Ted Lasso Returns for Season 4, Shifting Focus to Women’s Soccer’s $205 Million Reality
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 6
Ted Lasso Returns for Season 4, Shifting Focus to Women’s Soccer’s $205 Million Reality
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 6
Summary
Season 4 sends “Ted Lasso” into women’s soccer instead of AFC Richmond’s men’s team, framing the new run around the sport’s rapid rise and the financial strain of building clubs.
That shift mirrors a transformed market: NWSL expansion fees have jumped from about $2 million in 2020 to as high as $205 million for 2028 entrants, with new stadiums and training facilities following.
Kansas City Current’s purpose-built stadium and Michele Kang’s $35 million Washington Spirit takeover illustrate the U.S. investment boom that helped make women’s soccer a stronger business case.
England remains less mature commercially, even as Alexis Ohanian’s 8% Chelsea Women stake valued the club at £245 million, because many WSL teams still depend on men’s clubs and face thinner crowds.
The show’s test is whether it can portray that tension honestly—women’s soccer as a fast-growing cultural force still constrained by unequal investment, inconsistent infrastructure and a men’s-game-first ecosystem.