Here's what may have changed since the last time the NWSL was in Utah

The growing NWSL will feature 14 teams when it kicks off the 2024 season, including expansion clubs in Utah Royals FC and Northern California's Bay FC.

The Utah Royals are back this weekend, with the club re-debuting in the National Women’s Soccer League on Saturday against the Chicago Red Stars (5:30 p.m. MT, Ion).

It’s the first NWSL match on the Wasatch Front since an ownership scandal and change at parent club Real Salt Lake sent the 2017 expansion side to Kansas City, and a lot has changed since then.

The league has a new commissioner in Jessica Berman after former commish Lisa Baird stepped down while the club suffered a string of abuse-related scandals in late 2021. That prompted several investigations by U.S. Soccer which found widespread misconduct directed at players over the life of the league.

But since Berman took over, the league has grown each year, with ticket sales up 36% and average game attendance up 26% last season, according to the Associated Press. Television viewership also grew 41% year-over-year from a year ago.

The Royals will be one of two expansion teams joining in 2024, while a yet-to-be-named club in Boston and an unidentified franchise in 2026 that will propel the league to 16 teams.

Nashville and Philadelphia have been among the markets reportedly vying for that 16th spot.

There’s also a new media rights agreement, a $60 million annual deal that runs through 2027 after the NWSL’s contract with CBS Sports ended last year.

The new deal features a number of shared media partners, with games that will air on across the ESPN family of networks — including ESPN+ — as well as ABC, ESPN, and ESPN Deportes in Spanish.

Amazon’s Prime Video service will host a game every Friday night, beginning with tonight’s NWSL Challenge Cup between defending league champion Gotham FC and NWSL Shield winners San Diego Wave FC. That’s part of a wider deal that will franchise league and club apparel with Amazon, a first for the competition.

Saturday will also come the debut of the league’s first-ever women’s soccer-specific stadium — and the first stadium purpose-built for a women’s sports franchise in the world — when the Kansas City Current host the Portland Thorns in the first-ever NWSL game to be broadcast on ABC at CPKC Stadium, the privately financed $120 million facility with a capacity of 11,500 located on the shore of the Missouri River near downtown Kansas City.

Scripps-owned Ion TV will also broadcast a weekly doubleheader every Saturday on the over-the-air network that is dipping its toes in sports broadcasting. CBS Sports will also air a select package of games, including on the company’s free-to-stream Golazo Network.

"Really this is the table being set for the future of the league," Berman told the AP earlier this week. "We believe that we reset the league in 2022, 2023 we established the foundation and this is the point we really feel like the league is going to take off."

Locally, the Royals will also open a new era with a 22-player roster, a rebranded team logo and two new kits that are also part of a league-wide refresh sponsored by Nike. The team’s traditional colors of gold and blue are back, but a new front-of-jersey sponsor — Utah-based America First Credit Union — will adorn the shirts along with RSL and Royals healthcare partner Intermountain Health on one sleeve and the NWSL’s partner Ally on the other.

The team is led by head coach Amy Rodriguez and a technical staff brimming with collegiate and MLS experience, and captained by Paige Monaghan, the wing forward who had a career-best four goals with two assists last year with Racing Louisville.

“Honestly, it's such an honor and it's such a privilege to be the Captain for the Utah Royals,” Monaghan said in a statement from the club. “When Amy said my name in the meeting, my heart was beating out of my chest and I kind of realized how much it meant to me.”

With an average age of 25 years old, the Royals will be one of the youngest rosters in the league. But that’s left them “young and hungry,” ready to prove themselves, Rodriguez says.

“It’s a team that is always going to put its best foot forward and always its greatest detail and attention into what we are trying to do,” the first-time head coach added. “You can tell the team is very focused on executing and definitely bought into the plan, whether it comes off or not. That’s not quite there yet, and I don’t expect it to be there even through the beginning of the season — it takes most teams years to get the details right. But I can see the intentionality and the focus on the details that I know this team wants to put into fruition.

“I don’t know if this group necessarily has a chip on their shoulders,” she added. “But they definitely need to prove themselves in the NWSL. With an expansion team where maybe there are getting more opportunities here than they did with their last club, this is a great opportunity for them to really shine and make a stamp on the NWSL and prove themselves.”