[13] USL Super League launched in August 2024 with eight teams playing in a fall to spring schedule.

The passage of Title IX legislation in 1972 made gender equality mandatory in education, including collegiate athletics, which led to more organized women's soccer teams and development.

[20][5] The popularity of the team exploded in the aftermath of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup win as a result of penalty kicks in front of a sold-out Rose Bowl.

[5] The United States also faces increasingly competitive European national teams, many of which have well-established women's leagues in their countries from which to draw players.

[32] The eight teams included the Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Carolina Courage, New York Power, Philadelphia Charge, San Diego Spirit, San Jose CyberRays (called Bay Area CyberRays for 2001 season), and the Washington Freedom.

After the folding of WUSA, the WUSA Reorganization Committee was formed in September 2003 that led to the founding of Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII), whose stated goal was "promoting and supporting all aspects of women's soccer in the United States", including the founding of a new professional league.

[37] In December 2006, WSII announced that it reached an agreement with six owner-operators for teams based in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and a then-unnamed city.

[38] In September 2007, the launch was pushed back from Spring of 2008 to 2009 to avoid clashing with the 2007 Women's World Cup and the 2008 Summer Olympics and to ensure that all of the teams were fully prepared for long-term operations.

[39] The new league announced its name and logo on January 17, 2008, and was to have its inaugural season in 2009 with seven teams, including the Washington Freedom of the WUSA.

In addition, the WPS attempted to have a closer relationship with Major League Soccer in order to cut costs.

Overall attendance for 2010 was noticeably down from 2009, teams struggled financially, and the WPS changed leadership by the end of the season.

However, several internal organization struggles, including an ongoing legal battle with magicJack-owner Dan Borislow and a lack of resources invested in the league, led to the suspension of the 2012 season announced in January 2012.

By this time, the WPSL and W-League were the two semi-pro leagues in the United States and had sat under WUSA and the WPS until 2012.

Upon the disbandment of the WPS, they once again regained their status as the premier women's soccer leagues in the United States.

Many members of the USWNT remained unattached for the 2012 season, while others chose to play in the W-League instead of the WPSL Elite.

The meeting resulted in the planning of a new league set to launch in 2013 with 12 to 16 teams from the WPS, the W-League, and the WPSL.

Mexico no longer allocates players to the NWSL following the 2017 establishment of its own women's professional league, Liga MX Femenil.

[43] The addition of the Dash made the NWSL the first top-division professional women's soccer league in the United States to have nine teams.

Under this deal, A+E's Lifetime channel broadcasts 22 regular-season matches as the NWSL Game of the Week at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday afternoons, as well the league's entire postseason.

The team was partnered with but not owned by MLS side Sporting Kansas City, and media reports indicated that FCKC was the unintended victim of issues that Sporting was facing with its United Soccer League reserve team, Swope Park Rangers.

Kansas City's place in the NWSL was immediately filled by a new franchise to be operated by another MLS club, Real Salt Lake, which was soon unveiled as Utah Royals FC.

Utah Royals FC folded after the 2020 season, with its player-related assets being acquired by a new Kansas City ownership group.

The W-League served as a second-tier development organization and league for women's soccer in the United States for 21 seasons.

The UWS had 11 teams in two conferences for its 2016 inaugural season, with Real Salt Lake Women, New England Mutiny, Lancaster Inferno, and Houston Aces joining from the WPSL and the Long Island Rough Riders, New York Magic, North Jersey Valkyries, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, Colorado Storm, and Colorado Pride joining from the W-League.

However, in 2012, the Chicago Red Stars – then a professional club in the WPSL Elite – entered and won the competition.

The NWSL, now the longest-lasting professional women's soccer league in the United States, pays salaries as low as $7,200 per year, an amount that falls beneath every government-recognized poverty line in the United States and is less than an equivalent Federal minimum wage job of 40 hours per week.

[67] It was also poorly competitive with European leagues, which can readily pay salaries to players of the same talent more than $100,000 per year.

The players argued that the surface was a form of gender-based discrimination since the men's World Cup games are exclusively played on grass.

After a 2016 regular season NWSL game between the Seattle Reign and Western New York Flash was played on a baseball field smaller than league regulations considered acceptable, several prominent current and former players called out the league for allowing the game to be played.

[79] Thus, outside the United States, laws prohibiting sex discrimination in the educational system could have limited effect on sports programs.