Men in Blazers becomes an official NWSL media partner with support from Ally

The GIST: In an exclusive with The GIST today, soccer media company Men in Blazers (MiB) announced it will become an official media partner of the NWSL. Its coverage will be led by women’s soccer vertical The Women’s Game (TWG), run by former USWNT star Sam Mewis, who spoke to The GIST yesterday about her experience with the company. Game recognize game.

The details: MiB will now be able to use in-game footage on social media and in video broadcasts, and will work with the NWSL to activate with shared brand partners, including Ally Financial, which is also a presenting partner of this deal. To kick off the partnership, MiB will be present at NWSL Championship Weekend in Kansas City later this month.

The company: Beginning as a solo podcast in 2010, MiB is now the largest independent soccer-focused media network in the U.S. It had an annual audience of 30M in 2022 through over 200 network podcasts, which averaged over 1M monthly downloads in 2023.

The vertical: During the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Mewis ran successful Twitch broadcasts, which blossomed into her own women’s soccer vertical (TWG) in January. Within six months with Mewis as editor-in-chief, TWG’s social channels aggregated 100K followers and registered about 100M impressions, while its podcast has maintained a Top-5 ranking among soccer pods.

• Mewis noted how TWG has succeeded by shooting live postgame reaction shows, which “have proven to be a really effective way of both bringing a community of fans together around our content, and also bringing brands the opportunity to be part of the biggest moments in women's soccer.”

Zooming out: This partnership is a major score for MiB as it expands into the women’s soccer space and should also prove crucial for the NWSL’s efforts to broaden its audience. According to Mewis, it “presents a unique opportunity to be exposed to a market of soccer fans in the U.S. that may not have found the NWSL yet,” while also providing existing women’s soccer fans with additional coverage and content. Obsessed.