Ted Lasso and what promotion means in the women’s game
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for this week’s episode of Ted Lasso.
Much of the fourth season of “Ted Lasso” has shown the AFC Richmond Women struggling with the realities of second-division women’s soccer. Limited budgets, second jobs, lack of childcare.
Eight episodes in, however, things are looking up. Promotion to the top flight is suddenly within reach for Ted’s underdogs.
And for the Lady Greyhounds, promotion would mean much more than a banner around Nelson Road Stadium or moving up in the English football pyramid. It could change what it means to be real professional players.
Promotion is a big deal in English football. On the men’s side, they call the Championship playoff final the “world’s richest match.” Every May, two clubs meet at Wembley in a contest to secure the last available place in the Premier League. There is a trophy, of course. There are medals, champagne, and supporters crying in the stands.
But there is also an enormous amount of money that changes the stakes considerably.
When Hull City beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the 2026 Championship playoff final, promotion to the Premier League was expected to produce a revenue uplift of at least $275million (roughly £205m) over the following three seasons,according toDeloitte’s Sports Business Group. If the promoted club survived its first season in the Premier League, the benefit could rise to around $490m.
Promotion changes everything: Better competition, better broadcast revenue, more attractive sponsorship inventory, the ability to recruit better players, and, of course, bragging rights for the fans. Ultimately, it realizes the potential to build a bigger business.
But how much is promotion to the top flight worth for women’s teams? Is it similarly financially transformative?
Those questions are pertinent to those of us following the fortunes of Richmond Women. The Lady Greyhounds began the season as a collection of amateurs and rookie players, some working second jobs, some struggling to pay for housing, and one wondering whether football was financially sustainable enough to put law school on hold.
Eight episodes later, they have climbed the second division table through thick and thin, turning what once seemed like Ted Lasso’s signature upbeat philosophy into the possibility of reaching the top flight of English women’s football.
But what would it mean for a real-life AFC Richmond Women to compete in the Women’s Super League?
The financial chasm between the men’s and women’s games remains almost comically large. But promotion from England’s second division to the WSL can still change a women’s club’s trajectory. And few teams illustrate that better than London City Lionesses.
London City won promotion to the WSL in May 2025 in circumstances Hollywood could have written itself. They entered the final day needing a result away against Birmingham City, their direct rival for automatic promotion. In front of 8,749 people at St Andrew’s, Isobel Goodwin put London City ahead with a 25-yard strike. Birmingham responded. London City went ahead again. Birmingham equalized again. The game ended with a 2-2 tie, but that single point was enough.
London City were champions and, for the first time in club history,heading to the Women’s Super League.
However, there was no $275million check waiting for them.
The WSL’s five-year $86million television agreement with Sky Sports is expected to distribute roughly $1million annually to each top-flight club, roughly three times more than clubs in the WSL2, which receive approximately $360,000 a year. The top flight also signed a four-year deal with CBS Sports to broadcast their games in the U.S.
But looking only at broadcasting revenue misses what promotion can really be worth in women’s football.
London City is the best example. Owner Michele Kang (who also owns France’s OL Lyonnais and NWSL’s Washington Spirit) has been spending heavily to build the club since acquiring it in 2023. During the 2024-25 promotion season, London City generated only about $1.2million in revenue while recording a $14m operating loss. Kang’sYMK Holdings injected $17m into the club that year. London City didn’t get rich by reaching the WSL. They spent heavily to get there.
But it paid off. Promotion gave them a much bigger platform to build on. Their first season in the WSL ended with a sixth-place finish. This summer,they recruited players who would have been beyond their wildest dreams a couple of years before: Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Mary Earps and Kadidiatou Diani were among the names brought to Bromley in their corner of London.
Then came a landmark agreement.
This month, the clubannounced a multi-year deal making Nike the club’s front-of-shirt partner, the first partnership of its kind for the company. Nike also extended its deal to make London City’s kits until 2032.
Promotion did not magically deposit hundreds of millions into London City’s bank account. It changed what London City could sell: Access to the best players of the game and to one of the biggest women’s football leagues in the world.
Bigger players can bring bigger audiences, which can attract bigger sponsors, helping generate more revenue to fund moves for better players. That flywheel is precisely what Kang is trying to accelerate.
And increasingly, larger sums are available in the league they fought so hard to reach. WSL clubs generated $120million in revenue during 2024-25, according toDeloitte, up 39 percent from $86m the previous season. Commercial revenue alone jumped by $20m to $54million.
There is an irony here that “Ted Lasso” has spent much of this season setting up.
A few episodes ago, Richmond’s players were worrying about whether they could afford to be footballers. Lizzie brought her child to training when her childcare plans fell apart. Shannon delivered food. Boots couldn’t afford to fix her car. Gemma was considering a law internship. “Welcome to second-division football,” Shannon said when a customer was surprised to see a professional footballer delivering his food. Promotion would not instantly solve all of those problems.
At the end of this episode, AFC Richmond aren’t playing in the richest game in football.
Not even close.
The WSL is not the Premier League. Its clubs are not swimming in television money. London City’s own experience demonstrates that competing at the highes
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.