The geography of the women's game
Women's soccer,
through the years.
New clubs. Familiar crests. Cities that get another chance. Start with the NWSL, then explore earlier leagues and the Super League on their own timelines.
Find a club to watch todayMake it personal: see how soccer teams near your hometown changed through the years, across men's and women's leagues.
Loading the county map…
The clubs in 2013
Select a crest to highlight its regions.
8 clubs
Each league has its own timeline. A familiar name in another league does not imply uninterrupted membership. Clubs without a closest region remain in the list; name labels stand in for unavailable historical crests.
From the history map to matchday
Who can you watch today?
Choose your county or Canadian region in the explorer. We'll find its nearest current NWSL or Super League club and the next home match in our schedule.
Make a day of it: find supporters clubs, browse more pro games nearby, and keep the grounds you visit in My Map.
See the people behind the geography: compare the population reach of men's and women's professional soccer across seasons, using a fixed 2020 Census population.
Keep exploring the game: compare the MLS history map and USL history map, or open the main SoccerMapd map to find clubs, grounds and places to watch.
Choose a competition. This edition covers U.S. professional leagues: NWSL (2013–2026), WUSA (2001–2003), WPS (2009–2011), and the Super League (from 2024). Each has its own season range. It is not a complete history of women's soccer, and it does not include every amateur, college, international or Canadian league.
What “closest” means. Each county or displayed Canadian census division goes to the participating club with the shortest great-circle distance from its geographic centroid to the club's approximate home-municipality center. These are city-level points, not stadium coordinates, population centers or driving distances. A county can contain residents closer to a different club. Crests label territories; their positions are not location pins.
The same geography in every season. We reuse the MLS and USL atlas: 3,142 U.S. counties and equivalents from 2017 Census boundaries, plus a cropped view of southern Canada using 2021 census divisions. Full geographic centers determine distances before drawing or cropping. Canadian regions here are compared with clubs in the selected U.S. league.
Membership, moves and interruptions. Clubs appear in seasons they played, including a documented midseason closure. Rebrands follow their playing season; the notes distinguish relocated operations, closures and new clubs returning to a city. The 2020 NWSL view represents the nine clubs that played in the Fall Series, not a completed regular season or a map of the neutral-site Challenge Cup.
Some seasons cross calendar years. The Super League's first two seasons are labeled 2024–25 and 2025–26. Its separate fall 2026 season appears as “2026 Fall.” The year in the URL is the starting year. Future expansion announcements are not shown as played seasons.
From history to a home match. Select a region to compare the reviewed current NWSL and Super League field, independently of your historical selection. Upcoming home matches come from the same regularly updated fixture feed as our NWSL schedule and Super League schedule. Match venues can differ from the map's home-city point; check the listed venue before travelling.
- NWSL official milestones
- NWSL history & sources
- WUSA, WPS & Super League sources
- Geography & calculation notes
- NWSL crest sources
- Other crest sources
History reviewed September 12, 2026. Club marks belong to their respective owners. Alternate solid colors help separate neighboring territories; stripes indicate equal-distance clubs.