SAN JOSE -- Gotham FC completed a Cinderella run from No. 8 seed to champions on Saturday night, defeating the Washington Spirit 1-0 in the NWSL Championship in San Jose. The match drew a sellout crowd of 18,000 at PayPal Park, home of the NWSL’s Bay FC and MLS’ Earthquakes.
U.S. women’s national team standout Rose Lavelle earned MVP honors after giving Gotham the advantage with a go-ahead goal in the 79th minute. Lavelle is represented by Remington Ellis Management.
For the Sprit, it is the second consecutive trip to the final that ended in a 1-0 loss. There’s also concern that it may have been Trinity Rodman’s final game in the NWSL with her contract now expired.
While Saturday marked Gotham’s second championship in three years after winning in 2023, it is the first under the controlling ownership of Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, who took over about a week later. She was joined at the match by a large contingent of family, as well as other members of the Gotham FC ownership group: alternate governor Ed Nalbandian, N.J. first lady and founding owner Tammy Murphy and Basketball HOFer and investor Sue Bird.
In an interview with SBJ ahead of the championship, Tisch Blodgett said she came on board as a dispassionate investor with no particular interest in soccer. She characterized the past two years as a complete overhaul of the organization, something that has been more difficult than she imagined, but “the most gratifying thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
“On the business side, it was really a start over,” Tisch Blodgett said. “There was no infrastructure, there was no office, people were using their own laptops. So, we came in and said, ‘We need to go build a professional sports organization.’”
That has included bringing in a slew of new executive talent, including CBO Ryan Dillon, COO Kari Fleischauer and CRO Alex Chang, who joined the organization just three weeks ago.
Gotham’s attendance at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J., is up 41% over the past two seasons to 8,892. That’s still below the league average of 10,669 but represents progress. The team has revamped its approach to ticketing, creating a status-symbol membership program called The Blueprint that is limited to just 5,000 fans and signed key sponsorship agreements with CarMax (front-of-kit renewal), Dove (back of kit) and nutrition brand Grüns. It also quietly dropped “NJ/NY” from its moniker.
The organizational transformation will be plain to see Monday, when N.Y. City Hall hosts the team and fans for a championship celebration. That might seem standard, but Gotham failed to hold a celebration for fans in the aftermath of their 2023 victory. It appears the organization planned ahead this time, as Mayor Eric Adams announced the event moments after the win.
