List of soccer clubs in the United States
In late 2012, a totally new top-level league was created, known as the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was run by U.S. Soccer until 2020, and started play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which had been members of WPS. The league added teams in 2014 and 2016 to become a 10-team league, making it the first professional women's league in the U.S. to have more than eight teams and last more than three seasons. The league dropped to 9 teams in 2017, but returned to 10 in 2021 and further expanded to 12 for 2022.