‘It’s a big vision’: are Gotham FC building a super team for the ages?
J/NY-based club signed four USWNT players in the off-season and are looking to be a big brand in the US and further afield
As the National Women’s Soccer League prepares to launch its 12th season in March, a cascade of evolutions are afoot. Two new teams are joining the parity-driven pandemonium with Bay FC and Utah Royals bringing the league total to 14. In Kansas City the first-ever sports stadium built solely for women’s sports hosts its first football match on 16 March and under a new broadcast deal 121 matches will be aired across Prime Video, Scripps-owned ION, Paramount+ and ESPN.
And then we have the ambitious vision of Gotham FC and the continued impact of newfound free agency that is helping them create a new super team.
he first big name to drop on Gotham this off-season was Crystal Dunn. The USA’s incomparable left-back, NWSL champion, World Cup champion and Olympian was moving back home to New York at last. Next came the news that the World Cup winner Tierna Davidson was signing from Chicago Red Stars. Soon after Gotham’s national team coup was complete with two further world champions and Team USA Olympians arriving: Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett from OL Reign.
The American soccer-loving world began to wonder: what on earth is going on in Gotham? And in front of a crowded audience at the glamorous Rainbow Room of 30 Rockefeller Plaza this January, Gotham’s general manager, Yael Averbuch West, shed some light at what had happened: “At the end of 2022 we paused and took a moment to really create what we wanted our vision on the field to be and our strategy to get there. And our vision is very clear. It’s a big vision. We want to be the global capital of women’s soccer.” It is a tall order. But having won the Championship in 2023 and with four marquee signings their pursuit of glory will be fascinating to watch.
Now one year into their world-dominating vision – a vision that saw the former Tottenham manager Juan Carlos Amorós join the club and win coach of the year en route to the 2023 NWSL Championship trophy – Averbuch West spoke to me to delve deeper into their plan. It is one that includes results on the field, the style of play, the players they sign, the fans who come back, the staff they hire, the elaborate work behind the scenes and a strategy to liaise and support the development of youth talent in the region. Tying all that together – not peripheral but central to the mission – is the careful curation of a clear identity, and building a brand that all the world can see.
Together with Amorós, Averbuch West tells me they are focused on having “a really clear identity in terms of who we are, a clear style of play, a clear brand where even if you didn’t see the Gotham logo, everyone watching would say, ‘Oh, that’s Gotham.’”
Being in the New York area, there are plenty of nearby teams of resonance that have lent inspiration. “Because of our new ownership, we think of the Giants a lot,” she says. The recognizability and how genuinely loved a brand like that is … you think of the Giants, the Yankees, you see people with those brandings, people with Yankees baseball caps all over the world. But these are brands that transcend knowing the score of the weekend’s game. They’re something where you see the logo and you know what it stands for.”