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Starbucks is launching its olive oil-infused Oleato line in the U.S. in select locations, starting this week.
The line, which is the brainchild of former CEO Howard Schultz, debuted in roughly two dozen Italian cafes in February.
Early reviews of the Oleato drinks in the U.S. press were largely negative.

Starbucks initial Oleato launch will launch three olive oil-infused drinks in stores across Italy.
Source: Starbucks

After launching olive oil-infused coffee in Italy, Starbucks is bringing its Oleato line stateside, starting Thursday.
The upscale Reserve Roasteries and select Reserve cafes in New York, Chicago and Seattle will sell the drinks first, as well as the original Starbucks location in Pike Place Market. Then, on Monday, customers at 550 locations across Seattle and Los Angeles will be able to buy the drinks.

The line launched in roughly two dozen Italian cafes in February. Former CEO Howard Schultz, who stepped down on Monday, went to Italy this summer, where he witnessed Sicilians drinking olive oil as a daily ritual. He, too, began drinking olive oil alongside his daily coffee and decided that Starbucks should try to mix the two together.
Oleato means “with oil” in Italian, according to Starbucks.
The initial Oleato lineup of drinks infuses olive oil into Starbucks’ Caffé Latte, Iced Shaken Espresso and cold foam. The Partanna olive oil is steamed with oat milk for the latte, shaken in the iced espresso drink and infused in vanilla sweet cream foam to create the “golden” foam that tops cold brews.
Starbucks hasn’t shared any details on how successful the line is in Italy, but early reviews in the U.S. press were largely negative. CNN Business said the olive oil “felt like too much,” while the New Yorker said the drink “tasted like a large spoonful of olive oil in coffee.”
The coffee giant plans to bring the Oleato drinks to Japan, the Middle East and the United Kingdom later this year.

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Mortgage demand rose last week, but rising interest rates may stand in the way of stronger volume.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.48% from 6.71%.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home increased 2% from the previous week and were 36% lower than the same week one year ago.

A For Sale sign displayed in front of a home on February 22, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Mortgage demand has increased for three straight weeks now, as interest rates dropped in response to the recent bank failures.
But rates are rising again, and that could put a damper on application volume.

Total mortgage application volume rose 3% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.48% from 6.71%, with points decreasing to 0.66 from 0.79 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. It was the lowest level in a month but still much higher than the same week one year ago, when the rate was about 4.5%.
“Treasury yields declined last week, driven by uncertainty over the health of the banking sector and worries about the broader impact on the economy,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist. “However, mortgage rates have not dropped as much as Treasury rates due to increased MBS market volatility.”
Applications to refinance a home loan increased 5% for the week but were 68% lower than the same week one year ago. Refinance demand is highly sensitive to weekly rate moves, but there are precious few borrowers right now who can still benefit from a refinance at today’s higher interest rates.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home increased 2% from the previous week and were 36% lower than the same week one year ago. Today’s homebuyers may be less influenced by weekly interest rate moves and more influenced by the state of the economy. The stress on the banking sector, high home prices and a tight supply of homes for sale have all been weighing heavily on consumer confidence.

With fears over the banking sector subsiding somewhat, at least in financial markets, mortgage rates moved higher to start this week, according to a separate index from Mortgage News Daily. On Tuesday, it put the average rate at 6.75%.
All ears are on the Federal Reserve, which is expected to raise the federal funds rate by a quarter point, due to the stress on the banking sector. Mortgage rates don’t follow the Fed exactly, but they do respond to its perception of the overall economy.
“Either way, they will also be updating their rate outlook for the coming months/years and that’s arguably even more important than what they do with [the] rate hike,” wrote Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily.  

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Panera Bread is testing Amazon’s palm-scanning technology at two restaurants in St. Louis.
Customers can use their palms to pay for their orders and connect to their loyalty program accounts.
Panera’s loyalty program has more than 52 million members, representing a big expansion opportunity for Amazon One.

A sign is posted on the exterior of a Panera Bread restaurant on November 09, 2021 in Novato, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Panera Bread is piloting Amazon’s palm-scanning technology in St. Louis to offer customers a faster way to connect to their loyalty program and pay.
The bakery-cafe chain, which has long been considered a leader in restaurant technology, is the latest restaurant to use what the tech giant has dubbed Amazon One. It’s already been implemented in dozens of Amazon-owned Whole Foods locations, Amazon Go stores and some stadiums and arenas.

Panera has more than 2,000 locations and its loyalty program has more than 52 million members, representing a big expansion opportunity for Amazon One. A representative for Amazon declined to share data on existing signups for the palm-based payment system.
For now, Panera’s starting small, with just two company-owned restaurants in its hometown of St. Louis.
“We think the payment plus loyalty identification is the secret sauce that can unlock a really personalized, warm and efficient experience for our guests in our cafes,” Panera Chief Digital Officer George Hanson told CNBC.
Panera is looking to expand the test to 10 to 20 more restaurants over the next few months, including some operated by franchisees, according to Hanson.
The palm scanners are located near the restaurant’s registers. To use them, customers need to link their loyalty program accounts to Amazon One, which they can do at home or inside the restaurant. They’ll also need to enable loyalty identification and payment for their accounts.

Privacy concerns

Amazon has faced some backlash from consumers and privacy experts for its use of biometrics, which use biological measurements to identify someone. An Amazon Go customer filed a lawsuit Thursday in New York, alleging the retailer broke the city’s law that requires it to post signs informing customers that it’s using facial recognition.
Security experts have warned that even palm scans can be a risk because that data is stored in the cloud. Last March, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado dropped Amazon One from the venue after privacy groups pushed it to reconsider.
But Hanson said Panera chose Amazon’s technology for three reasons: it’s contactless, customers have to opt in, and a person can’t be identified by their palm alone.
“All of those things are the reasons why we think this particular technology solution is safe, secure and very guest centric,” he said.
For its part, Amazon says that palm images are encrypted and sent to a secure, “custom-built area in the cloud” where the company creates a unique palm signature.
This marks Amazon’s second tech collaboration with a large restaurant company. Starting in late 2021, it started opening pickup cafes with Starbucks using its Amazon Go cashierless technology. Like Panera, the coffee chain has been looking for new ways for customers to pick up their food and drinks quickly and conveniently.
Panera’s tech investments and popular loyalty program may make it more attractive to investors. The restaurant company is currently privately owned by JAB Holding, the investment arm of the Reimann family.
Last year, JAB attempted to take the chain public again through a deal with restaurateur Danny Meyer’s special purpose acquisition company and an initial public offering, but it fell through due to rocky market conditions.
However, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Panera is once again eyeing an IPO, as long as investors have an appetite for one.

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Virgin Orbit is returning a “small” team to work on Thursday, CNBC has learned, as the company aims to prepare for its next rocket launch even as its future remains in doubt.
“Any viable path for our operations will require us to successfully launch,” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart wrote in an email to employees on Tuesday.
The company’s leadership is scrambling to secure a funding lifeline and avoid bankruptcy, CNBC previously reported.

Virgin Orbit flew its modified Boeing 747 airplane “Cosmic Girl” with the company’s LauncherOne rocket under its wing for the first time on November 18, 2018.
Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit is returning a “small” team to work on Thursday, according to a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, as it aims to prepare for its next rocket launch even as its future remains in doubt.
“Any viable path for our operations will require us to successfully launch,” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart wrote in the email to employees.

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Hart described this as a “first step” in an “incremental resumption of operations,” while Virgin Orbit is extending the unpaid furlough and pause in operations for the rest of than more than 750 person company “through at least Monday.”
The company’s leadership is scrambling to secure a funding lifeline and avoid bankruptcy, CNBC previously reported. Hart noted the pause has been “to conserve cash while we work to assess options to secure Virgin Orbit’s future.”
“We’ve made some important progress this week, but there is still work to be done,” Hart wrote.

The modified 737 aircraft “Cosmic Girl” lifts off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California carrying a LauncherOne rocket on June 30, 2021.
Virgin Orbit

A Virgin Orbit spokesperson confirmed in a statement to CNBC that the company is returning a subset of its employees on Thursday, but declined to specify how many are resuming work. Hart’s email said the staff returning will “focus on critical areas for our next mission,” including work on testing and installing the rocket’s engines. Reuters first reported the partial work resumption.

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Virgin Orbit developed a system that uses a modified 747 jet to send satellites into space by dropping a rocket from under the aircraft’s wing mid-flight. But the company’s last mission suffered a mid-flight failure, with an issue during the launch causing the rocket to not reach orbit and crash into the ocean.

In an update last week, Virgin Orbit said its internal investigation is nearly complete, with the rocket for its next launch featuring modifications and “in final stages of integration and test.”
Hart in his email wrote that Virgin Orbit is “facing uncertainty and I know that is very uncomfortable,” noting that employees not returning to work yet can continue to use vacation or sick days to help cover the unpaid time.
The company has been looking for new funds for several months, with majority owner Sir Richard Branson unwilling to fund the company further.

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GameStop posted a quarterly profit for the first time in two years.
The company slashed its inventory levels and costs from a year earlier.
GameStop plans more cost cuts this year.

GameStop on Tuesday posted a quarterly profit for the first time in two years, finishing out its fiscal year on a high note in the holiday quarter after grappling with sales declines, inventory woes and cash flow pressure.
Shares of the company soared more than 45% during after-hours trading.

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7 months ago

For the quarter ended Jan. 28, net sales dropped slightly to $2.23 billion from $2.25 billion in last year’s fourth quarter. The video game retailer also posted a profit of $48.2 million, or 16 cents a share, compared to a loss of $147.5 million, or 49 cents, a year ago.
GameStop did not provide financial guidance and has not done so since the early days of the pandemic. Its results can’t be compared with Wall Street estimates because too few analysts cover the company.
The retailer had been working to steer itself back to profitability, and got there in part by cutting costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $453.4 million for the quarter, or 20.4% of sales, compared to $538.9 million, or 23.9% of sales, in the year-earlier period.

A GameStop store operates in a strip mall on March 16, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

CEO Matt Furlong said on an investor call the company is going into 2023 with further plans to cut excess costs including in European markets, where it has already exited and begun to pull out of some countries. He said that GameStop is also considering bolstering its business with higher margin categories such as toys.
GameStop had previously been riding some short-term, meme-stock momentum, but that has since leveled out and the company has made progress in right-sizing its business by cleaning up its inventory levels and reworking its cost structure.

The stock closed trading on Tuesday at around $18 per share, down dramatically from its 52-week high of nearly $50 about a year ago.
GameStop’s turnaround plan was reinvigorated by a leadership shake-up in 2021 that put Furlong, an Amazon veteran, at the helm and added Ryan Cohen, Chewy founder and former Bed Bath & Beyond activist investor, as board chair. The company also laid off staff and replaced its chief financial officer.
The retailer has been working to revamp its real estate portfolio and increase its online business as the video game industry heads in that direction.
For the full fiscal year, GameStop saw $5.93 billion in sales, down slightly from $6.01 billion in fiscal 2021, and saw increased revenues from its collectibles category, which the retailer is banking will promote long-term growth.
Like many retailers, GameStop experienced supply chain delays that left it with a backlog of inventory after it previously tried to meet high demand. The company is still hanging on to $682.9 million in inventory, which is down from $915 million a year ago, according to its fourth-quarter balance sheet.
As part of its revival strategy, GameStop also has been trying to improve its cash balance. This quarter, its cash and cash equivalents were $1.39 billion.
While managing the burdens of its brick-and-mortar presence, the company has also been working to find its digital identity. So far, those experiments have come with a few missteps.
In September, it launched an ill-fated partnership with the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. The companies had planned to collaborate on e-commerce marketing and GameStop was going to sell FTX gift cards in its stores. Two months later, GameStop tweeted that it would be “winding down” the partnership and refunding anyone who had purchased an FTX gift card in its stores.
In addition, the company has been experimenting with an NFT marketplace since July. That launch came amid chatter of a “crypto winter” as cryptocurrencies experienced a widespread cooldown from their 2021 rallies. The marketplace saw an initial volume surge but has since leveled off and may not be the ticket to a stable digital presence the company had hoped it would be.
Still, Furlong said on a call with investors that compared to 2021, when many “predicted we were heading for bankruptcy,” the company is better positioned.
“GameStop is a much healthier business today than it was at the start of 2021,” he said.

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Nike beat Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue.
The retailer has been contending with a glut of inventory and soft sales in China as the region recovers from the Covid pandemic.
Nike said it is taking a “cautious approach” to planning, given worries about the consumer and the economy.

Nike easily beat Wall Street’s estimates for its holiday quarter earnings and revenue, although its bloated inventory continued to weigh on its margins and sales in China fell short of expectations.
Nike, like other retailers, has been in the process of offloading a glut of inventory brought on by supply chain disruptions and shifting consumer demands that’s been weighing on its margins.

Gross margin fell to 43.3% for the quarter, a decrease of 3.3 percentage points, due to higher markdowns and promotions the company used to liquidate its inventory.
While Nike CEO John Donahoe told investors last quarter he believes the company is past its inventory peak, the company warned gross margins were expected to take a hit during the holiday quarter.
Inventories were up 16% compared with the year ago period at $8.9 billion, which the company attributed to higher product input costs and elevated freight expenses. During an earnings call with investors Tuesday, executives said they’re “increasingly confident” Nike will exit the fiscal year with healthy inventory levels. They also expect to see “even leaner inventory” than they’d anticipated given sales momentum, the executives added.
Here’s how the sneaker giant performed in its third fiscal quarter of 2023 compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 79 cents vs. 55 cents expected
Revenue: $12.39 billion vs. $11.47 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 28 was $1.2 billion, or 79 cents per share, compared with $1.4 billion, or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.

Sales rose to $12.39 billion from $10.87 billion a year earlier.

The road to recovery in China

Nike has been looking for a sales rebound in China, its third-biggest market by revenue, as the region recovers from the Covid pandemic. But those hopes have failed to materialize.
Sales in the region fell 8% during the third quarter to $1.99 billion, despite the end of the country’s zero-Covid policy that had weighed on operations.
Wall Street analysts had anticipated sales in the region of $2.09 billion, according to StreetAccount estimates.
Sales in China have been soft as consumers contended with sweeping lockdowns and rising infections. While some activity has begun to pick up, consumers aren’t back to pre-pandemic shopping levels just yet, according to a Citi research note.
When asked about its outlook on China’s recovery, Nike CEO John Donahoe said the company feels good about its momentum in the region and saw growth “really pick up” in the second month of the quarter after lockdowns ended.
“The fundamentals of this market are good, right? It is a very large market that’s growing. Sport and wellness is a key trend and tailwind there. There’s a desire for innovation and style. And the key to winning in this market is simply put: having great innovation and connecting with Chinese consumers in a locally relevant way,” Donahoe said.
Outside China, Nike saw double-digit sales increases in all of its other markets. Sales in North America were up 27% and in Europe, Middle East and Africa, revenue jumped 17% compared with the year-ago period. In Asia Pacific and Latin America, sales were up 10%.
Citing its strong performance in the quarter, Nike now expects fiscal year revenue to grow by high single digits, compared to mid single digit guidance it gave in the prior quarter. It expects gross margins to decline by 2.5 percentage points, which is the low end of the previous guidance range given and reflects Nike’s ongoing efforts to liquidate excess inventory, along with other costs.
In the next quarter, Nike expects flat to low single digit revenue growth. Finance chief Matthew Friend said the company is taking a “cautious approach” to planning, given uncertainty about consumer confidence and the economy.
“We have managed through cycles like this before and we will be well prepared for the volatility that is in font of us,” he said. 

DTC vs wholesale

People wearing protective face masks walk past the closed Nike store on 5th Avenue, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York City, May 11, 2020.
Mike Segar | Reuters

For the last several years, Nike has been working to build out its direct-to-consumer sales and has invested heavily in the channel by building out experiential stores, developing its loyalty program and growing its e-commerce sales.
The investments into its DTC channel has come at a cost, but sales have continued to grow. Nike Direct sales were up 17% during the holiday quarter to $5.3 billion and Nike digital sales jumped 20%. Digital sales represented 27% of sales, up from 9% at the end of fiscal 2019.
Selling and administrative expenses were up 15% to $4 billion, the bulk of which was related to wage-related expenses and Nike Direct costs. The company expects full year expenses to be up 10%.
Nike has, over the last two quarters, relied on partnerships with wholesalers to offload inventory. Wholesale revenues were up 12% in the quarter, following 19% growth during the previous quarter.
On Monday, Foot Locker CEO Mary Dillon touted a “renewed” and revitalized relationship with Nike, its biggest brand partner.
However, the company said it reduced its inventory commitments for spring and summer so it can work through its excess inventories. It expects wholesale revenue to “moderate” for the next few quarters.

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Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is being sued by his ex-girlfriend for at least $40 million over claims he used a recording of her voice without permission or compensation.
The voice recording can be heard on two of Bad Bunny’s hit songs: “Pa Ti” and “Dos Mil 16.”
Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist on Spotify for the past three years and is set to headline the 2023 Coachella music festival next month.

Bad Bunny performs during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2023.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is being sued by his ex-girlfriend for $40 million over claims he used a recording of her voice without permission or compensation.
Carliz De La Cruz Hernández claims that in 2015, prior to her split with Bad Bunny — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — and before his rise to international fame, she recorded the phrase “Bad Bunny baby” on her phone.

That voice recording, she says, has been used on two of the Grammy-award winning artist’s songs, his 2017 single “Pa Ti” and the 2022 song “Dos Mil 16.” Both tracks have more than 200 million plays each on Spotify and the latter appears on the chart-topping album “Un Verano Sin Ti.”
According to court documents filed in Puerto Rico earlier this month, De La Cruz said she came up with the phrase and her “distinguishable voice” is being used without her permission. Her lawyers argue Bad Bunny’s use violates Puerto Rico’s “law of the right to own image.”
“Thousands of people have commented directly on Carliz’s social media networks, as well as every time she goes to a public place, about ‘Bad Bunny baby,'” the lawsuit states. “This has caused, and currently causes, De La Cruz to feel worried, anguished, intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious.” 
De la Cruz and Bad Bunny dated on and off starting in 2011, according to the lawsuit. She alleges in the court documents that Bad Bunny offered her $2,000 to buy the recording in 2022 but she declined. A deal was never reached and he then went ahead and used the recording without her express permission, according to the lawsuit.
De la Cruz is now seeking at least $40 million.

Bad Bunny, 29, has not publicly addressed the lawsuit. His label, Rimas Entertainment, and his manager, Noah Kamil Assad Byrne, are also named in the suit. CNBC reached out to Rimas Entertainment for comment.
Bad Bunny rose to prominence in 2018 after being featured on the Cardi B chart-topper “I Like It.” He’s since become one of the most prolific hit makers in Latin music and was the most-streamed artist on Spotify for the past three years.
Bad Bunny is set to headline the 2023 Coachella music festival next month.

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The National Women’s Soccer League kicks off its season Saturday.
The league is expected to sign a new media deal this season.
The league has grown a great deal as it looks to change the narrative of professional women’s soccer.

OL Reign forward Sofia Huerta (11) and Portland Thorns FC forward Sophia Smith (9) battle for the ball during a NWSL match between the Portland Thorns and the OL Reign on March 18, 2022 at Lumen Field in Seattle, WA.
Jeff Halstead | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The National Women’s Soccer League’s eleventh season kicks off Saturday, and investors will be paying close attention to the league to see whether it can capitalize on all of the changes that Commissioner Jessica Berman made during her first year on the job.
Last year was transformative for women’s professional soccer, as Berman took the helm of an organization that had been plagued with problems ranging from accusations of emotional and sexual abuse and sexism, and an overall lack of confidence in the league.

The NWSL hired Berman, who was a labor lawyer at Proskauer Rose for 13 years, in March 2022, from her role as deputy commissioner of the Premier Lacrosse League. Her biggest priorities? Restore faith in women’s soccer and grow the business.
Since then, the commissioner has made changes to not only drastically transform the culture of the league but also supersize the business through its infrastructure, staffing and rules. Sports Business Journal named her the “Best Hire of the Year” for 2022. 
It’s all led to a pivotal moment for the league, as it looks to add more teams and its media deal is up for grabs. Then, this summer, the FIFA Women’s World Cup will put the league’s talent on display – about 25% to 30% of NWSL’s players will travel to Australia and New Zealand for the tournament.
At the moment, the league has momentum. Berman told reporters Tuesday that business is strong and ticket sales are rising.
“Attendance and ticket sales are really the rocket fuel that will grow this league,” she said. “We’re up 20% in season ticket holders on a league-wide basis.”

Building on a strong year

More than 1 million fans attended matches last year, the league said, as nearly every market grew following the pandemic. Attendance was up about 80% in 2022, while ticketing revenue grew more than 125%, according to NWSL.
Sponsorship revenue also surged 87% last year, Berman said. The league averaged 37 sponsorship deals per team, which is more than any other women’s sport, according to sports data and intelligence platform Sponsor United. The league also plans to expand to 14 teams from 12 beginning next year.
The NWSL just signed a deal to bring soccer back to Utah with a new ownership group in a deal reportedly worth between $2 million and $5 million, a major bargain that had been part of a deal negotiated in 2020, before team valuations started to soar.
The league is also in advanced discussions to further expand in San Francisco for 2024, followed by Boston, which is launching “later,” both with a whopping $50 million franchise tag, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Women’s pro soccer valuations are also soaring. It used to take a few million dollars to get in on the league. Today, Angel City FC, based in Los Angeles, is valued at $100 million, according to Sportico.

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman speaks during the 2023 NWSL Draft at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on January 12, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Tim Nwachukwu | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Athletes, celebrities and investors all want a piece of the action. Big name investors include everyone from Eli Manning, Kevin Durant, Sue Bird, Natalie Portman and Jennifer Garner.
“I think, if anything that we’ve learned in the last 11 months, which is that the market will tell us our value so long as we give it the appropriate opportunity to produce that value. And everything that I’ve seen, has validated that,” Berman said.
The league is busy looking for new ownership groups in Chicago and Portland after a yearlong investigation. Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler both announced in December, they would be selling their teams.
Berman said the vetting stages for new ownership groups in Chicago and Portland are in “advanced stages,” and they aren’t going to set an “artificial deadline.” She said it’s about putting the right person in place who is not just well resourced but also willing to invest in the club to provide a professional environment.
“The old ways of doing business are probably no longer applicable,” Berman said. “We’re not going to close deals in 30 to 60 days. We’re dealing with really sophisticated people who appropriately have questions,” she added.
Berman says they are not looking for the quick win when it comes to ownership, rather finding the right partner.
“We’re looking to go from a mentality of surviving to thriving,” she said. “I think all of that requires a changes in mentality, culture and expectations.”
As part of that transformation, Berman and the league are investing heavily.
The league recently moved its headquarters to Madison Avenue in New York from Chicago. It is also beefing up staff, doubling the number of people in the league office in order to support all the new initiatives they are working on. Berman said multiple teams have doubled or tripled their investment into staffing as well.
“These little things actually matter in terms of having people feel professional and valued,” she said.
In January, ahead of the NWSL draft, Berman outlined major updates to the salary cap. Each team will see a 25% increase from $1.1 million per year in 2022 to $1.375 million in 2023.

Media deal up for grabs

Viewership for NWSL matches also rose 30% last year on Paramount +.
Last year’s championship, which aired in primetime thanks to sponsor Ally Financial upping its financial commitment, was the most-watched game in league history, with a 71% increase in viewership. Paramount+ said it was the most streamed NWSL matched ever, even though it was up against Game 1 of the World Series and a college football game between rivals Michigan and Michigan State.
These metrics should come in handy as the league’s three-year, $4.5 million deal with Paramount Global, which also owns CBS, is set to expire at the end of the new season.
Berman said she’s had robust conversations about the rights, and said there are several interested parties.
“We think that there are some really interesting opportunities here and overseas to consider as we think about growing our brand globally and really claiming our space as the best league in the world,” she said.
The league also announced a recent partnership with EA Sports to feature NWSL players and clubs in EA Sports FIFA game for the first time ahead of a new season.

Culture change

OL Reign forward Megan Rapinoe (15) scores on a penalty kick during the second half of the National Womens Soccer League game between NJ/NY Gotham FC and OL Reign on September 21, 2022 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.
Rich Graessle | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The NWSL’s culture is under the microscope, as well.
The league is implementing major reforms – from new mandatory training sessions, the addition of anonymous hotlines, player surveys, safety officers, mental health benefits and more.
The league was involved in a yearlong investigation after two former players came forward and accused longtime coach Paul Riley of sexual harassment. Sally Yates, a former top Justice Department official, conducted her own investigation, as well. The reports confirmed the allegations of systemic abuse, sexual misconduct and found “widespread misconduct” in more than half of the league’s teams.
Berman took swift action following the findings, making changes in personnel, putting new infrastructure in place to prevent future problems and issuing massive fines to the offending teams. The NWSL permanently banned Riley and three other coaches who were accused of misconduct. Riley has denied the accusations.
“The teams are really welcoming of the increased focus and support in this area knowing that it is really sort of table stakes as we think about the growth of the league,” Berman said.
Berman spent much of her first year as commissioner on a “listening tour,” meeting with players, coaches and executives to hear “first-hand experiences” and what needs to change.
Today, Berman hopes the new changes and protections will position the league for success.
Berman said she’s heard from players that they are tired from the burdens of having to carry some of weight of culture challenges and reforms.
“I think it’s their hope that we the league and through ownership and management can really take on the burden and work behind the scenes to offer the playing environment that meets the standard that I’ve committed to, which is a place that makes the players proud to play,” Berman said.

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