The National Women’s Soccer League released its 2025 schedule on Wednesday, and perhaps the biggest news was its speed.
The NWSL, which has long struggled with scheduling because most of its teams are secondary tenants in their stadiums, was once ridiculed by fans and players for delayed releases. Now, in 2025, it has turned around its schedule in record time, less than two months after its 2024 championship.
The schedule also appears to be more digestible and sensible than ever before. The league will play nearly all of its 190 games on weekends, and mostly in unique broadcast windows.
It will begin with the reigning champion Orlando Pride hosting the one-off NWSL Challenge Cup on March 7, then a regular-season opener on March 14. From there, each of the league’s 14 teams will play every weekend, except when they pause for international breaks.
And the regular season will conclude with simultaneous games on Nov. 2, “Decision Day.” The league moved away from that final-day format in 2024 to appease its four broadcast partners, but will return to a dramatic single-day slate in 2025.
NWSL schedule accommodates TV partners, international competitions
Those broadcast partners — CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Scripps/ION — will share 160 of the season’s 190 games.
As per a landmark deal signed in late 2023, Amazon Prime Video will open each weekend with a single match on Friday nights. ION will show two per Saturday. CBS will spread its selection of 60 regular-season games across its flagship, over-the-air network (11), CBS Sports Network (10) and Paramount+ (39). ESPN will put 10 of its 17 on its main channel, and three on ABC. The remaining 30 matches will be streamed by the league’s in-house service, NWSL+.
Kickoff times will vary week to week, but most weeks will share a familiar rhythm. With the exception of three Monday games and two on Thursdays — all to avoid conflicts — every matchweek fits between Friday and Sunday. There are none fully slated for weekday nights.
The only midweek match is Portland Thorns vs. Gotham FC — which has been moved from late May to Tuesday, April 22, because those two teams are scheduled to take on Liga MX opponents in the semifinals and final of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, a regional competition, on May 21 and 24.
To avoid multi-match weeks, and accommodate breaks, the 2025 season will last longer than any previous NWSL campaign. In addition to standard, one-weekend international breaks in early April, late May/early June and late October, the NWSL will pause from June 23 through the end of July for Women’s Euros and Copa América Femenina — the continental championships of Europe and South America.
So, the season that starts March 14 will finish with playoffs in November, and the final on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Broadcast details for Decision Day and the playoffs have not yet been announced.
