I need five different apps to see NWSL this year and I hate it

The team here at Android Authority Is full of football fans and we follow leagues all over the world. Sometimes it is overlap, such as Ollie Cragg and myself who commits over Chelsea FC’s constant unrest, and other times it is quiet as slides when Ritas Real Madrid scores enough goals in stop time to steal a victory in the inevitable way that just Madrid can. However, there is one thing we can all agree on – the streaming landscape is worse than it has ever been as a football fan.

With so many leagues and so many competitions, it would be impossible to place them all in one place – unless you know, some invented something like a cable package, but I pee. But now that my beloved US-based NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) has released the TV plan, I’m frustrated again. Here is why I am not looking forward to what will be my favorite season a year.

This year marks the second season during NWSL’s massive four -year media rights agreement with several platforms, including CBS Sports, ESPN and ION. On the surface there should be excellent news – every game in the season will be broadcast, well, somewhere. There is a huge improvement compared to just a few years ago when I remember having to search widely and broadly for coverage of more than one game per weekend.

Now, but I don’t have to search much at all. NWSL has put out its weekly plan quite nicely, and all I have to do is remember as many as five different apples – yes, five. On top of knowing my logins, I also have to remember which games are networks that days this weekend. Sounds simple? Well, here’s how the league has decided to organize the schedule for 160 games this season:

• Friday night matches are broadcast on prime video either 20:00 or 22:00 et.
• Saturday nights will contain a double (or triple) header on ION between 17:00 and 22:00 et.
• CBS Sports will air battles over the most important CBS network, CBS Sports, Paramount Plus and CBS Sports Golazo Network (a football-specific network)
• ESPN will vent matches at ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 and stream them on ESPN Plus.

Good enough? Yes, I realized. Now the kicker is that there are not 160 matches in an NWSL season. That’s 364. So for the other 200 matches you have to catch them on the league’s internal streaming service, NWSL Plus.

This plan also covers only domestic games, so competitions in the league. Select Clubs are in line to participate in the Concacaf W Champions Cup final and friendly matches against international clubs during the league break in July, and I have no idea how these games will be sent.

I am honest – juggling login is not why I dread the current NWSL streaming plan. I usually only watch matches at MacBook Air or via my Nvidia shield tvSo I just have to log on to two devices at the same time. Instead, my concern comes from how accurate I will pay for all the services between now and November 2025, when the season ends. Although a few of the apps, such as Ion and NWSL Plus, are free to access, are not the rest, and I can’t possibly stretch my free attempts for so long.

To find out how much burden my local team, the Washington spirit, was about to put on my wallet I spent my morning watching Official NWSL TV Plan And highlight the dates, times and networks in each game. I calculated five free matches on Ion and as many as four free games on NWSL Plus (who share some of their rights with Paramount Plus), but the remaining 17 matches are locked behind a paid network or app. And although I want to be on some of these matches as the season card holder, there is bad news for my bank account.

See, if you were just going to pay for the dedicated streaming services, then ESPN Plus, Prime videoand Paramount Plus At their cheapest levels, they would cost $ 12, $ 9 and $ 8 per month respectively. It is about $ 30 per month for what can shake out to one game per network. But when you run these subscriptions from March to November, nine months of the year, Skyrocket’s total skyrockets to a cool $ 270 per year just to follow your favorite team – which is more money than my current group of seasonal tickets.

Of course, there are ways to knock down the price a bit, or at least stretch dollars a little longer, like paying for the Amazon Prime ($ 15 per month) instead of only Prime Video, packed ESPN Plus with Disney Plus and Hulu ($ 17 per month), and using parents’ cable cable to access CBS and Daddy and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy, and Daddy. of the playoffs early. You can probably also access the big networks through Youtube tvBut it doesn’t help with the streaming matches.

I can’t believe I say this, but I think Major League Soccer has the best streaming setup in the US right now. Although I usually do not love when ML’s forms the future of football in this country (hey, promotion and relegation), I can’t argue with what it was pulled off since I joined the Apple. It entered into a 10-year agreement to do Apple TV Plus The exclusive home of all their domestic games, puts each team and every highlight in the same place and removes the need to juggle login and platforms.

By providing Apple TV Plus control over each match, MLS has improved the quality of Broadcast’s League whole. Now all 30 layers use the same equipment from one stadium to the next, and the consistent group of commentators follow the league from the opening weekend to the MLS Cup. I would like to see NWSL doing something similar at the end of the four -year deal, if not before.

Until then, I just want to continue juggling logins and subscriptions, and try to keep up with the teams I really care about while I hope my parents’ cable supplier does not notice that I flow from another state. But really, should it ever be so difficult to follow a domestic league? I don’t think so.