #
Pasadena, California (Rose Bowl) #
St. Louis (Energizer Park)
San Francisco (Oracle Park)
Sandy (Salt Lake City), Utah (America First Field)
Tampa, Florida (Raymond James).
# indicates a second stadium option for the 14 prioritized sites listed above, along with three lower capacity stadiums in NWSL markets: Houston (Shell Energy), Kansas City (CPKC), and Washington, D.C. (Audi Field), which could be used along with the main venue in those prioritized cities. Indianapolis was also listed for a proposed soccer stadium. Cleveland and Columbus are listed jointly in the Bid Book as one location, even though the cities are a two-hour drive apart and have vastly different experiences on the soccer/women’s soccer side; this is a curious anomaly to me. San Francisco’s Oracle Park is a baseball stadium, home of the San Francisco Giants, and drew a NWSL record crowd of 40,091 in August for a Bay FC versus Washington Spirit stand-alone football match
Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was the only 2026 World Cup venue that was not included on either list. Another surprise is that Chicago is not listed as a possible venue as they stepped out of bidding to host in 2026 because of what it said were “FIFA’s burdensome financial demands.”
In total 50 sites were mentioned across the four countries. Additional possibilities presented in the other markets include for Mexico:
Pachuca (Miguel Hidalgo)
Querétaro (Corregidora),
Universitario Stadium was also presented as an alternate choice in Monterrey.
In Costa Rica, Saprissa was listed as an alternate site to the national stadium, the latter which has held FIFA U-17 and U-20 WWC age level finals in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Bid officials have proposed Atlanta as the site for the World Cup draw and Dallas as host of the international broadcast center, though both decisions will ultimately be made by FIFA.
The Bid Book emphasized that a final decision will not be made on the final venues for several years. For 2031, after analyzing the Bid Book, I believe that the 14 prioritized U.S. locations are very much in the driver’s seat to host games at the 2031 Women’s World Cup. These Stadiums/Cities were featured in great detail (on pages 39-66 for Candidate Host Countries and Host Cities in Part A for Event Vision and Key Metrics, on pages 85-112 for Stadiums in Part B for Infrastructure (including area maps and stadium details), for Venue Specific Team and Referee Facilities on pages 127-143, and even on Transportation options on 203-237 in Part 3 for Services).
The other cities/stadiums are only listed on page 38 and then there are some details on hotels and training camps for these other cities for Training and Referee facilities for Team Base Camp Facilities on pages 144-152—including Birmingham, Alabama, Cleveland, Columbus, Tampa and where this writer is currently based, in Phoenix, which has one hotel and one training site at Arizona State University listed. Phoenix has long been a regular host for CONCACAF Gold Cup and the two Copa America’s that were held in the U.S., but that pedigree and experience may not be enough.
Other cities located in this Team Base Camp section included Atlantic City, New Jersey—a very nice locale to visit, particularly in the summer—New Brunswick (Rutgers University) in New Jersey and two Pacific Northwest markets with women’s professional teams: Portland, Oregon (NWSL) and Spokane, Washington (USL Super League and Gonzaga University, the latter being a proposed base camp in 2026 and 2031).
This reporter has worked on bids to host U.S. Soccer men’s and women’s World Cup Final matches, including Columbus for the 1994 World Cup—which finished as one of three alternate sites when U.S. Soccer/FIFA chose nine cities rather than the expected twelve—and training camp sites for multiple tournaments and understand this bidding process from an insider’s perspective. My message to the other cities not on the top 14 list is that now is the time to be talking with U.S. Soccer officials and other key stakeholders, to determine what they need to do to improve their chances if they want to host games in 2031.
Granted, the top 14 teams include seven 2026 men’s World Cup sites which all have existing local organizing committees in place for 2026 and all have excellent cities and facilities, but as time goes on—after all, we are just slightly over five years away from the 2031 tournament—it become easier for those involved to treat this list as final as the myriad details around the tournament pile up.
Other interesting findings from the bid book include that, for the entire tournament, 4.5 million fans would attend matches across all four countries and it will generate $4 billion in revenues, more than eight times more from the last WWC in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand (at $570 million) and over four times more than a projected $1 billion from the next WWC in 2027 in Brazil. In part D for Commercial/Revenues and Contributions (on pages 254-257), there is not much in the way of specific breakouts of revenue except for estimated ticket prices for three seating categories by tournament rounds (yielding an estimated $550 million). There are only general estimates for revenue sources such as Game Hospitality ($300 million), Ancillary Match Day Revenue such as concessions, parking and memorabilia sales ($400 million), Fan Festivals ($350 million), Broadcast Rights ($1 billion), Marketing and Licensing (and Sponsorships) ($1.48 billion) and Government Subsidies/Contributions (not stated) and Federations and Member Associations (not stated). In the past, we used to see more detail on revenues and expenses in these documents but that has receded in late, so much so that there are more pages (eight vs. four) devoted to the section on Sustainability and Human Rights and Legacy (pages 261-269)—albeit which are very important—than for the Financials.
In an upcoming column, TribalFootball.com will review the 2035 United Kingdom Bid Book, hosted jointly in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The 2035 Bid Book is considerably shorter than the 2031 Bid Book at 149 pages to 273 pages, even those both involve hosting matches in four countries. As always, we will keep the readers updated on this very important and involved process leading up to these events.
NWSL Expansion Side News
Boston Legacy
2023 WWC American goalkeeper Casey Murphy (29) signed with Boston Legacy FC through the 2029 season with a mutual option for 2023, at a reported $1.5 million in total. She was due to be a free agent at the end of 2025 as her contract with the North Carolina Courage was expiring. She has 20 caps (with 15 shutouts) for the USWNT and was the backup goalkeeper to Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Stars) at the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics, where the U.S. won the gold medal in Paris. She is expected to be the Legacy’s number one goalkeeper. She played previously for one season in Seattle after two seasons with Montpellier in France.
Another international was signed as the club acquired Brazilian forward Amanda Gutierres (24) from Palmeiras for $1.1 million in transfer fees and bonuses, which was the highest fee ever paid for a Brazilian player by a NWSL side. The previous record fees for Brazilian players was the $950,000 that Houston Dash received from OL Lyonnes in exchange for Tarciane in 2025 in February and a $500,000 fee received by Orlando Pride earlier this year from Al Qadsiah FC for Adriana.
Gutierres finished as the leading scorer of the 2025 Copa América Femenina with six goals, including one in the final against Colombia and another in the shootout, which Brazil won 5-4 after a 4-4 tie. Gutierres finished 21st (out of 30 players) in the 2025 Ballon d’Or voting.
Boston signed attacking midfielder Chloe Ricketts (18) from the Washington Spirit, who joined the Dash on a short term loan for the end of the 2025 season. She played in seven games for Washington this season and one for Houston. Ricketts will join Boston for preseason training in January. In three seasons with the Spirit, she played in 25 games. She played three games with the U.S. U-20 WNT this season.
In August, Boston signed Texan-born Venezuelan international midfielder Barbara Olivieri (23) from the Houston Dash. She played at Tigres in Liga MX Femenil in the recent 2025-26 Apertura tournament, recording two assists in eight regular season matches and one goal in six playoff matches as Tigres won the league title.
The team’s first-ever signing was U.S. Under-23 midfielder Annie Karich (21), who signed through the 2027 season, with an option for 2028. The club loaned her to Liga MX Femenil Club America in Mexico City for the remainder of 2025, where she played in 23 Apertura regular season and playoff matches for the league runner-up in the playoffs.
She spent the previous one-and-a-half seasons with SC Freiburg in Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga, with 36 appearances through the end of the 2024-25 season; she joined the Legacy as a free agent. She played with the U.S. U-23, U-17 and U-15 sides; she played two years at Santa Clara University in Northern California.
The club’s second signing was Malawi forward Aissata Traoré (27), who they acquired from Fleury of France. She scored nine goals and four assists in her debut season with Fleury. She began her professional club career abroad with Besiktas of Turkey in 2019. Traoré also scored twice for Mali at the recent Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) as the Female Eagles reached the quarter-finals.
Legacy signed two American defenders in Emerson Elgin (22), who played at the University of North Carolina and two games on loan with the USL Super League Tampa Bay Sun in the 2025 Fall Season, and Laurel Ansbrow (22), who played at Wake Forest University and 13 games on loan with Ft. Lauderdale United in the Fall of 2025, after playing 15 games on her first professional contract with Ft. Lauderdale in 2024-25. In college, she played two seasons in the USL W-League in 2022-23 with the North Carolina Courage U-23 side, who she helped to the league final in 2023 and made the league’s Team of the Year roster. They both will join the Legacy for pre-season training for the 2026 season.
Late in December the Legacy signed Canadian international forward Amanda Allen (20). Allen was signed out of high school in March of 2023 by the Orlando Pride and was the club’s youngest ever signing. Allen went on loan twice, to Lexington Sporting Club in the USL in 2024 and Halifax Tides FC in the Northern Super League last summer, where she scored once in 11 games. She was a Canadian U-17 and U-20 international who was capped once by Canada in a 2-1 win against Brazil on November 11, 2022. She also scored in the 2022 U-17 WWC in India, where Canada was eliminated in group play.
She was drawn to playing for the club’s head coach Filipa Patão (see below), saying that: “I’m so excited to work with her, and she’s somebody who I really want to play for. I really want to show her what I’m capable of, and show Boston what I’m capable of as well.”
The Legacy’s first head coach is quite well-received and respected in Europe and is seen by many followers of the game as a visionary hire—Portuguese native Filipa Patao (36). Patão comes to the Legacy from Benfica, which has won the Portuguese league title, the Campeonato Nacional, in all five of her seasons as head coach since 2020, two years after the club’s debut season. She also won the Taca de Portugal and the Taca da Liga (twice), the nation’s two domestic cup competitions.
She took Benfica to the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 UEFA Women’s Champions League and was nominated for the Ballon d’Or’s first Women’s Coach of the Year award in 2024. She guided the team at the first World Sevens Tournament in Estoril, Portugal this summer, losing all three games in the group stage (see: The Week in December 2025 Women's Football: Carmona leaves Real Madrid; World Sevens; reviewing Nations League - TribalFootball.com).
Patao said about coming to the NWSL: “The American league is extremely competitive, and that’s one of the reasons I accepted this project. I like competition, difficulty, and getting the players to strive for more and better, to transform themselves and always demand more of themselves. I know that Boston fans are passionate about the city and their teams, and I’m looking forward to building a new history with them.” She will be the third active female head coach in the NWSL, joining Racing Louisville’s Bev Yanez and Seattle Reign’s Laura Harvey, but that’s three out of 16 clubs with filled roles; Patao has the talent to guide the expansion team to the playoffs in 2026, as long as the club continues to bring in top talent for her to work with.
Doménec Guasch left Barcelona to join the team as general manager at the beginning of 2025, telling The Guardian in April that he was attracted by the new challenge of a singularly focused women’s club. Guasch has held various sporting leadership positions with FC Barcelona since joining the club in 2011, most recently serving as Head of Management for Women’s Football, where he oversaw operations, recruitment and led player contract negotiations.
He established extensive knowledge of U.S. soccer in his role as Barca Academy Head of America, where he led the academy’s strategy for recruiting and developing prospects across the continent, while implementing a best-in-class methodology across a team of 220 staff members. At the Legacy, his role will include multiple responsibilities, including: “first team performance, scouting and recruitment, player acquisition, player care, medical and performance, analytics, soccer operations and administration and compliance.”
The team was set to play its inaugural campaign at White Stadium in Boston but delays in its redevelopment have meant that they will now play at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA (capacity 65,000), in 2026, sharing the stadium with Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution. The club still plans to renovate the White Stadium in Boston with hopes of playing there in 2027, which they will share with the Boston Public Schools District.
Denver Summit
The new Denver Summit franchise for 2026 has been doing very well on the ticket sales side and signed some interesting players (see below) but their permanent stadium plans ran into some problems with Denver’s City Council, who delayed a key vote in November to release $50 million dollars in city funds for land acquisition and infrastructure construction to help with the stadium build. The club then stated that the club was named for the state capital city but it could cancel its plans for a permanent stadium in Denver and look at other sites—within the metro area—with the city and its businesses losing the benefit of fan spending.
The planned stadium would help revitalize the economy and a plot of land that’s sat vacant for decades. While the city would invest tens of millions to make the stadium happen, it would also retain ownership of the land if the team ever left. The city’s finance department published a study earlier this year that found that over the next 30 years, the stadium could generate over $500 million in tax revenue from spending in and near the stadium. If the stadium moves from Denver, the hypothetical tax revenue also disappears.
The team touted the Baker stadium site as widely accessible as it connects to three RTD light rail lines and several bus routes. A move to another city in the metro area could make getting to the stadium harder for Denverites and other nearby residents who rely on public transit for mobility.
The plan was for the city to use money from the city's Capital Improvement Plan for projects surrounding the stadium: $50 million for the land and infrastructure improvements in the surrounding area and $20 million for parks, trails and a bridge nearby. The ownership group would pay up to $200 million for the construction of the stadium.
The team talked to four other regional communities and the leverage may have promoted Denver’s city council to act. There still are concerns about the cost, which were originally pegged at $150 million-$200 million but now the costs could exceed $300 million. Late in December, the Denver City Council approved the plan for the stadium with a 10-3 for/against vote, include rezoning at Santa Fe Yards and releasing the $70 million in funds. The new stadium is targeted for a launch in 2028 and will hold 14,500 fans.
The team is currently building a temporary stadium in suburban Centennial, which it hopes to complete during the 2026 season. The team will play its debut game at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium (capacity 76,125), which is the home of the National Football League’s Denver Broncos, on March 28, 2026, with a potential NWSL record crowd of over 40,091 the goal, which is the single game attendance record set by Bay FC versus the Washington Spirit in August of this season.
The club signed Canadian international defender Megan Reid (29) for their first season in 2026. Reid played at the University of Virginia and then joined Angel City for their inaugural season in 2022, paying in every game. In total in defense, she has 81 appearances for Angel City through the 2025 season. Internationally, Reid represents Canada, earning her first cap in December 2024 and scoring her first international goal in February 2025 during the Pinatar Cup in Spain.
Reid has signed a three-year contract through the 2028 season. She was born in California but qualified for Canada through parentage. Reid said: “I’m thrilled to join Denver Summit FC and be part of building something new in the NWSL. This club’s energy, ambition, and vision really stood out to me. I’m excited to get on the field, contribute from day one, and help establish a winning culture in Denver.”
The Summit also signed NWSL veteran defender in Kaleigh Kurtz (31) to another three year deal. Kurtz has played professionally in the NWSL since 2018 with the North Carolina Courage, winning two NWSL Championships, two NWSL Shields, and two NWSL Challenge Cups. Kurtz has set NWSL records for consecutive minutes played and consecutive games started, playing every game for four seasons in a row.
During her professional career, Kurtz has made over 100 appearances across all competitions, contributing three goals. including a 90th-minute equalizer in 2025 against Kansas City Current on April 26 at home; the Courage won the game in the 93rd minute on a goal by US WNT international Ashley Sanchez (26). Kurtz played her collegiate career at the University of Richmond and the University of South Carolina, where she was a First Team All-American, SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist. She also spent time playing overseas with Östersunds DFF in Sweden and Canberra United in Australia, where she was named the Greens’ Player of the Year in 2019/2020.
The Summit also signed defender Camryn Biegalski (27) from the Chicago Stars. She has played in the league for six seasons in two stints with Chicago and the Washington Spirit, where she won the league title with D.C. in 2021. She has made NWSL 64 appearances across all competitions, scoring two goals and two assists. Biegalski is on a one-year contract through the 2026 season with a mutual option for 2027.
The club has signed Spanish international forward Nahikari García (28), who is their first international signing. She last played for Athletic Club Femenino in Liga F, scoring twelve goals across all competitions over the past two years. She previously played for Real Madrid and spent eight seasons with Real Sociedad, where she is the latter team’s all-time scorer and scored the winning goal in the club’s first ever Copa de la Reina title in 2019. García has captained Spain’s youth national teams at U-17, U-19, and U-20 levels, earning a Golden Boot at the 2013 UEFA Women’s U-17 Championship.
She made her debut for the senior national team in 2018 and was a part of the Women’s World Cup Finals squad in 2019 in France. She was loaned to Nottingham Forest of the WSL 2 for the rest of 2025; she scored two goals in nine regular season games. Nottingham Forest currently is tied for fifth with London side Crystal Palace in the twelve team second division league on a 5-1-5 (W-D-L) record for sixteen points. She has signed a multi-year deal with Denver Summit FC through the 2027 season and will join the squad for preseason in early 2026.
Mexico international attacking midfielder Lourdes Bosch (24) joined the Denver Summit in exchange for a fee to Melbourne City in Australia, where she played in 2024/25 as the team went through the regular season undefeated, supplying four goals and nine assists in 23 games. The Summit loaned Bosch to C.F. Monterrey Femenil through the conclusion of 2025 season, where she scored two goals in eight matches in the 2025 Apertura. Denver Summit FC has signed Bosch to a contract through the 2027 season.
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Bosch played college soccer at UNLV and California Baptist University. After going undrafted in the 2024 NWSL Draft, Bosch began her professional career in Australia, where she made a huge impression and earned a call-up to the Mexico women’s national team in May 2025. She made her international debut on May 30, 2025, in a 2–2 friendly draw against Uruguay. She was the second signing after the Summit’s first signing, NWSL veteran Ally Watt (see below).
Forward Ally Watt (28) became the Summit’s first ever signing after they acquired her in a trade with the Orlando Pride. Watt is a native of Colorado Springs, where she was a state champion in track and field as a youth; she is a great baseline signing for the club with her professional experience and connection to the state. Watt was immediately loaned back to the Orlando Pride, the club she helped win the 2024 NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship, for the remainder of the 2025 season. In return, Orlando received $75,000 in expansion allocation money, which can be spent through the end of 2027, and another $37,500 in transfer funds, according to sources. The Pride also received salary cap relief as part of the loan agreement.
Watt spent three seasons with Orlando, where she made 74 appearances with Orlando since joining from OL (Seattle) Reign in 2022, scoring seven goals and recording seven assists. In 2024, the forward played a key role in the Pride’s NWSL Shield and Championship-winning campaign. Originally selected sixth overall in the 2020 NWSL Draft by the North Carolina Courage, Watt has also played for OL Reign and Melbourne City FC, winning the Premiership and league title in 2019/2020, playing in five games at the end of the season in the COVID year.
Watt said about her signing with the Summit: “It’s an incredible honor to be the first player in Denver Summit FC history. As a Coloradan, this opportunity means so much to me, not just to play the game I love, but to represent the place that shaped who I am in front of the people that mean the most to me. I’m proud to help lay the foundation for something special alongside (head coach) Nick Cushing, and I can’t wait to be a part of building a team that this city can be proud of.” In Orlando last season, she had two goals and two assists in 24 games.
Also from Orlando, just before the new year, the Summit signed American defender Carson Pickett, who twice was named to the Best XI teams. She has been capped by the USWNT. Over her career, Pickett has made 185 NWSL appearances, scored six goals, and tallied 16 assists, including an NWSL-leading six assists in 2022. Pickett has played for Seattle Reign FC, Orlando Pride, North Carolina Courage, Racing Louisville FC, and had multiple loan spells with Brisbane Roar in Australia. She earned two NWSL Best XI selections (2021, 2022), was a Defender of the Year finalist twice (2021, 2022), and won the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup with the Courage, earning All-Tournament Team honors. She was signed through the 2027 season.
As Boston did (see above), the Summit have signed a U.S international (pool) goalkeeper in Abby Smith (32) who won two league championships with Portland Thorns in 2022 and Gotham FC in 2023. She played for a half dozen NWSL clubs, including the Boston Breakers, Utah Royals, Kansas City Current, Portland Thorns FC, Gotham FC, and Houston Dash, since 2016 and with the Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia. Smith played her collegiate career at the University of Texas, where she set a school record with 30 career shutouts, and scored three career goals as a goalkeeper. Internationally, Smith has represented the United States at the U-17, U-20, and U-23 levels and was called up to the senior U.S. Women’s National Team in 2017 and 2018 but did not appear in any matches. Smith has signed a multi-year contract with Denver through the 2027 season with a mutual option for 2028.
The head coach of the Summit is English native Nick Cushing (40), the former Manchester City women manager. In his first stint with Man City, the club won the English Super League title in 2016 and was the FA WSL Manager of the Year. More recently, Cushing coached Manchester City’s women’s team as interim head coach for the end of the 2024-25 WSL season after coaching New York City FC for the 2023 and 2024 MLS seasons. Throughout his coaching career, Cushing has worked with some of the most accomplished players in the women’s game. During his time at Manchester City Women and beyond, he coached international stars including Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton, Keira Walsh, Jill Scott, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Nikita Parris, Lauren Hemp, Esme Morgan (all England), Carli Lloyd (U.S.), Yui Hasegawa (Japan), Caroline Weir (Scotland), Nadia Nadim (Denmark), Khadija Shaw (Jamaica), Kerolin (Brazil) and Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands) among notable players.
On the box office side, the Summit has surpassed 15,000 season ticket deposits, which is an NWSL record for an expansion side. The temporary stadium for the inaugural season is expected to seat 12,000 spectators. Their permanent women’s football dedicated Santa Fe Yards stadium is expected to seat 14,500 and is planned to be open by 2028.
The Summit have already sold out capacity for both of those venues. Some of the 15,000 are expected to convert to half-season tickets or other packages. This figure put them about level with MLS’s Colorado Rapids (who averaged 15,890 fans in 2025 but only ahead of FC Dallas’s 11,013, who were bottom of the league in attendance, and have played at purpose-built DICK’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City (18,061 capacity) since 2007. The MLS side, an original member from the 1996 season, are referred to by some as the Crapids due to their paucity of playoff experiences, missing the post-season 14 times in 30 years, with one league title in 2010 and a runner-up finish in 1997.
CommonSpirit Health has the naming rights to the Spirit’s dedicated performance center in Centennial. The CommonSpirit Performance Center will be part of a 43-acre campus that includes their 12,000 temporary stadium. The 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility will feature eight soccer pitches, other first team training facilities, and a family area. The temporary stadium and its land will be returned to the Cherry Creek School District.
The team’s name was selected by a fan vote, which yielded more than 15,000 responses over five months, which launched in February. The Summit was the most popular choice with other names considered: Denver Peak FC, Colorado 14ers FC, Denver Elevate FC, Denver FC and Denver Gold FC. A press release described the team’s crest: “The crest features a traditional shield shape encompassing imagery of the Rocky Mountains, a fitting reference to the landscapes that anchor the brand and city. The mountains in the crest feature peaks that are angled at 26 degrees, a nod to the team’s inaugural season next year.” The team’s green and white color scheme is featured as well as: “the backdrop of a red sky and a golden sun. (representing) the state’s 300 days of sunshine.”
The club’s secondary logo highlight the city’s elevation at 5,280 feet above sea level. The news dropped alongside a video billing: “Denver, a city built for the climb”, with a montage of Colorado mountains, cityscapes and football action.
There are at least two other teams with similar or nearly identical names. The NWSL club said it collaborated with Colorado Summit, an ultimate frisbee franchise in Denver, throughout the naming process. The frisbee team will rebrand ahead of its 2026 season and is asking fans for suggestions. There’s also another Denver Summit FC, an LGBTQ+ flag football club founded in 2007. When asked about any confusion between these two teams, the NWSL club said it had been in touch with the flag football team as part of its outreach, too. The teams expect to “coexist,” with there even being potential for crossover between them.
Denver NWSL announced in June that it has finalized its full ownership group, including Pro (American) Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin.
Atlanta to join NWSL for 2028 as the 17th franchise
Arthur Blank, owner of Atlanta United of MLS and the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL, has committed $330 million to launch the NWSL’s 17th team to begin play in Atlanta in 2028. Blank paid a reported record expansion franchise sum of $165 million for the NWSL franchise, up from the Denver Summit’s $110 million expansion fee. His investment will also include the development of a training ground dedicated to the NWSL team and staff.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Blank will spend an additional $165 million on a women’s training center separate from that of Atlanta United, which trains in suburban Marietta. The NWSL team will play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (42,500 capacity for soccer, which can expand for big matches to 71,000), with modifications to reduce the capacity for the women’s team to approximately 28,000. Blank, who will also provide money to launch the NWSL Foundation, pledged $50 million to start construction of U.S. Soccer’s first national training center in Fayetteville and the federation headquarters in the Atlanta area, which is scheduled to open next spring.
The Atlanta Beat were part of the two previous leagues in the U.S.: WUSA (2001-2003) and WPS (2010-2012). The WPS Atlanta Beat played in a purpose-built stadium for women’s football, but it was also used by Kennesaw State University’s football and soccer teams. Atlanta is the seventh-largest TV media market, per Nielsen data.
Atlanta United has been a major success for MLS since launching in 2017. The team won a championship the following year and has led MLS in attendance every season since launching (except during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020), averaging over 40,000 fans per game.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey