The World Sevens women's tournament crowned its second champion Sunday as the innovative seven-on-seven event for professional soccer clubs made its U.S. debut with teams from North, Central and South America.
The NWSL's San Diego Wave defeated Mexico's Tigres UANL 3-0 in Sunday's final of the three-day tournament, played in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The prize purse for the tournament was $5 million, with $2 million going to the Wave.
The first World Sevens tournament was held in Portugal in May, featuring mostly European teams. The winner was Germany's Bayern Munich women.
World Sevens is not traditional soccer: The fast-paced matches are just 30 minutes long, with two 15-minute halves, and played on a smaller pitch. There is no offsides and unlimited rolling substitutions. The atmosphere in Fort Lauderdale was festive, with blaring music throughout and dancing player walk-outs onto the field.
World Sevens is somewhat similar to Unrivaled, the three-on-three women's basketball tournament founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart that gives WNBA players an offseason opportunity to supplement their incomes.
Both tournaments capitalize on the growing interest in women's sports.
“I know how hard these women’s teams are working to try to build their clubs and their brands for their players and we saw this platform as a great opportunity to be able to help these clubs and these players get in front of as many fans as possible,” said World Sevens co-founder Jen Mackesy, who is also a minority investor in the NWSL club Gotham FC.
In addition to the Wave and Tigres, the other teams that participated were Mexico’s Club America, Colombia’s Deportivo Cali, Brazil’s Flamengo, Uruguay’s Nacional, Canada’s SFC Toronto and the NWSL’s Kansas City Current.
The matches were broadcast for free on the streaming platform DAZN, as well as on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max. Sponsors included Ally Financial and Invisalign.
"I do think based on where we are in this moment, it’s the perfect opportunity to do something unique and special and innovative on the women’s side," said Sarah Cummins, World Sevens chief executive officer. “I think that the reception and the partnerships that we’ve gotten from the leagues, whether it’s the NWSL, the WSL, Liga MX, every league that we’ve spoken to understands the value and sees what we can do to help those leagues build and grow."
In addition to future tournaments, organizers also hinted at possible expansion. The events can provide fans an in-person look at players and clubs they might normally not see. It also gives bench players additional opportunities for playing time. And the prize money is certainly attractive to teams.
“We love what we’ve done so far, we want to replicate it but in addition to expanding we want to create regional tournaments and be able to bring this format and World Sevens football all over the world to different leagues all over the world," Mackesy said. “So we’re open to any opportunities and we’ve gotten tremendous interest from a number of different regions and clubs and leagues."
