Photograph Copyright Rob Kinnan for USA TODAY Sports activities

The North Carolina Braveness franchise is likely one of the most profitable in Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League historical past. Because the workforce’s official arrival out there in 2017 — contemporary off a 2016 championship because the Western New York Flash — North Carolina has received the NWSL Defend thrice, the NWSL Championship twice, and the Problem Cup as soon as. The Braveness have made the playoffs in all however one season, they usually’re a pressure to be reckoned with in 2023, sitting atop the desk over midway by means of the season.

Regardless of their on-field successes, the Braveness’s existence within the Triangle area of North Carolina isn’t fairly frequent data. The workforce ranks eleventh of 12 within the league in common attendance this yr, a tangible signal of its challenges. Over the previous yr, Braveness officers have made modifications to the gameday expertise to draw extra followers to WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, simply outdoors of Raleigh. These stay a piece in progress.

Looming over the person modifications is the overarching query confronted by not solely the Braveness, however a number of NWSL groups within the league’s new, formidable period: How will they sustain?