PHILADELPHIA – At U.S. Soccer’s Beyond the 90 summit on Wednesday morning, more than 700 stakeholders and partners from across the American soccer ecosystem convened at the Fillmore Philadelphia to hear from a collection of American soccer leaders, including Blank Family of Businesses Owner and Chairman Arthur M. Blank, U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Commissioner Jessica Berman.
The event came just 12 hours after the U.S. Women’s National Team constructed a rousing second-half comeback in a 2-2 draw against top-ranked Spain, treating a crowd of nearly 19,000 fans at nearby Subaru Park to an instant classic. One of the highlights of the summit was the announcement of the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, a first-of-its-kind tournament that will bring together women’s soccer teams from across the nation to crown a singular national champion.
“The Crest Cup is a tremendous collaboration from the league and the clubs, especially [Arthur Blank and Jessica Berman], as well as the owners of the clubs, both in the USL and the NWSL, to create this amazing competition, the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup,” Parlow Cone explained. “I’m really excited about this because it’s the first time we’ll bring both of our professional women’s Division I leagues together to play against each other in a high-stakes environment. It’s win or go home. This will lead to being able to compete in the Concacaf W Champions Cup, and then one day in the future, [earn a berth in] the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.”
Similar to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on the men’s side, the Crest Cup will feature every professional team from the NWSL and Gainbridge Super League in a single-elimination knockout format, culminating in a championship final. Backed by the continued collaboration between U.S. Soccer and Arthur M. Blank, the Crest Cup will award the winning team a record-setting prize of $1.1 million, while simultaneously serving as a pathway to qualification for the Concacaf W Champions Cup, the continent’s premier women’s club competition.
The tournament sets a new standard across women’s domestic cup competitions, providing teams with an opportunity to capture a new trophy, a prize that rivals that of other domestic cup competition across the world, and offers more teams a pathway to international competition in the form of the W Champions Cup. All those aspects are paramount as NWSL and Super League teams push to remain on pace with the increased attention and investment into women’s soccer by other countries.
Establishing the United States as the epicenter of women’s club competition ⚽️ 📰 https://t.co/m5giyqKMTN https://t.co/M7InzHUU3F
— Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup (@CrestCup) October 14, 2026
“One of the things that’s so unique about the sport of soccer is that it’s truly a global game, and what that means is that we’re competing with other countries in every sense of the word, as it relates to the player talent pool,” Berman said. “The majority of the players on our rosters, even though we are an international destination for global talent, are domestic, and we sit on a hotbed of talent in this country, and that is undeniable.
“1.7 million girls play soccer in this country, and as we sit here today, there’s a lot of work to do to create a pathway to make it clear to a young girl who aspires to play, whether it’s for the national team or at the professional level. This event, the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, will provide inspiration for investment in local communities, so that more girls can have access and more fans can be exposed to the game.”
Echoing that sentiment, Parlow Cone is acutely aware of increased competition from the rest of the world: “The attention, the resources, the investment, the opportunity in the women’s game has never been greater than it is right now. We all—and that’s a collective ‘we all’—need to be intentional about how we go and create and build this together. I’ve heard several times—I’m a true believer—that no one can do this alone. It’s going to take all of us leaning in to do this together, which I’m pretty excited about.
“We have to do this because the rest of the world is also advancing. Back in my day, there were only a couple of teams that were going to compete for the World Cup or the Olympic gold medal. Now we’re seeing investment in the women’s game across the globe, and so we have to keep advancing, we’ve got to keep evolving and we need our pro leagues to continue to be successful and develop players because that’s the day-to-day environment our players are in. So, I’m very excited and bullish about all of that.”
For tournament namesake Arthur M. Blank, the investment in the groundbreaking tournament signifies his continued commitment to the growth of both soccer, and more specifically, women’s sports. Already the owner of the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL and Atlanta United FC of MLS, among other sports properties, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation was the lead donor for U.S. Soccer’s recently christened Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Fayetteville, Ga., serving as the home to all 27 National Teams. Additionally, he’ll soon add a new team to his portfolio, as the NWSL awarded an expansion franchise to Blank, which was subsequently unveiled as Atlanta City FC in a brand unveiling in September.
“We’re talking today about women in soccer, but really women in all sports are ascending today for a whole variety of reasons, whether it be golf, girls’ flag football or soccer,” Blank said. “In the case of soccer, because of the history and the nature of the sport being played internationally for so long, we have an opportunity to provide great leadership. I think that the leaders that we have up here, I mentioned Emma Hayes earlier, and other folks as well—all of those things that are important to young girls and young women as they ascend throughout their professional and personal lives. Soccer can help support; all these leagues can help support.
“I couldn’t be more excited, honestly, about being here today and being part of the Crest Cup, finding ways to help support and participate and make sure, like everything else that we’re connected to, we do it in a world-class way. We’re committed to doing that with Atlanta City FC, and we’re committed to doing anything we can to help support the Crest Cup as it becomes a major feature of women’s soccer in America.”
The Crest Cup will have a substantial impact on the growth of the women’s game as it fills a void that has been vacant for too long. On its surface, the tournament will give players, coaches, and referees more matches of consequence with substantial rewards on the line. Digging a little bit deeper, it’s clear the tournament’s total impact will be profound in the years ahead.
The tournament presents more access points for young girls and women to engage with and remain active in the sport, whether that’s as a player through squad rotation in Crest Cup matches or as a fan seeing new players and teams come to town. It’s a point that resonated with Blank as the tournament was realized.
“Along the journey, we [want to make sure we] don’t lose young ladies as they continue to grow their interest in soccer and develop physically, mentally, et cetera,” Blank said. “We [want to make sure we] don’t lose them because they’re priced out of participating, whether through a club or girls’ program, et cetera. That’s very, very important.
“We’ve got to continue to focus on fans. This is an unbelievable product that’s on the pitch. Facilities are getting better and better and better. To watch these games in person and to show them on television, we’ve got to make sure our new media contracts give us maximum exposure… Once fans get an opportunity to physically attend stadiums, facilities, arenas, whatever the case may be, and watch it on television on a predictable schedule, you’re going to see continued growth and continued support.”
The first-of-its-kind inter-league competition is also sure to encourage more investment into the sport, stimulating growth at all levels of the women’s game to foster a more sustainable future for players, teams and leagues across the country. There’s also a desire expressed by women’s soccer stakeholders to grow the tournament beyond just the two existing professional leagues when the opportunity arises.
The future certainly looks bright for the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup and women’s soccer broadly, and Blank made a point to express his mentality and ambition as it relates to the growth of the women’s game in the United States.
“If you approach this with a different kind of mindset, ask the question, ‘How high can we go?’ Don’t focus on what’s acceptable and what’s been the history and what’s been the norm and what people would expect,” Blank explained. “Our [Atlanta City FC] brand launch a week ago Sunday was five times bigger than any brand launch in NWSL history. So, five times. Say to yourself: The future of the women’s game can be five times everything we’re looking at today. I firmly believe that. I’m not talking about just as an investor, but as a fan, participant, player, everybody who supports the game, any coaches, any form or fashion that may be connected to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
“If you push and keep pushing and don’t be limited by what you’ve seen in the past, and set those kinds of goals, it’s there, it’s available. Demand for women’s soccer, I think, is going to be incredible in the United States for a very, very long period of time, [and will] continue to grow very steeply.”
The official website of the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup is www.ussoccer.com/crest-cup. Fans can also follow the competition on X/Twitter and Instagram.