SVG Sit-Down: USL’s Amanda Vandervort on Launching a League, Building a Brand in Women’s Sports

Having debuted in August, the USL Super League currently has eight teams

United Soccer League President, Super League, Amanda Vandervort oversees the entire USL pathway for women, including the W League and the Academy for Girls. As a soccer coach, player and sports business executive with a 20-year track record of soccer leadership stretching across the youth, high school, college and professional game, she is a service-oriented leader who believes in a diverse and inclusive world where anyone who wants to get involved in soccer has the access and opportunity to do so — and then the education and support to succeed.

As President of the USL Super League, Vanderbort leads the fastest growing connected women’s soccer network in the world including the professional Super League, pre-professional USL W League, and USL Academy for girls. Through engaging with communities, brands and partners, Amanda is driving the Super League’s strategic growth, building a people-centric pathway from youth to pro and creating a long-term sustainable business for the future of women’s soccer.  She previously served executvie roles with FIFPRO, MLS, and Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).

SVG sat down with Vandervort to discuss what it takes to launch a league, growing a brand in a new world filled with social-media channels and influencers, her own career, and more.

Wilkes: Tell us about your job at USL.
Vandervort: I’m the president of the USL Super League, and this is a project I started in 2021 at United Soccer League, which is based in Tampa. We’ve just kicked off our inaugural season as of August with eight teams across the country: fully professional Division I women’s soccer.

To give a little context about the USL, the United Soccer League, we run and manage about seven leagues. Three of them are professional: two men’s professional leagues and our Women’s Professional League. We also have pre-professional underneath that and a whole series of academy and youth programming across the country. It’s pretty extensive, with 250-odd communities that we’re in.

The women’s side alone is probably 150 teams underneath the pathway, which I oversee at the USL. Super League, which we’re talking about today, is our top-tier property. It’s sanctioned by U.S. Soccer Division I, which includes a set of standards that are clearly the highest standards in professional soccer in the U.S. That’s what we aspired to be from the moment we started this project.

Wilkes: Where do you come from, and how do you fit into all this in terms of sports?
Vandervort: I played soccer as a kid growing up. I played collegiately at the University of Wyoming. I moved to New York and was head coach at NYU for a couple of years, before I decided to move into the pro game. In 2008, I was slinging tweets for Women’s Professional Soccer, running social media. Then I moved back to New York City and was at Major League Soccer for 10 years. I started as a director of social media and moved through the ranks to VP of fan engagement. I was overseeing all our direct-to-consumer media properties from social to direct messages to the data infrastructure, email, etc.

Wilkes: You were a one-woman band?
Vandervort: At MLS, we had a whole team. But I was also doing work at FIFA. I was doing a lot of traveling and consulting about how to market the women’s game so we can get away from “shrink it and pink it” to actually talking about athletes around the world, [talking about] women soccer players in a way that respects and values them as athletes. And I was the president of our coaches association here in the U.S.

So I had my hands in a lot of soccer. In 2019, I decided I wanted to work in the international game and get back into women’s soccer. I always felt that’s where my heart was. So I moved to Europe. I was the chief women’s football officer at the Global Players Union called Fief Pro. I spent some time there before this project came on my radar, and then I moved home and launched the Super League. I’ve been in soccer but in everything from labor relations and executive management to social media and data architecture.

Wilkes: You’ve seen it from the ground up. Your experiences are varied in terms of women’s soccer here as opposed to women’s football in Europe. How do the two versions match up? 
Vandervort: The Americans historically are the best in the world. Part of our mission at the Super League is to help that continue. You know, before we started this project, there were 12 women’s pro teams in the U.S., with the NWSL, but more than 40,000 players in college.

What was happening was that so many of our amazing American talent would go abroad and play their pro careers in Europe, Asia, South America —wherever they could find a team. But now, with eight more teams, we have 200, maybe 210 professional players who have jobs as pros and who, we believe, will help support and bolster the U.S. through the future so that we retain our No. 1 status in the world.

Wilkes: How do you do this? Where does one start in terms of creating the league and then selling the league?
Vandervort: Creating the league is about vision and seeing the gaps. In my career, I’m a builder. I see opportunity. I see white space, and I fill it. I can’t describe it any other way. [Creating the league meant] identifying ownership groups and markets with potential from a consumer/fanbase perspective. Obviously, our great partnership with [streaming service] Peacock ensures that the league is accessible by people who want to watch it and that we can ensure great delivery of our product across the board.

There’s a lot that, from an operational perspective, we had to build to get to where we are. I’ll also add the USL. We have an entire department dedicated to real estate development and stadium development. infrastructure is something that we think and talk a lot about, because, historically in women’s sports, we haven’t had our own facilities.

Wilkes: You borrow, or you take space and say, We’ll do a deal.
Vandervort: Yeah. Or we rent space from a men’s facility. Oftentimes, the facilities were built specifically for male sports. So we’re renting space. We’re already coming from behind, paying rent and trying to get in. And the facilities themselves may not be built for our needs. As we’re moving into this new era, the USL is focused on building both intimate stadiums and large stadiums but facilities that favor both men and women. There’s enough locker rooms; the footprint might look a little bit different.

Wilkes: More bathrooms and things like that?
Vandervort: It’s a different bathroom footprint maybe. We have different needs if you’re talking about gender equity, looking at it through that lens. We talk a lot about that with our stadium developers.

In the USL Super League, we’ve built a stadium in Lexington, KY, which has 7,500 seats: a beautiful facility and an incredible investment from our owner there. We’ve renovated a stadium in downtown Tampa, which is lovely, and built a training facility in Tampa. We’ve renovated a stadium in Fort Lauderdale. When I say renovated, I mean we brought in seating and redid the pitch.

Of course, we think a lot about broadcast today. We’re a four-camera shoot, but we plan for what the Super League will be as we grow. How do we create the best product through the infrastructure itself and ensure that we’re set up to add to that as we grow and build?

Those are just some examples. We built a stadium in downtown Spokane and coordinated with the local school district. There’s a lot of building still.

Wilkes: I understand that you’re expanding. How does one deal with that in terms of where we go next?
Vandervort: If I had my choice, we would have a lot more teams out west. We have Dallas, and the next closest one is Spokane, WA.

Wilkes: That’s a bit of a gap.
Vandervort: It’s a travel gap. We have to navigate [the teams’] travel and schedule so that they get two games on the road. It’s tough. I’d love to be expanding out west, but it is complex: having the right ownership group ready to go, having the facilities up to the Division I standard right away, having the resources in place. A lot of it has to line up with city funding or state funding or government. We have to manage where the political sway is in the cities to identify the right markets.

Wilkes: You made a point about finding the right backers, funding groups. What do you do? Do you sit down and you say, “Would you like to own a soccer league?” How do you develop those relationships?
Vandervort: It’s a combination of having the facilities and identifying owners, like wealthy people who want to invest in the future of sports and, in particular, with the Super League, the future of women’s sports. It is important that our values are aligned with the investment that’s coming in. We talk a lot about values of our ownership groups and how they’re going to support and fund the women’s platform. If they also have a men’s team, that’s great, but, at this point, [funding the women’s platform] is mission critical for us. I wish there was an exact formula for it.

Wilkes: Is it instinct? Is it just the right place, the right people, at the right time?
Vandervort: Some of it is, certainly, but there’s a lot of inbound interest at this point. I think people have seen the product now. They believe in the business opportunity of women’s professional sports and that it’s a good investment to make. It’s not just a feel-good opportunity now; it’s a business driver for long-term revenue.

If they can invest in a soccer team today and drive the valuation of their business over the next 10 years, they’re going to be in a tremendous financial position. It’s about investing now for the long-term reward. We’re seeing that across women’s pro soccer, with the NWSL and their valuations to the WNBA, to the launch of the hockey league, to the volleyball league. People are starting to see that women’s professional sports is a good business proposition, a good business deal.

Wilkes: Is there a personality-driven aspect in terms of the players that U.S. viewers may know? Do you use that to your advantage? Or is there a bigger picture in terms of drawing them in?
Vandervort: If we’re talking about driving fan interest in the U.S., for sure. But we talk a lot about star building and how we identify the players in our league and elevate their portfolios, their visibility, and make them household names. We have a team in Brooklyn that has been playing at Columbia University temporarily while we fix up the Cyclone Stadium in Coney Island, where they’re going to play. We have a player [on the team] called Mackenzie George, whose dog goes everywhere with the team and has a ticket on the flight to go to games.  Because so many people can connect with pets, [we] try to elevate who she is and what she brings. She’s a prolific goal scorer and an amazing woman.

Driving these human-interest stories is something that we think a lot about. I think that’s probably one of the big difference with global football. Having seen women’s soccer around the world, we’re really good at marketing and driving value in the U.S. from a fan/consumer and a business-sponsorship [point of view].

It’s less so in the rest of the world. I think we’re ahead on that. But women’s soccer around the world is growing. The word I use to describe it right now is that the game itself is professionalizing around the world. You’re seeing investments that are making the game that much better and making it more interesting for fans to watch.

We’re seeing viewership increase; attendance is increasing. I think it’s because we’ve invested in the product. We’ve scratched and clawed to get here in a lot of ways. But here we are now where it’s a good business.

Wilkes: To convince people that it is a good business, do you look at, maybe, the mothers and fathers or grandparents of little soccer players and appeal to that emotional connection to get them to buy in as a team owner?
Vandervort: As a team owner? Sure. A lot of our owners start their interest because they had girls who played and they’re looking at the landscape and saying, Well, why doesn’t my daughter have the opportunity to play when my son does? Some of them ask that question; I would say not all of them. That maybe sparks the idea for some to give us a call.  But they need investments; they need an investment strategy. When you invest in someplace, you’re going to see a return. And women’s sports is starting to demonstrate the return

Wilkes: Did you see an uptick after the Summer Olympics? Do you see the excitement and the interest in where you’re going and people buying into what you’re selling?
Vandervort: In relation to the Olympics, I think we were lucky to have our deal with Peacock because the Olympics obviously run on the NBC platform. We kicked off the league one week after the Olympics ended, so there was still a wave of excitement, enthusiasm. The U.S. Women’s [National Soccer Team] won the gold medal this summer, which was amazing to watch and be a part of and celebrate. To kick off the league and follow that wave of enthusiasm, certainly for us, was incredible.

Wilkes: You have eight teams now. You’re looking to expand next year to how many cities? 
Vandervort: The final number will be revealed in the future. We just announced one expansion team in Jacksonville, FL. Something unique about the USL Super League is that we play on the international calendar. What that means is, we kick off in August. We play all the way through the year. Right now, we’re on a winter break. But we have our championship in mid June.

All the other soccer leagues in the U.S. go from March to November. We’re on the opposite calendar. That gives us a window in November, December, February, March, when no other soccer is going on in the U.S. But what that also means is, we need [venues in] warm climates to host games. We’ve just announced Jacksonville, which gives us another warm-weather market.

It’s gorgeous in Tampa on Feb. 8, when we’re going to have our “return-to-play” game. We had a game two nights ago in Tampa, and the weather was unbelievable. It was a packed stadium. Having games in the South when it’s amazing weather means we have to play fewer games in a hurricane in August or September. When the South is sweltering, we can be up here when the weather is spring or fall. We’re navigating the schedule that way, and that dictates some of our priorities when it comes to expansion markets: we try to make sure there’s a balance north and south as well as east and west.

Wilkes: What’s your biggest challenge?
Vandervort: My head doesn’t go to the biggest challenge. My head goes to the thing that I enjoy the most: the connection with the athletes. But one of my biggest challenges is just keeping up with the players. A lot of our players, before they came into the Super League, were playing abroad and wanted to come home. There had never been a professional team in Charlotte, NC, but now there is. There is so much talent in North Carolina, so many players who want to come home to Charlotte in particular. When we signed our players, I’d send them a message of welcome to the league. The responses I got back were so much “Thank you for the opportunity,” “I’m so excited to be returning to my home country.” There are 40,000 players — with, before, only limited slots available in the NWL. Now there are professional playing spots, fully paid professional opportunities. I’ve built these relationships but am trying to keep up with them, because they’re all growing and evolving as the season has gone on, with every goal they score or every shot they block as goalkeeper.

I’m making sure that our players feel valued. A lot of them maybe had an injury that set them back at one point in their careers, and they’ve come back into the Super League. Or they were outstanding collegiate talent who were just on the bubble before and now are fully pro starting in a professional environment.

Maybe this is my labor union hat on, I want the players to know how much they’re valued in the Super League. I think about that a lot, especially from a women’s-sports perspective. For so long, we haven’t been valued as women in the game.

Wilkes: Where do you go from here?
Vandervort: There have been times in my career when I’ve questioned what I’m doing or what’s the next step, but I’ve never been afraid to take risks. At the end of the day, the best advice I received was, is it challenging and is it fun? And does it align with my values? Actually, that’s probably the third question that I would want to throw in there. I would not question it, not think too much about it, but just go for it.

I’ve been in a whole bunch of different fields of soccer. I’ve been only in soccer, but I’ve done a lot of things in soccer. I never worried too much about the title or the job but about the impact I was making in that role. That’s why I took this job. [It offered] the ability to launch a professional women’s soccer league with the way I believe players should be treated, women should be treated, the platform should be built and developed. It was definitely challenging and fun. And the values of the USL, the organization that I work for, aligned with where I believed women’s professional sports can be and where it can go.

Wilkes: FIFA is coming in 2026, you know, and having the 2025 World Cup media center in Dallas is going to make a big difference. I think your young women are going to make a powerful statement.
Vandervort: I know it’s the Men’s World Cup coming to the U.S., but I think the opportunity for all of sport — all of women’s soccer included — is through the roof. I’m on the board of U.S. soccer, and we’re talking a lot about how legacy starts. You don’t build legacy after the tournament’s over; legacy starts now.

So how do we impact women, girls, boys, men across the U.S. and continue to grow soccer around the World Cup? It is an incredible opportunity for us as a nation to come together, support our national team, celebrate the games, but then push soccer into the future together. It’s really special.

Of course, with my Super League hat on, [we need to make] sure that, in those cities like Dallas, we’re leveraging the momentum, the excitement, and we’ve got our players integrated into it in an authentic way. They can share on the teams, too, but people get to know them, we build their stories, and they become household names.

A big percentage of our fans definitely support the movement of women’s sport. A big percentage of our audience is in that kind of frame. In talking about who your fans are and how you identify them, we talked about parents of kids. But, when you talk about the swath of people who believe in the movement, who show up for games, who want to see the future of women’s sports, that’s a huge, huge audience, and it cannot be overlooked.

This SVG Sit-Down is an edited transcript of an SVG Summit panel discussion on Dec. 16, 2024. To listen to the discussion, click HERE.