Strategy is by its very nature based on longer-term thinking, and for most of its history, the NWSL for multiple reasons hasn’t been equipped to be truly strategic. Resources couldn’t be spared for the future, the vanishingly small front office for the league (not to mention most clubs) didn’t have the time to work on projects beyond what was needed for a given single season, and in plenty of cases, those involved frankly weren’t particularly inclined towards strategic thinking.
However, as the league has started to find firm enough ground to stand on, things are starting to change. Commissioner Jessica Berman has justifiably touted a doubling of league staff, a sign that the league has the money and wherewithal to spread its myriad tasks out, and get more things done.
One of those new hires is also the first-ever former NWSL player to take a job with the league itself. Carlin Hudson, who spent four seasons in the league with the North Carolina Courage and Washington Spirit, was hired last year as the NWSL’s new director of strategy. A league press release described her role as one that “will oversee the facilitation and execution of the NWSL’s strategic initiatives across the league and its member clubs. She will also oversee the cataloging, analyzing, and sharing of key lessons and resources and provide insights and guidance to advance the league’s success, credibility, and strategic priorities.”
In an interview with Pro Soccer Wire, Hudson said even though she knew she wanted a career in sports, taking that step from player to league employee was not something she could do without observing major progress from the NWSL.
“I definitely don’t take it lightly that I’m the first player to work at the league,” said Hudson. “In previous years, there was a lot more sense of league versus players, and it’s almost like if I had joined previously, you’re crossing that line. But I had, and have, so much faith in Jessica and how much she is working to establish that trust with players, and how much I saw in my interviews that the league was heading in that direction, that I knew that joining the league meant that I would be a part of that growth and trajectory towards being player-first and making it a situation [where] players are proud to represent the NWSL, and feel like the NWSL is making the experience that they deserve.”
For Hudson, the desire to work for the league was born out of her own experiences as a player, and knowing that her non-soccer skills might contribute to a better environment on all fronts.
“It’s a very unique situation where you become a professional athlete, and there’s a lot of glitz and glamour that’s in your head, what you think that’s going to look like,” said Hudson, who played for two coaches (Paul Riley and Richie Burke) who were banned by the league in the aftermath of the Sally Yates investigation and the joint investigation produced by the NWSL Players’ Association and the league.
“I knew coming out of [my playing career], for a multitude of reasons — and I would say it’s not inclusive but not limited to coaching staff — that my experience could have been better. It could have been more what I thought of when I thought of being a professional athlete.”
With that in mind, Hudson was very clear about what motivated her to come back to a league that she would have been justified in putting in the rearview mirror.
“I immediately was at [management consultants Bain & Company] with the perspective of [wanting] to go back to the NWSL because I wanted to make being a professional women’s soccer player in the U.S. everything that I dreamt it was going to be, everything that any professional athlete deserves,” explained Hudson. “I want to make sure that [the NWSL] grows so that kids that are playing soccer now — when I was growing up, I didn’t have the dream of being a professional soccer player, just because I didn’t know what that looked like — I want to show those kids what that looks like, and have them aspire to be that, and when in 20 years they are ready to turn pro, have the league be that pro experience that they always thought it was going to be, and really grow those brands, grow the attendance in those stadiums. Have it be that you are starting a game and you have chills, because of how incredible it is to be a professional athlete.”
Hudson’s hiring was announced in December, and she says she’d gotten one week into the job before the joint investigation was released on December 14.
Understandably, Hudson had to quickly sharpen her focus on the systemic reforms required by the report as quickly as possible. That meant tackling the professional challenges, but also the trauma of simply reading the specific abuses around the league.
“It’s a really hard read,” said Hudson. “I think all of those reports are hard reads. So, it’s emotionally challenging to read it and rebound, because we need to act quickly for our players… It was really heavy, I think for everybody in the league office, knowing what we had to do, but also having to face those facts. It didn’t really provide [time] for a slow build into it. I think immediately there was so much to do. I was head-down in it and thinking across, where we even start, how we get some of these things done, what it’s going to take across some bigger ideas, what it’s going to take, things that we need to do.”
Hudson said that as the league has implemented processes to prevent further abuses, her remit has expanded to include more than just the league’s needed systemic reform.
“When I joined, I had a few different directives, and one of them is really the essence of what you would think of when you think director of strategy, which is setting the long-term strategic plan for the league,” said Hudson. “Having had the consulting background, and a lot of that is project management, one skill that I think is unique to that position is being able to take something that feels so big, like systemic reform, and being able to really distill it down into what that means, and what different actions need to be taken across the league, and where that lives in each of the different departments. Because a lot of times we have that knowledge, we just don’t really know how to activate it.”
Still, even as she diversified her list of tasks to tackle, Hudson said the league’s need for systemic reform underpinned its strategy on all fronts.
The reports are “not thinking about that long-term strategy,” noted Hudson, but still must be incorporated into the league’s vision for its future. “[The findings are] obviously critical to being able to have a long-term strategy, because without having all those things in place, there’s really no foundation to build the strategy on.”
Hudson’s path to the NWSL was a bit circuitous, but in a way familiar to soccer players: she started at Bain & Company, then joined U.S. Soccer for a six-month externship (in Hudson’s own words, “I was on loan to U.S. Soccer from Bain”). There, she crossed paths with Berman, who as NWSL commissioner sits on U.S. Soccer’s board.
“It’s almost serendipitous the way that things fell together, finding myself in this position,” said Hudson. “The fact that I met Jessica because she sits on the board at U.S. Soccer was also something that was perfect, because then she was hiring a director of strategy, and reached out to me, and the timing was ideal. As they were opening up a New York office, I was moving back to New York. So the pieces fell into place in a way that I wasn’t expecting, but in a way that I am very happy about.”
According to Berman, Hudson’s status as an ex-player is “a plus,” but was not the entire reason why she was hired.
“Carlin brings a unique background to her role,” Berman told reporters at a press conference ahead of the 2023 NWSL draft. “Her primary qualifications for what she does, is the fact that she has experience from a consulting firm: she spent three years at Bain, and spent the six months before she joined us as an extern at U.S. Soccer. Those are her primary qualifications for the role. Of course, with the work that she does, she brings forward a player-first lens to the strategic work that she’s leading.”
Next steps include shared best practices
As for the league’s next steps, Hudson said that since the institution of systemic reforms is under way, the league has found itself in a “more steady state,” which opens up internal discussions of “how we show up either as a global brand, as an American sports league and navigating all the nuance, I would say, behind where we sit.”
Hudson said that one concept the NWSL has started to roll out is their own version of the NBA’s Team Marketing & Business Operations arm, which is a league department that discovers and refines best practices so that every team can grow from one team’s discoveries off the field.
Hudson said that while the NWSL is under no illusions that it’s a like-for-like application, the principle behind it makes lots of sense for a league where there is a major variance in how much a given team has broken through locally or nationally.
“We’re seeing success in the league. The rising tide lifts all boats, right?” said Hudson, who said the project will include clubs who find a successful method doing presentations to inform other teams on what steps to take. “We have this big question of growing the league. So strategically, that’s where we want to go, we want to be the best league in the world. We want to grow our audience. There’s so many different priorities in there, it can feel almost paralyzing at times. So, how do we really narrow it down, and first get the low-hanging fruit? What are key actions that every club should be taking in order to maximize on these specific attendance metrics that they’re trying to hit, or revenue metrics they’re trying to hit?”
Berman said that she considers Hudson wanting to work for the league as a “litmus test” for whether the NWSL is heading in a direction that gives players confidence.
“I am proud to have hired the first former player, and I know it won’t be the last former player we hire. At the championship, I was contacted by some former players and some players who are nearing the end of their career, to talk about future opportunities both in the league and at teams,” said Berman, who added that another NWSL project is “building out an alumni relations function” that connects with former players from the NWSL and its predecessor leagues, Women’s Professional Soccer and the Women’s United Soccer Association.
In other words, the proof as to whether the NWSL is moving towards being everything it wants to be — the world’s best soccer league, a truly professional environment, and above all a safe and healthy place to work — may best be evidenced by players who experienced those failures gauging current progress and opting in.
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