Gotham FC will be the first NWSL team to visit the White House for the championship celebration

Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champions, will be the first NWSL team to visit the White House for a championship celebration. President Joe Biden will welcome the team on Monday, reuniting most of the players from last season, including Ali Krieger, who retired at the end of the year.

“This is such a monumental moment for the NWSL,” Krieger said The Athletics. “I’m so excited for the NWSL to be recognized at the White House and for us to be the first-ever NWSL championship team to celebrate. This is going to be such an amazing moment for the team and for us as a whole.”

While the White House has previously honored the U.S. women’s national team for winning the World Cup, only one professional women’s soccer team has been honored with a celebration by the White House: Sky Blue FC in 2010 for their 2009 championship win during former President Barack Obama’s first term. Though it was in a different professional league — Women’s Professional Soccer, which ran from 2009 to 2011 — the same franchise would earn the same honor 14 years later.

Krieger and Gotham investor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett pointed to the team’s “worst to first” story and how Gotham narrowly made the 2023 playoffs and needed to make the final day of the regular season.

“We really see this as a moment to recognize the work that went into winning that championship,” Tisch Blodgett said. She also said the team doesn’t see their visit as a political statement. “We were invited by the White House. We were invited by President Biden to celebrate this team.”

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The Athletic’s 2023 American soccer team: NJ/NY Gotham FC

But Krieger and Tisch Blodgett also see the White House invitation as something much bigger — not just an image of an NWSL team next to the president, but a moment that could put the NWSL in the same conversation as other major sports leagues like the NFL, MLB and WNBA. Last week, Biden hosted South Carolina’s undefeated women’s basketball program, led by head coach Dawn Staley, for its NCAA March Madness victory.

“But it’s a broader statement. This should be the standard,” Tisch Blodgett said. “First of all, I hope we win the championship again. If we don’t, I hope that whoever wins the championship, this is part of what they do, because we’ve set the standard now. This is the treatment that our players deserve when they win a championship as the best athletes in the world.”

Krieger said Monday will be a historic day for the NWSL, but she also wants to balance her excitement with making the most of this platform.

“I want to acknowledge that historically there has been very little attention paid to women’s sports and I just want to say, ‘Thank you for your support and keep bringing women’s sports into the spotlight,’” she said, noting that there is still much work to be done.

“This is just going to be a great platform to uplift the team and the players and women’s sports in general,” Krieger said. “The coverage of this day is going to mean a lot, too. I think there’s a balance between saying, ‘Thank you, we appreciate it,’ and ‘The work isn’t done.’ We need your help to keep going and we need your support.”

Krieger retired after the 2023 season (Ben Nichols/Getty Images)

In February, the Biden-Harris Administration Announced that the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association would work with the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition to leverage community events to promote healthy eating and physical activity. But efforts by Gotham’s front office to coordinate a championship celebration predate that agreement, and have been in contact with relevant White House officials since they won the Finals in November 2023.

Gotham FC also have a busy season ahead of them, as they fight for a play-off spot (they finished third this week) and qualify for the new FIFA Club World Cup.

“This wasn’t like we woke up in September and thought, ‘We have nothing to do in September, let’s go to the White House!'” Tisch Blodgett joked. “Of course, the president’s schedule is very busy and volatile. Our schedule is very busy.”

The team played the Reign in Seattle on Monday and flew home that same evening after the win. They host CF Monterrey Femenil on Thursday as part of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, then quickly return to regular-season action, hosting the Utah Royals at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET before the 2023 squad travels to Washington, D.C., for Monday’s event.

“It would have been easier to say no and say we’re focused on 2024, we’re focused on winning the championship again and moving forward,” Tisch Blodgett said. “But we all felt collectively that this was really important.”

Krieger can’t wait to be back with her teammates and relive the 2023 victory, a victory she says she’s still savoring, all these months later. Though Krieger was previously part of a White House celebration with the USWNT following their 2015 World Cup win, she couldn’t help but laugh when asked if she had any advice on what to expect.

“Listen, I’ve only been there once and we were all freaking out,” she said. “I don’t even know if I was in my body.”

(Top photo: Robyn Beck/Getty Images)