LOS ANGELES — National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN that she expects the league to play games during next year’s FIFA Men’s World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States.
“I do not expect us to shut down for the full period of the Men’s World Cup,” Berman said.
Berman said the details of the NWSL’s plans for next summer are yet to be determined.
“We’re figuring it out,” Berman told ESPN. “We should have clarity in the next couple months about what we’re going to do.
“Everything’s on the table right now. I don’t have an answer to the ‘what.’ We’ll do something. What it is, where it is, how it happens, is still in the works.”
MLS, which will lose rostered players to their national teams for the tournament, will break for the 2026 World Cup.
The 2026 Men’s World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19 next year, the longest World Cup yet due to expansion to 48 teams for the first time. It falls right in the middle of the typical NWSL season.
While the competition will be co-hosted by Canada and Mexico, 11 of the 16 host cities for the tournament are in the United States. Only one of those venues, Seattle’s Lumen Field, is currently used by an NWSL team, although there will be seven NWSL teams in 2026 World Cup host city markets once Boston Legacy FC begins play as an expansion team next year.
Four NWSL teams will be without access to their usual training grounds — and, in most cases, offices and locker rooms — during the 2026 World Cup because those sites will be used as official team base camps. The Houston Dash, Kansas City Current, Racing Louisville FC and Utah Royals FC will have their training venues utilized by Men’s World Cup teams as base camps.
FIFA requires an “exclusive use” period for stadiums and training sites that stretches beyond the tournament dates. Stadiums are blocked from non-tournament usage for 30 days prior to the first match in the venue.
For training sites, that exclusive window is 14 days prior to the opening match until one day after the last match of the national team that selects the venue. Fields at the training site are blocked from use 28 days prior to the opening match.
That could leave four NWSL teams booted from their usual home training grounds for roughly two months in the middle of the NWSL season.
Those teams will need to find alternative solutions, which could include utilizing other local venues or their stadiums as a base, since none of those stadiums are being used for the 2026 World Cup. Racing Louisville is utilizing Lynn Family Stadium instead of its training grounds as a team base this week due to flooding in the city, for example.
Last year, the NWSL halted regular-season play throughout most of July and August due to the Olympics. It did stage a crossover competition with Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil. The tournament struggled to gain traction and was scrapped after its first year.
This year, the league will pause its regular season for all of July on account of multiple women’s continental championships. Teams are expected to play individual friendly matches throughout that time.
“Part of the challenge we have is to figure out the literal logistics of how we run our business with the backdrop of the Men’s World Cup in so many of our markets, and that’s the process we are going through right now,” Berman said.
Summer scheduling is an annual challenge for the NWSL. This summer’s Men’s Club World Cup includes games at three NWSL team stadiums. There is another Women’s World Cup in Brazil in 2027, followed by the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
FIFA announced last week that the U.S. submitted the lone bid to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup. U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson said after that the federation supports expansion of the Women’s World Cup to 48 teams in 2031.
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