On Tuesday, 2024/25 UEFA Champions League winners Arsenal announced that the Gunners are making the 60,704-capacity Emirates Stadium their permanent home for all WSL matches on the heels of last season's successful nine-game run in the north London venue.
Arsenal dominated the WSL in attendance during their 2024/25 campaign with a total of 415,000 tickets sold, a 20% increase over the Gunners' 2023/24 season.
Even more, the club averaged crowds of over 34,000 fans for the team's nine matches hosted at the men's side's historic Highbury home.
Both Arsenal's and the league's season-high attendance came in February, when 56,784 fans packed Emirates for the Gunners' North London Derby match against Tottenham.
While all of Arsenal's 11 WSL home games will kick off at Emirates, the reigning European champs will open their UWCL defense at the significantly smaller, 4,500-capacity Meadow Park, with future Champions League matches moving to Highbury should the Gunners advance to the tournament's knockout rounds.
"For us, this is just the beginning, and bringing every WSL match to the Emirates is another step for more supporters to be part of this special journey," said Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers in a club statement. "We'll come back next season, with fire in our hearts, more determined, more ambitious, and more together than ever."
Women's teams are big business, with global sports business conference SPOBIS International reporting this week that average WNBA franchise valuations rose to $90 million in 2024, while NWSL clubs weighed in at $104 million — doubling their 2023 mark.
In May, the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty sold shares at a $450 million valuation, qualifying them as the world's most valuable women's sports team.
SPOBIS's top five includes the WSL's Chelsea FC ($326 million) alongside NWSL side Angel City FC ($250 million), the WNBA's Dallas Wings ($208 million), the Kansas City Current ($182 million), and the Las Vegas Aces ($140 million).
US women's sports teams hold a key advantage in the race to the top of the valuations table, with WNBA and NWSL squads able operate independently from men's systems.
Having separated from their men's side last year, Chelsea FC was the only non-US team to make the list, bolstered by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's $26.6 million purchase of a 10% stake in the 2024/25 WSL champs last month.
Other European teams in line for similar value boosts include OL Lyonnes and the London City Lionesses, both independently owned and operated by Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang.
With many factors contributing to a team's overall value — namely capital, media deals, viewership, ownership structures, and popularity — it's tough to predict the next big thing in women's sports, but these numbers point to a red-hot market across major pro leagues.
Longtime England goalkeeper Mary Earps announced her retirement from international play on Tuesday, immediately ending her run just five weeks before the Lionesses begin their 2022 Euro title defense.
"My journey has never been the simplest, so in true Mary fashion, this isn't a simple goodbye — right before a major tournament," Earps said in a retirement post on Instagram. "Nonetheless, I know this is the right decision."
Despite the seemingly snap choice, Earps later clarified that she "spent a long time making this decision and it's not one I've made lightly. For me, ultimately this is the right time for me to step aside and give the younger generation an opportunity to thrive."
Earps led England to their first-ever European Championship plus the 2023 World Cup final in her 53 international caps.
However, Lioness manager Sarina Wiegman told media earlier this year that the 32-year-old Earps would likely take a backseat to Chelsea keeper Hannah Hampton at July's 2025 Euro.
"I had hoped that Mary would play an important role within the squad this summer, so of course I am disappointed," Wiegman said after Earps's retirement news broke.
Hampton to lead new-look England goalkeeping core
Hampton, who shared the 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove with Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce — a top USWNT keeper prospect — will now take over as England's No. 1 net-minder, though the 24-year-old still lacks experience in a major tournament.
Playing behind Hampton will be 20-year-old Manchester City goalie Khiara Keating and 30-year-old Orlando Pride keeper Anna Moorhouse — who owns the NWSL's single-season shutouts record. Both have been club standouts, though neither has logged a cap for England.
As for Earps, her football journey will continue at the club level with PSG, with the now-former Lioness promising that "There's so much to still look forward to, and I have so much energy to continue to strive for greatness, to continue to learn and push myself to maximise every last ounce of potential I have."
Arsenal are European champions once again, with the Gunners claiming an upset for the ages by silencing back-to-back defending champs Barcelona 1-0 in Saturday's 2024/25 UEFA Champions League final.
Second-half sub Stina Blackstenius notched the match's lone goal in the 74th minute, as Arsenal's stout defense clashed with an uncharacteristically flimsy Barcelona attack to secure the WSL side's first Champions League title in 18 years.
Arsenal remains the only English club to ever hoist the Champions League trophy, with the Gunners joining just Barcelona and the newly rebranded OL Lyonnes as the only teams to win the season-long tournament since 2015.
"My dreams came true," vice captain Leah Williamson — who joined Arsenal at the age of eight — told ESPN during a Monday celebration at the Gunners' Emirates Stadium home.
"I think it sunk in when I turned around and saw on the stadium, the honoring of the previous team that did it [in 2007], and then computing in my head that that's what we did — raising a Champions League trophy on Armoury Square. I'm just so happy."
Barcelona will be back, of course, but a few new faces claiming European football's biggest honor can only strengthen the competition going forward.
The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League final kicks off on Saturday, as underdogs Arsenal and defending champs Barcelona each chase history in a head-to-head clash at Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Spanish titans aren't just hunting their third European championship in a row — a victory keeps Barcelona's hopes of completing a second straight quadruple alive with their Copa de la Reina finale looming next month.
To do so, however, they'll have to outlast the only English team to ever lift the European trophy, a feat Arsenal accomplished back in 2007.
Making their first Champions League final in 18 years, this season's Gunners are scrappy, boasting an explosive offense that led the league in scoring behind joint-WSL Golden Boot winner Alessia Russo.
The WSL runners-up bounced back from three first-leg deficits against Häcken FC, Real Madrid, and OL Lyonnes en route to the championship match — leading Barcelona star midfielder Aitana Bonmatí to call their appearance "a surprise."
"They absolutely deserve it, because scoring four goals against [eight-time Champions League winners] Lyon in the second leg is not easy at all," the back-to-back Ballon d'Or winner told ESPN. "I congratulate them for that because I think it was a big surprise, but a well-deserved one."
On Saturday, the pair will square off for the first time since 2021, when Barcelona defeated Arsenal twice in Champions League group-stage play.
"It's going to be a tough game — it's a final," said Barcelona defender Caroline Graham Hansen. "You just have to be prepared to leave your heart and soul out there and see who the better team on the day will be."
How to watch the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League final
Arsenal and Barcelona will battle for European glory at 12 PM ET on Saturday, with the Champions League grand finale streaming live on DAZN.
According to a Thursday report from The Athletic, shares of the New York Liberty were recently sold at a $450 million valuation, making the reigning WNBA champions the most valuable franchise in women's sports.
Valued at $130 million just last year, the Liberty's new record-breaking worth is over 30 times what majority owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai paid for the team in January 2019.
The shares in the multi-investor purchase account for an ownership percentage in the "mid-teens," with the capital intended to help fund an $80 million state-of-the-art training facility near the team's Barclays Center home in Brooklyn.
Growing investment in women's sports fuel high valuations
New York's valuation more than doubles the last-known WNBA capital raise, when the Dallas Wings sold 1% of their franchise at a $208 million valuation last August.
The NWSL's Angel City FC previously held the top mark in women's sports, valued at $250 million in last summer's sale to USC dean Willow Bay and her Disney CEO husband, Bob Iger.
Earlier this month, however, WSL champs Chelsea FC surpassed the LA club behind a $26.6 million investment from Reddit co-founder and tennis icon Serena Williams's husband, Alexis Ohanian.
With varied sources placing Ohanian's stake between 8% and 10%, the Blues valuation in that transaction lands in the $265 million to $331 million range — still trailing the Liberty by a hefty margin.
According to Wu Tsai, this is just the beginning, with the business leader boldly predicting blockbuster growth for her Brooklyn team — and the WNBA at-large — at a May 2024 event.
"I believe that in 10 years — or less — I'll be able to come back here to tell you how we turned the New York Liberty into the world's first billion-dollar women's sports franchise," she said.
Adding to their already historic season, 2024/25 WSL champions and 2025 League Cup winners Chelsea FC handed Manchester United a 3-0 defeat in Sunday's 2025 FA Cup final, completing the club's second-ever domestic treble.
Though the Blues first claimed an elusive treble in the 2020/21 season, this year's roster did so without dropping a single match in any of the three domestic competitions.
"I could not have expected this," said first-year Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor about her debut success leading the Blues. "It is almost ideal in terms of domestic dominance."
To clinch that dominance, Chelsea upended the defending FA Cup champs Manchester United at London's iconic Wembley Stadium behind a brace from French fullback Sandy Baltimore and a header from USWNT attacker Catarina Macario.
Baltimore gave Chelsea the lead by slipping a late first-half penalty past 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove winner and USWNT goalkeeper prospect Phallon Tullis-Joyce, and the Blues never relented, with second-half sub Macario doubling their scoreline in the 84th minute before Baltimore tacked on a final goal in stoppage time.
"It's a very emotional day," an emotional Macario told the broadcast after finishing her first season following a long ACL recovery. "It's a trophy we always wanted to win."
"All the credit to my players," said Bompastor. "We showed our mentality and our values in this game so we ended the season in an almost perfect scenario – we won, we were playing at Wembley, the stadium was nearly sold out, and we had a strong performance and result against a strong opponent."
"It is an almost ideal way to finish the season."
FA Cup crowds prove sustained demand for women's soccer
Chelsea FC's undefeated treble-winning season wasn't the only notable victory on Sunday, as the FA Cup final drew a crowd of over 74,000 fans for the third straight year.
Sunday's 74,412 attendance mark was just shy of both last year's crowd of 76,082 and the 77,390 fans who watched Chelsea defeat the Red Devils in 2023 — all well beyond the tournament final's previous record of 49,094 attendees achieved in 2022.
Fueled by the football fervor following England's 2022 Euro victory — the country's first international trophy, men's or women's, since the 1966 men's World Cup — the 2023 FA Cup final still stands as the largest crowd at a domestic women's soccer match across all nations.
With Sunday's match joining the over-74,000 attendance club, it's clear the post-Euros enthusiasm wasn't a blip, but a boost to the continued growth and sustained success of the women's game.
Following a dominant 2024/25 campaign, Chelsea FC will look to cap their historic run by completing a domestic treble on Sunday, when they'll battle Manchester United for a third season trophy in the 2025 FA Cup final.
After securing the 2024/25 League Cup in March amidst an unbeaten run to a sixth-straight WSL title, the Blues will close out their season against the league's third-place finishers, the Red Devils, in London's iconic Wembley Stadium.
Should Chelsea secure the 2025 FA Cup, they will add a second domestic treble to their resume after clinching their first trio of trophies in the 2020/21 season. This time, however, they could do so in undefeated fashion.
"We are in a really good place, just the fact that we won the league being unbeaten," said first-year Blues manager Sonia Bompastor. "To end the season with an FA Cup final at Wembley against Man United is maybe the perfect way to end the season."
Manchester United hunts second straight FA Cup trophy
Standing between Chelsea and the treble are 2024 FA Cup champions Manchester United, who will take aim at their only trophy of the season partly behind the play of 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove winner and USWNT goalkeeper prospect Phallon Tullis-Joyce.
Man United enter as the game's undisputed underdogs, having dropped both their WSL regular-season matches against Chelsea in narrow 1-0 defeats.
Even more, the Red Devils must overcome a particular tough stretch of play, facing more than a month without a victory on their schedule.
Man United's last win was their 2-0 FA Cup semifinal victory over Manchester City on April 13th, with the Red Devils suffering a pair of losses and recording two draws to close out WSL play.
That said, United has experience downing the Blues on the FA Cup stage, ousting Chelsea from last year's semifinals en route to a club-first FA title.
Remarking that Manchester United "are a really strong team," Bompastor pointed out that the Red Devils "don't concede a lot of goals, and we need to remember that."
"You only get the trophy if you win, so we need to make sure going into the game we have the best preparation and we perform on the day."
How to watch Chelsea play Manchester United at the FA Cup final
The 2025 FA Cup final between Chelsea FC and Manchester United will kick off at 8:30 AM ET on Sunday.
Live coverage of the match will begin at 8:20 AM ET on ESPN+.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is Chelsea FC's newest owner, with the husband of tennis icon Serena Williams reportedly dropping £20 million ($26.6 million) on a 10% stake in the WSL champions earlier this week.
Ohanian is no stranger to investing in women's sports, from launching Angel City as the 2022 NWSL expansion club's majority owner to last year's founding of Athlos NYC, an annual women's track and field event with a $663,000 purse.
"I've bet big on women's sports before — and I'm doing it again," Ohanian posted on social media on Wednesday. "I'm proud to announce that I'm joining @ChelseaFCW as an investor and board member. I'm honored for the chance to help this iconic club become America's favorite @BarclaysWSL team and much, much more."
"These players are rewriting the game. Undefeated season. Eyes on the treble," said Ohanian about Chelsea FC's historic 2024/25 success. "But this isn't just about winning titles. It's about finally matching their talent with the resources, visibility, and respect they deserve."
Ohanian's investment comes amid soaring valuations for women's pro teams — with Chelsea's $257 million price tag ranking as the highest in all of women's soccer.
Calling Ohanian's buy-in "game-changing," Blues manager Sonia Bompastor told reporters on Thursday that "It's really important for the women's game but also for England to have someone to invest in a team like Chelsea."
"We want to be the leaders," she continued. "We want to be the team who shows to every other team how you need to perform and how you need to invest in the women's game."
Women's clubs still successful after splitting with men's teams
Ohanian's investment also indicates Chelsea's commitment to further distancing their women's team operations from their men's side, following last June's ownership move to place the women's squad under an independent subsidiary.
Though most European women's teams remain closely affiliated with their men's counterparts, severing ties is on the rise, with US billionaire Michele Kang assuming majority ownership over women's clubs Olympique Lyonnais and the newly promoted London City Lionesses in recent years.
With skyrocketing revenue — plus Kang's fleet proving that independence benefits women's teams — expect to see even more US investors eyeing women's sports opportunities abroad.
Just two days after wrapping the 2024/25 Women's Super League (WSL) season on Saturday, the UK women's soccer pyramid scored a full rebrand, with new names and visual identities announced for England's first- and second-tier leagues on Monday.
While the WSL will retain its name, the second-flight Women's Championship will become the WSL2 beginning with the 2025/26 season, bringing both top leagues under the same naming umbrella.
The Women's Professional League Limited — the independent company that took over running the WSL and Women's Championship in August 2024 — is also undergoing a name change, becoming simply WSL Football.
Following a development process with creative agency Anomaly, new visual branding "born from the movement of female footballers" has also rolled out across the leagues, with the WSL adopting an orange colorway while the newly named WSL2 will use a magenta palette.
"As a long-time football fan, having the chance to create the future of women's football is the absolute brief of dreams and a career highlight," said Clara Mulligan, Anomaly's managing parter and head of design.
Along with a new WSL Football website, this summer will see the updated designs from the rebrand incorporated across league merchandise, venues, jerseys, soccer balls, and more before the 2025/26 season kicks off.
"There is a lot more in store over the coming months as we continue to grow the women's game for the future," noted WSL Football chief marketing officer Ruth Hooper.