Conversations with the people building soccer’s next chapter.

The pace of change in women's sport and women's soccer in particular is attracting interest from brands that have never shown in interest in sports, says Washington Spirit CEO Kim Stone in this interview. Kim talks about the changing landscape, the kind of fans the club are attracting, the ownership style of Michele Kang and her own journey from an entry level at the NBA's Miami Heat to her current position leading one of the leading clubs in the NWSL.

Dynamic pricing, empty seats, and the trust clubs can't afford to burn. Ticketing and growth expert Jim McCarthy (Impresario) joins Simon Evans to unpack ticketing, and what MLS, USL and other clubs should do differently. Jim founded Gold Star, one of the first live event marketplaces (12 million buyers, tickets for around two million events), and now helps clubs grow their audiences. In this conversation: • Why FIFA treated the World Cup as a revenue-maximizing event, and the cost to fan trust • The season ticket no-show problem: why 20%+ no-show rates are common, and why carrots work better than sticks • What clubs should do with the data when Messi comes to town • Why revenue per seat matters more than average ticket price • Whether cheaper tickets mean more spend inside the stadium • How a USL club should go about filling its stadium • How fan expectations of matchday have changed, from the Rose Bowl to the Buffalo Bills' new stadium • Why Gen Z's appetite for real-world events is a big opportunity for soccer

There's nowhere else in world soccer where clubs are built from a blank sheet of paper, and Bay FC is doing exactly that. Lisa Goodwin Scharff, the club's Chief External Affairs Officer, joins Simon Evans and Karisa Maxwell McKee to explain what it takes to run an NWSL franchise that is only three years old and still shifting out of start-up mode. She discusses * What Sixth Street's start-up experience brings as an investor-owner, compared with the wealthy families and individuals behind many clubs * Why the club built its training facility first, and the search for a stadium of its own * The fan base: over half of first-season season-ticket holders were new to any team * How brands are learning to partner with a new kind of club, with no rinse-and-repeat deals

Did MLS receive a 'World Cup bump' as many had hoped? That was a topic I dived into with Andrew Hosmar who recently worked at the Houston Dynamo as Senior Director of Strategy and Analytics. Andrew previously worked in similar roles for San Diego FC and the New England Revolution.

Former Manchester United, Chelsea and Spain midfielder Juan Mata and his business partner Jürgen Griesbeck join Simon Evans to launch Unleash Football, a new project that aims to give players, fans and the wider football community a bigger say in how the game is run. Unleash Football is part of the C Lab framework. It lets anyone take part by answering questions on an anonymous survey platform. Mata and Griesbeck say the results will be a "mandate" from the game: a first wave of data that can be built on in later waves and shared with governing bodies, candidates in the FIFA presidential election, and the media. The project was unveiled at the World Football Summit.

Sam Mewis signed her first pro contract for $15,000. Ten years later, the league she came up in has free agency, purpose-built stadiums and a wave of brands that had never touched sport before. In this episode, I spoke to two USWNT world champions, Emily Sonnett and Sam Mewis. We discussed how they turned a sport that barely had a league into a career, what it takes to build a team around you as a pro, and how they're planning for life after the final whistle.

Como's rise from Serie D to Serie A is one of the most unlikely stories in modern football — but what's happening off the pitch might be even more interesting than what's happening on it. In this episode, I travelled to Lake Como to sit down with President Mirwan Suwarso to break down how the club engineered its climb through Italian football, and the innovative commercial strategy powering its next chapter — one that leans into tourism, fashion, and food as much as it does results on the pitch. We talk about:The blueprint behind Como's rapid rise from Serie D to Serie A. Why Como is positioning itself as a lifestyle brand, not just a football club. How tourism, fashion, and food fit into the club's revenue strategy What other clubs can learn from Como's approach to commercial growth. The vision for Como's future in Serie A and beyond

Kay Cossington spent 20 years building women's football from the inside at England's FA — then walked straight into private equity. Now she's CEO of Bay Collective and Head of Global Women's Football at Sixth Street, running a multi-club ownership platform with no ceiling on ambition. She talks through the FA's "What It Takes to Win" model that led to hiring Sarina Wiegman, why England never tried to copy the US college pipeline, and what she really thinks happens when private equity money meets a sport still building its infrastructure. Plus: the uncomfortable question nobody's asking about patient capital versus the five-year-flip playbook already familiar from the men's game.

Robert Faulkner, Chief Business & Communications Officer of Wrexham joined Simon Evans at the World Football Summit in Madrid to break down the club's growth and the latest challenges.

Women’s soccer is no longer just a game on the field - it’s an emerging asset class, and Chelsee Washington knows exactly why that matters. From becoming the first player drafted from her college into the NWSL to working in sports finance and investment today, she breaks down the business side of the women’s game.