Touchwood alert! But it almost seems as if the Washington Spirit have unlocked all the doors to success after their quest for revenge in the NWSL Challenge Cup against Orlando Pride came to success. The Washington D.C.-based club kicked off its season on a high note, securing a narrow yet comfortable 2-1 away win over Houston Dash. However, along with the crucial three points came a significant revenue boost for the Spirit.

As per the reports stated by Sports Business Journal, they have witnessed an impressive 71% surge in their season-ticket base for the 2025 NWSL season. This feat has been marked as the largest year-over-year growth ever in the league by president Kim Stone. Interestingly, this feat also comes on the heels of a 30% rise in attendance last season—Stone’s first full year as president under Michele Kang’s ownership—bringing the club’s average crowd to 13,952 per game, the fourth highest in the NWSL.

“It was having a longer sales cycle, having a full staff and then being very strategic in what products and when we were out selling in the market,” Stone said while addressing the factors behind the season ticket growth. “We did a traditional renewal campaign during the season — we had 93% renewal rate for season tickets. But we did that in late summer, so that gave us the rest of summer and fall, including the playoffs, to be selling people on season-ticket packages when you have that enthusiasm.

Notably, Kim Stone revealed that the club has also witnessed a major boost in sponsorship revenue by 18% for the 2025 season. It came after the shift of sales operations in-house in late 2024. Extended thanks go to new sponsorship deals that the Spirit acquired from Audi, iHeartMedia, and James Creek Marina. In fact, two more are set to be revealed this week. But Octagon, which previously handled sponsorship sales as the team’s agency of record, still maintains a working relationship with the club.

As for the season ticket boost, credit goes to the Spirit for implementing various strategies to keep fans engaged. One such initiative is the introduction of a pregame tailgate experience at Sandlot DC, aptly named ‘Rowdy Audi.’ This high-energy matchday atmosphere features live DJs and interactive activities.

Additionally, they are marketing their three ‘Friday Night Futbol’ matches to young adults looking for an exciting way to kick off their weekends. Either way, it’s quite interesting how all these initiatives have worked in their favor. Of course, they should, considering home games are the only place where they can capitalize on such opportunities!

Away games don’t go in Washington Spirit’s way!

Kicking off the season in an away setting is something that could have been a concern for the Washington Spirit. However, their recent victory against the Houston Dash should provide a significant confidence boost. The reason for this is simple—their struggles on the road last season. During the 2024 regular season, the Spirit recorded two draws and six defeats, with more than half of those losses coming in away games (one draw and four defeats).

Additionally, they suffered a Championship loss on the road against Orlando before finally breaking the curse with a Challenge Cup triumph. Interestingly, this issue was also highlighted by Spirit boss Jonatan Giráldez. “We know how difficult it is, especially on away games. Last season we won a lot of games at home, but we needed to improve the performance playing away,” admitted the Spanish tactician.

Further stressing over the importance of maintaining a balance of winning games, he added, “If we can maintain the level playing at home, then we are going to win a lot of games, but if we improve the level playing away, for sure we are going to do a better season [than 2024].” Either way, let’s hope that the Spirit doesn’t repeat these mistakes.