My Thoughts on NWSL to Denver

Denver is getting an NWSL team!!!!

USWNT vs Korea at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in June

I truly cannot believe it, I couldn’t even believe it when the Denver bid was announced as a finalist along with Cleveland and Cincinnati. And now I definitely cannot believe that it now stands alone as the 2026 finalist negotiating a $105-$120m (!!!!!!) expansion fee. I consider myself to be quite the optimist but I never could get to the point of optimism where I felt that the Denver bid was ever going to get selected. Throughout the entire process, the group has been pretty secretive. Besides the original press release behind For Denver FC in 2023, it was hard to find all that much info outside of the bid a. existing and b. wanting a downtown stadium to go with it. Meanwhile, the Ohio-based competition seemed to be a lot more open with information; Cincinnati was planning to use the very recently built TQL Stadium for their potential team, and Cleveland already had plans to build their team their very own stadium.

Taking my obvious bias out of it, Cleveland seemed like a very likely destination for NWSL’s 16^th team. The fact that they had a group set to build a stadium and a market where they would stand alone in the city’s soccer landscape seemed like a sure thing. Now granted, the opposite very much could have been true as well, and Denver’s ability to have a soccer team already could have helped, but if that was a deciding factor, Cinci seems like it could have been a better choice. Now this Denver team has an opportunity to experiment on a hypothesis I have about soccer in Denver, will people show out for a new team?

I have long felt that the Colorado Rapids being an original 1996 MLS franchise has worked against them. They don’t get the excitement that any of the new MLS expansion sides have gotten in their maiden seasons into American soccer’s top flight because the Rapids have been around forever and are still operating at an MLS 1.0 strategy. They built their stadium outside of downtown Denver, which was in line with the MLS strategy at the time. However, a strategy that has largely gone out of fashion with all new soccer-specific stadiums now being built within metro areas instead of in the outskirts. This has led to the Rapids being a bit of an odd duck in the Denver sports scene. The Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets, and Avalanche will always be at the forefront of the Denver sports consciousness because of their stadiums' location. You can take the light rail to Empower Field, Coors Field, and Ball Arena, but not all the way to Commerce City.

Clearly, the people behind For Denver FC concur with this hypothesis as one of the major tenants of their bid has been a downtown stadium, the question now has to be asked, where? The bid had searched out the National Western Stock Show for a potential landing spot, but that’s apparently off, as well as my dream of a soccer stadium where Eliches Gardens currently stands, but those now approved plans have no soccer stadium to be found. The runway for this expansion team is not long, with plans to begin plans in the 2026 season. Boston, who has been selected to begin playing the same season, has had a much longer timetable to get that figured out but even now it’s looking unlikely that they will begin their time in NWSL in their very own stadium, it’s doubtful Denver will be more successful in that endeavor. Granted, there’s a lot that’s unknown. Heck, the bid hasn’t even officially been accepted, so who knows? hopefully, there’s some sort of plan. My guess would be that the team starts playing at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (Let’s hope the people behind the team don’t take that and run like BOS Nation’s “Too Many Balls” campaign). My idea is working with the University of Denver to expand and share their soccer stadium. DU’s “stadium” currently sits about 2000 people, not nearly enough for a pro sports team. But with the partnership of an NWSL team, would they be willing to build a genuine soccer-specific stadium on their campus? DU’s men's team just put together a good run in the 2024 College Tournament, so the investment could be there. Time will tell what the plans are for the home of this new team, but we’ve gotta now get to the fun stuff.

Denver will 100% be a very successful franchise if ran well, the fanbase will show out and has a very real potential even to pass the Rapids in the Denver sports consciousness (especially if they get that downtown stadium). The USWNT match at DSGP in June was a massive success (and likely helped the bid get chosen). People in Colorado will show up for women's soccer, depending on whether they get the other pieces right. One of the best ways to do that is to learn from their fellow 2026 NWSL club; don’t drop the ball on brand and name. Now, if the bidding group is any indication, my money would be on Denver FC being the team's name, and while that is head and shoulders above “BOS Nation FC,” I feel like we can do a bit better. My favorite naming conventions are using city nicknames like Angel City, Gotham, or even to an extent, Bay FC. The two names that have been on my mind for years are Rocky Mountain FC/SC or Mile High City FC/SC. Another fun one could be Centennial FC, but I think that it’s probably not common enough to know that Colorado’s nickname is the “Centennial State,” and a Denver suburb shares the name Centennial. I’ve also seen pitches online of taking inspiration from “Bluecifer,” the infamous blue horse statue outside Denver International Airport that killed its original creator with glowing red eyes to boot. As fun as that would be, it’s maybe a tad too intense for a NWSL brand. A good indication of branding could come from the bidding group themselves. Denver FC has a pretty unique and cool brand that could be shifted into the actual team branding.

Given that this team will likely not be starting their time in their own stadium, the marketing of this team will be vital to how they do. The luster of a brand-new team and Colorado’s first professional women’s team could be enough to get people interested. Still, with 3 current USWNT starters hailing from Colorado, there would not be a better saleswoman for the new team than Sophia Smith or Mallery Swanson (Horan, I guess, would be good, too, and is probably the most realistic). And yeah, I’m being greedy and unrealistic, those are two of the highest paid players in the league on long term deals with Portland and Chicago respectfully but I’m sure either of them would love to be the face of their hometown team.

Several steps have got to get done before we start dreaming of signings, but this is a potential monumental day for Colorado soccer. One thing already: they’ve got a fan in me (EXCEPT IF YOU SKREW UP THE NAME AND BRANDING, SO HELP ME GOD).