The league is operated by the United States Soccer Federation and receives major financial backing from that body.
The Dash does not make its stadium's entire capacity available for home games, instead restricting ticket sales at a lower level.
If two or more teams tie in point total, when determining rank and playoff qualification and seeding, the NWSL uses the following tiebreaker rules,[11] going down the list until all teams are ranked.
The top four teams from the regular season compete for the NWSL Championship.
The North Carolina Courage secured the number one seed on September 21, winning their third straight NWSL Shield.