NWSL expansion

2013: Formation and original eight teams

When the NWSL was first announced on November 21, 2012, by US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati, the number and location of the original teams was the only finalized detail (the name and logo of the league was not yet confirmed, for example). Gulati announced that the league would have teams in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Western New York, New Jersey, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Four of the teams - the Western New York Flash, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars and Sky Blue FC (in New Jersey) - moved to the new first-division NWSL from the now-defunct Women's Professional Soccer, while the other four teams were new franchises, though technically the Washington Spirit were a rebrand of the D.C. United Women. Two of the new teams had an established tie to a men's professional soccer team; Portland Thorns FC was affiliated with and owned by the same ownership group as Portland's MLS team, the Portland Timbers and FC Kansas City was affiliated with and owned by the same group running the Missouri Comets indoor soccer team.

Original expansion prospects

The eight teams chosen for the first season came from a pool of twelve interested ownership groups. Soon after launch, the league reportedly planned to expand to ten teams for 2014. Potential candidates included groups not accepted as part of the original eight; groups from the Los Angeles area and from Hartford, Connecticut were confirmed failed bids, as was one from the Seattle Sounders Women. After the 2014 NWSL season, none of these four ownership groups were still in the expansion picture.

There was speculation that the Vancouver Whitecaps Women could be logical candidates especially given the WWC 2015 in Canada; however, the Whitecaps cancelled their women's program (except for one U-18 academy team) in December 2012.

Connecticut

An ownership group, previously attempting to join Women's Professional Soccer for the 2012 season, had existed in Hartford, Connecticut for a year at the time of the announcement, and had been attempting to join the initial list of teams for the NWSL. The team was intended to be named the 'Connecticut Courage', a name still under consideration. Former General Manager of the WPS side Philadelphia Independence, Terry Foley, had accepted a position with the expected Connecticut team, whose owners have not been announced publicly.

Los Angeles

The original Los Angeles bid for an NWSL was a joint effort from the LA Strikers and Pali Blues, two of the strongest W-League teams - the LA Strikers had a working agreement with MLS side Chivas USA, and the Pali Blues were one of the winningest W-League team ever with (then) two titles and four playoff appearances in five seasons, having already included many future WPS, USWNT, and NWSL talent. While being a merger of two strong, already-semi-pro teams in the second-largest US market, the bid was declined reportedly for geographical concerns.

Pali Blues won the 2013 W-League championship, then officially merged with LA Strikers and won the 2014 title as well. However, after the 2014 season, the LA Strikers' MLS partner Chivas USA folded, and the Pali Blues ownership folded the W-League team shortly after to focus on the USL Pro side instead.

FC Indiana

FC Indiana is one of the strongest WPSL sides, and had competed in WPSL Elite along with eventual NWSL sides Boston, Chicago, and Western New York. While there was no official confirmation, the team's website suggested that they were one of the twelve original NWSL bids.

Team owner (and Haitian WNT coach) Shek Borkowski later suggested that the CFU could subsidize an NWSL team similar to the subsidization already supplied by the USSF, CSA, and FMF.

FC Indiana would later move from WPSL to United Women's Soccer for the league's sophomore season.

2014: First Expansion – Houston Dash

During the inaugural season, there was confirmed interest from WPSL side the Houston Aces. Despite this, it was announced during the playoffs that there would be no expansion for the league's second season.

Despite this, during the 2013-2014 offseason, the Houston Dynamo added their name to the list of MLS teams interested in fielding a women's side, stating that they were "exploring the opportunity" of starting an NWSL side in 2014 or '15 and in 2013 they announced the Houston Dash with 2014 as their inaugural season. By early December, NWSL approved a new team, the Houston Dash, run by the Dynamo organization for expansion in 2014, despite their earlier statement that there would be no expansion for the league's second season.

2016: Second Expansion – Orlando Pride

After the media boom of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, MLS side Orlando City SC became the first new group to enter the expansion picture. A fan blog reported the owners openly discussing their inability to make a comment on the issue, essentially giving an answer "without an answer being given", which OCSC followed the next day with a press release supporting women's soccer and their Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) side while stopping short of making any statement positively or negatively about potential NWSL expansion.

On October 20, 2015, it was announced that Orlando would be hosting the 10th NWSL team, the Orlando Pride, due to start the 2016 season. At that announcement, the Pride announced that they had hired former U.S. National Women's Team coach Tom Sermanni. The Pride were able to trade for Alex Morgan, both a superstar and a major ticket sales draw. Orlando City SC acquired Morgan's husband, Servando Carrasco, and traded with the Portland Thorns to acquire Morgan and Kaylyn Kyle in exchange for Meghan Klingenberg, two international roster spots, and the rights to Lindsey Horan. This was easily the most notable trade in NWSL history at the time it was made, and it was speculated widely that the acquisition of Morgan was a condition for joining the league, or at least for doing so in 2016 rather than in a future season.

2017: First Relocation – Western New York Flash to Cary, North Carolina

NASL team North Carolina FC has expressed interest in establishing a NWSL side, with club owner Steve Malik mentioning talks between the league and the then Carolina Railhawks in May 2016. December of that same year the Railhawks organization prematurely released press announcements of their rebranding as well as intentions to establish expansion franchises in MLS as well as NWSL. A few days later on December 6, the club officially announced their intentions to be awarded a NWSL expansion team in the next six months.

Instead of creating an expansion franchise in NWSL, North Carolina FC bought out defending NWSL champions Western New York Flash. While the Flash's 2016 attendance was their second-best in their NWSL history and was fifth out of the ten 2016 NWSL teams, the Flash had much lower attendances the previous two seasons and were not close to filling Rochester Rhinos Stadium. Then-owner Joe Sahlen's familial connections to the team had eroded quickly over the previous year, and the Flash also had a public debacle in 2016 when they hosted the Seattle Reign FC in a baseball stadium on a pitch much narrower than FIFA guidelines.

The relocation was made official on January 9, 2017 with the relocated team to be named the North Carolina Courage. Malik had previously purchased the trademark for the original WUSA franchise the Carolina Courage, with the lioness on the WUSA team's crest featured on the NWSL team's crest.

Future expansion prospects

In early 2015, six groups had expressed interest in gaining entry into NWSL, four of which were known - Real Salt Lake, the Indy Eleven, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, and an independent group from Atlanta. The other two groups were rumored to be western MLS clubs. NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush stated that any potential expansion for 2016 would have to be announced soon after the April owners' meeting; the Atlanta group was the only publicly announced group interested in 2016 expansion, and when no announcement came from NWSL by May, it seemed 2016 expansion was dead, supported by several Tweets saying Atlanta would have to wait. However, the success of the United States women's national soccer team in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup jump-started expansion interest again, with the number of interested groups ballooning to twelve - more than the current size of the league. The first result of this post-WWC-boom was the expansion into Orlando for the 2016 season.

Several months after the Orlando Pride were announced, NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush further announced that NWSL had plans to expand to 14 teams by 2020, i.e. four more teams in the four seasons after 2016. At the time, Plush suggested that NWSL was in talks at varying stages with a dozen different potential expansion groups, many of whom were from MLS organizations. This was supported when MLS commissioner Don Garber stated that April that half of MLS could be running NWSL teams in the near future.

Atlanta

An investment group out of Atlanta went public in early January 2015 with its intent to bring an NWSL team to the city that has already seen two incarnations of professional women's soccer in WUSA and WPS - with a website already live and a stadium already decided. While there was fairly strong fan interest right off the bat, many objected to the initially proposed name of the Atlanta Vibe, prompting the investment group to open a poll for the name, as was a survey for team colors. The colors were eventually chosen as red and black, while the stadium was changed from Henderson Field at Grady Stadium to Silverbacks Park, but there had been no sign of any talk between the group and NWSL at that point, despite the fact that the group has been working toward NWSL expansion for over 18 months. After the early-summer NWSL owners' meeting, it appeared that Atlanta was rejected for 2016 and would have to continue trying for future expansion.

It was reported in the winter of 2016/17 that a group is trying to bring both NASL and NWSL teams to Atlanta. While there is no direct confirmation that this group is related to the 2015 effort, they also suggest the name "Vibe" for their proposed women's side; the team would play at a to-be-constructed facility in DeKalb County.

Canada

On April 16, 2013, just after the NWSL's inaugural season began, NWSL Commissioner Cheryl Bailey was interviewed by Equalizer Soccer about numerous topics, including expansion. She responded to the question, which focused on Toronto and Vancouver, by noting that there was a lot of interest in longer-term expansion but some interest in getting in early, ostensibly for the 2014 season, and said that the NWSL would start looking at expansion potential in Canada towards the later portion of the 2013 season.

The Canadian Soccer Association, the national federation for soccer in Canada, said in July 2014 that the upcoming 2015 Women's World Cup offered an opportunity for the NWSL to expand to Canadian cities, with speculation that the expansion could even occur in time for the 2015 NWSL Season. However, in late August 2014, NWSL Commissioner Cheryl Bailey said there would be no expansion for 2015, citing the challenges of the schedule's accommodation of the Women's World Cup as a logistical hurdle that might put off expansion until at least 2016.

With high fan interest in Canada during and following the World Cup, the Whitecaps re-iterated that there was "nothing imminent" in terms of the Whitecaps organization joining NWSL, making it highly unlikely that they were one of the then-dozen groups in discussion with the league concerning expansion. Despite this, just a few months later a CSA representative said that the prospect of a Canadian NWSL team would realize within the next couple of years, and it was revealed in January 2017 that the Whitecaps had asked three supporters' groups about the prospect of an NWSL team (while Toronto and Montreal reiterated no intention of joining NWSL).

New York City

City Football Group has expressed interest in starting a team in NWSL to mirror their MLS side New York City FC after having created very successful sister teams to Manchester City and Melbourne City. Current NWSL side Sky Blue FC had previously been in talk with both NYCFC and the New York Red Bulls for a partnership, but the nothing came of the 2014 talks with NYCFC and Sky Blue rejected the 2013 proposed deal from NYRB.

California

After MLS side Chivas USA folded, the league awarded a new team to the Los Angeles area whose ownership group included USWNT legend Mia Hamm, her husband Nomar Garciaparra, and Lakers legend and Sparks co-owner Magic Johnson. This caused some criticism of Hamm for investing in men's soccer before women's soccer, but mostly fueled speculation that the new MLS side would likely invest in an NWSL team as well, which Hamm commented "just makes sense".

Initially there were conflicting reports that linked MLS's San Jose Earthquakes to a potential NWSL team. However Dave Kaval stated in May 2016 that the Earthquakes were interested in bringing an NWSL side to San Jose but were waiting for the approval and completion of a training and academy complex to expand their facilities to be capabale of hosting a NWSL or USL side. Later that year Kaval reiterated the previous comments on NWSL and stated in regards to the training facility that "We’re in Week 20 in a 60-week process. Next summer they could certify the EIR (environmental impact report)."

USL side Sacramento Republic FC has also commented on Twitter several times in 2015 (in response to being questioned) that an NWSL side is part of their long-term plan.

Dallas

Some reports have suggested that MLS side FC Dallas is aiming for an NWSL team. FC Dallas reinstated its WPSL team for the 2016 WPSL season after having only fielded an ECNL side following a previous two-year stint in WPSL.

Indianapolis

NASL side Indy Eleven, led by ex-Chicago-Red-Stars GM Peter Wilt, has expressed interest in an NWSL side, contingent on them getting a new soccer-specific stadium built for the Eleven, with the target being 2017. Inability to secure the stadium plan has delayed Indianapolis NWSL expansion until 2018 at the earliest.

Pittsburgh

Under new ownership having recently gone through bankruptcy, USL Pro side Pittsburgh Riverhounds have also expressed interest in NWSL as an expansion on top of the youth structure already in place. The Riverhounds' stadium has plans for expansion by 50%, and the current target for an NWSL team is 2018.

Salt Lake City

At a press conference in September 2014, Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen mentioned RSL expanding the club to include professional minor league and women's teams, in addition to the pro major league and amateur women's teams they already had. RSL's interest in NWSL was officially confirmed in November, with the NWSL team intended to share a new stadium (and likely a name) with the USL Pro side Real Monarchs SLC. While the stadium deal initially looked promising, they fell through at the original location of the Utah State Fairpark in early February 2015; a new stadium location in West Valley City was chosen by early March, with meetings between RSL and NWSL moving forward. The USL Monarchs started play in 2015, with the NWSL Monarchs aiming for 2017.

In 2016, the RSL Women joined United Women's Soccer for its inaugural season. While the organization still is considering a future move up to NWSL, most signs of an imminent move have mostly dried up.

FC Barcelona

In July 2016 FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu stated in an interview on Barça TV that he wanted to "create a team that can take part in the National Women's Soccer League" Reportedly they were interested in establishing a NWSL side in New York, Los Angeles, or the San Francisco Bay Area.