The National Football League has 32 teams and 1,696 active players. The National Hockey League has 32 teams and 1,078 players. Major League Baseball has 30 teams and 949 players. The National Basketball Association has 30 teams and 450 players (not counting temporary contracts with the G League), and Major League Soccer has 29 teams with a maximum of 870 players.
The National Women's Soccer League, on the other hand, has 14 teams with a maximum of 364 players. In case you hate math, that's less than half the professional opportunities for female players as male players in the U.S. But who's counting?
Oh wait, we are.
(And if you think that number is shocking, here's another less-than-fun fact: The Women's National Basketball Association has 12 teams and a mere 144 roster spots.)
But in Spokane, the winds of change are blowing.
Here comes Spokane Zephyr FC, a new team in the new United Soccer League Super League, a top-tier Division I women's professional soccer league parallel to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
This year is the USL Super League's inaugural season, featuring eight new clubs from around the country. That's at least 176 more roster spots for professional female soccer players. Since we're counting, that brings our grand total up to 540.
Spokane gets a front row seat to this historic moment in women's sports thanks to Katie and Ryan Harnetiaux, who helped bring professional soccer to Eastern Washington.
The couple are co-owners of the Zephyr and also of Spokane's new Division III men's team, Spokane Velocity FC. Despite the city's craze for all things sports, the Zephyr are Spokane's first professional team to play at the highest level of competition in their respective sport.
"It's historic that we are starting a brand new league for women," Katie Harnetiaux says. "It's historic that it is starting at Division I sanctioning and not underneath another level. And it's historic that we are now sanctioning a Division I team in Spokane. On so many different levels, we are really changing the course of sport in the United States."
The Zephyr kick off their inaugural season with a home opener on Aug. 17 at 6 pm at the new ONE Spokane Stadium. Before the match starts, hundreds of youth female soccer players will be brought onto the pitch. Female leaders from around the city will be named and honored. Then, the Zephyr will be unleashed against Fort Lauderdale United FC for some really good soccer.
Though USL Super League is distinct from the NWSL in a few ways — it doesn't have a draft, and it has a fall/spring schedule with a winter break that mimics the European calendar — the players are the same caliber, so the competition will be just as intense.
"There's a narrative that females need to be pretty and proper," Zephyr head coach Jo Johnson says. "So when we get into this space where we can compete, we want to compete. It's OK to want to win. It's OK to be competitive. It's OK to have that fierceness about you. When you get in that space, you just want to kind of unleash that."
"On so many different levels, we are really changing the course of sport in the United States."
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Johnson, a defensive center midfielder during her college career, didn't get the chance to play professionally when she left university.
"There were not very many teams, and then the leagues would fold," she says. "[The USL Super League] opens up another opportunity for female players to play on the biggest stage here in the States. You've seen a lot of players on our roster that had to go overseas to play. So it's really neat to let them come back to the States."
Eight more teams are in the works for 2025 and beyond. If they all hit the pitch, at least twice as many athletes will get the chance to fulfill their dreams to play professionally in one of the most dominant countries for women's soccer in the world.
Maybe four years from now, the country will see Zephyr players vie for gold with the national team at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
"I want them to surprise everybody," Harnetiaux says. "[And] I want those women to see fans and communities supporting the fact that they have spent a lifetime doing this work."
Kennewick native Haley Thomas played collegiate soccer at Weber State University and Boston College before starting her professional career in Iceland. She knew ever since she was little that playing soccer was the only job she wanted to have.
"I've always just thought that's what I wanted to do, whether it was abroad or whether it was in America," Thomas says. "Now that I've done both, I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to go abroad."
Living overseas gave Thomas a broader perspective on the world and let her grow in independence and confidence.
"If you're just there to play, you can find the positives in it," she says.
But getting to play in her home state is a new kind of thrill, and she's grateful to the league for its efforts to keep talent stateside.
"I think this is the perfect opportunity for this league to provide more opportunities for all these girls, girls like me that went abroad," she says. "I like the way that this season runs as well. It's different than the NWSL. I honestly like this better. I think it is something that we've needed for a long time."
Thomas isn't the only Washingtonian to join the Zephyr. Forward Taryn Ries and defender Makena Carr get to play in their home state, as does former Zag Jodi Ülkekul. Ülkekul was co-captain of the Gonzaga women's team before playing professionally for CD Castellón in Spain and AS Roma in Italy, as well as the Seattle Reign FC.
Coach Johnson, a Phoenix native, is coming straight from assistant coaching at the University of Tulsa. Head coaching for professional players is a significant step up. She not only has to define the Zephyr's style of play — which prioritizes aggressive possession and attack — but she's also tasked with building team identity, chemistry and culture from scratch.
"It's been just amazing for me to see we have players that have experience already playing professionally, who have come in and have just set the tone," Johnson says. "This is all new. What type of legacy are we leaving?" ♦
Spokane Zephyr FC vs. Fort Lauderdale United FC • Sat, Aug. 17 at 6 pm • $24-$44 • All ages • ONE Spokane Stadium • 501 W. Gardner Ave. • uslspokane.com
