WIth all the excitement of the United Soccer Coaches finally dying down, the WPSL stepped into the spotlight last weekend when it held its Annual General Meeting in Las Vegas. Representatives from clubs all over the country came together to discuss plans for another successful year for the league. All indicators from the meeting indicate a strong and growing organization on the rise. In a press release that came out today, Sean Jones, league President, highlighted the strength of the league, “we have added strong clubs to the league, which demonstrates the league’s commitment to provide young women an opportunity to play at a very high level and pursue their goals in soccer.”

That growth is a sure sign of the health of the league. Today, the WPSL announced that the 2020 season would see a total number of 131 clubs. That number is up 12 from last season. At this point, the WPSL is the largest women’s soccer league in the world, even dwarfing most men’s leagues. The continued growth of this league has been fueled by a spike in interest in the women’s game and the expansion of men’s clubs into women’s soccer. It doesn’t hurt, from an operational perspective, that the lack of professional options for many players continues to drive talent into the amateur game. Players need time to develop their skills to get into highly coveted paid roles with the few professional leagues in the world. The WPSL’s expansion fuels and benefits from the high quality players fighting for a chance.

The spot currently occupied within the women’s game in this country, of course, has other rivals. The UWS is a competing amateur league with a large number of talented clubs. While both leagues talk nice about each other, they are clearly competing for top spot. The UWS has less clubs, but, off the record, some in the league have claimed the talent was a higher standard. That argument may be dissipating with the recent announcements of the last two UWS Champions, the LA Galaxy OC (2019 Champions) and Houston Aces (2018 Champions) are transitioning to the WPSL. Two other UWS clubs, El Paso Surf and Colorado Pride, are also swapping leagues.

All that said, it should be made clear that the UWS continues to be viable, but certainly the financial pressures on a smaller league are harder to manage for member clubs. The rival league did add multiple clubs in the off season, further reflecting the spike in interest in the women’s game.

Does continued growth mean the WPSL can claim supremacy in amateur women’s soccer? Hard to say at this point, but Sean Jones’ leadership appears to be having a positive effect on the league as a whole. One of his goals was growing the league to reduce travel costs, which appears to be happening. In an August interview with our site, he highlighted this “I think a lot of teams that thought about joining one league or the other, are now looking at us and saying ‘there’s no reason to join the UWS, this is a better league.’ And when I say better, everything else is done well and they don’t have to spend the money on travel. For that reason, I think our league makes more sense.” That pursuit of reducing expenses has led to this year’s expansion and the split of two conferences, the Mountain Conference and Coastal Conference, into two divisions, making distances between teams even shorter.

When I spoke with James Polling, WPSL Director of Communications and Match Operations, he was clearly on a post AGM high. “Last weekend’s AGM was a great indicator of the continued grow and passion supporting the women’s game at a grassroots level. The excitement among our attendees representing 131 clubs was palpable. Whether it be social media, gameday experience, compelling out-of-conference friendlies, and so forth, our clubs are committed to our league’s mission in providing the highest level of developmental opportunities for women in this country.”

- Dan Vaughn